Sitting in Friday's film session, outside attacker Mark Termion said he was shocked when he saw his name written on the team's dry-erase board in the front of the room.
Placed on the listed as one of the No. 8 Ball State University men's volleyball team's starters for its Saturday road match against No. 15 Lewis University, Termion made his first start since Jan. 3 in the four-game win against the Flyers.
"I was excited to see my name up there," Termion said. "It was a great chance to help with our passing situation."
Making his sixth career start, Termion had four kills and a career-high nine digs in the Cardinals' (19-9, 10-2 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) final regular-season match before the conference tournament. Termion was one of three new starters in the line-up on Saturday.
Coach Joel Walton said he decided to play Termion because of his passing abilities after the Ball State had a season-high nine receiving errors in a loss to first-place No. 9 Ohio State University on Thursday.
Termion and Walton said they were pleased with his performance against Lewis.
"We played pretty well," Termion said. "I was able to pick things in passing and block."
Prior to Saturday's match, the Cardinals had clinched the No. 2 seed in the MIVA Tournament following their loss to Ohio State, and the Flyers had secured the No. 3 seed.
In addition to Termion - who started for outside attacker Marcus Imwalle - setter Jeff Schmitz started for the third time this season instead of setter Ethan Pheister. Also, middle attacker Justin Orr started in place of middle attacker Matt McCarthy, who came off the bench in game three and finished the match with four kills.
Walton said he did not play Imwalle and Pheister because they are both suffering lower-leg injuries, and he wanted to give them more time to fully heal before the conference tournament. Imwalle is second on the team averaging 3.08 kills per game and Pheister is averaging 12.18 assists per game, the second most in the MIVA.
Along with these changes, outside attacker Patrick Durbin was moved from the left side to the right side of the court and finished with a match-high 19 kills.
Walton said the line-up changes and the match not affecting the MIVA Tournament seeding probably affected Lewis.
The Flyers had 18 serving errors, 10 more than the Cardinals, and were out-hit .280 to .215.
"It seemed like they were a bit off their game," he said. "I'm not sure what it was, but to our guys' credit we came in and got a good win."
Walton said he is unsure if he will stay with the lineup changes for the Cardinals' MIVA Tournament quarterfinal match against Quincy University on Saturday at Worthen Arena.
If Ball State and Lewis win their first-round matches, the two teams will play each other in the conference semi-finals April 24.
Walton said despite the possible match against Lewis in two weeks, Saturday's lineup changes were not primarily made to prevent the Flyers from getting a full look at the Cardinals' offense.
"We did think about that, but really what we did [Saturday] was try to fix the lack of offensive production," he said. "[Saturday] was a good turn around, and we got a good draw in the tournament."
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