Standing on the Ball State University men's volleyball team's sidelines Saturday, it was a struggle for middle attacker Matt McCarthy to watch his team play against No. 4 Stanford University.
With an arena-record 3,729 people in attendance, the all-conference player was prevented from playing in one of the Cardinals' biggest non-conference matches of the season because of a shoulder injury.
"With all those people there, I don't know what it was, but I felt like my chest was tight the entire time throughout the match. I just wanted to be out there so badly," McCarthy said.
Four days after that season opening loss, McCarthy could now be forced to watch from the sideline again as the No. 13 Cardinals play the defending NCAA champions.
McCarthy said Wednesday that his shoulder is starting to feel better, but he doesn't know if it will be healthy enough to play in Ball State's match against No. 1 Penn State University at 7 p.m. Friday in University Park, Pa.
"I'm not sure yet," he said. "It just really depends on my pain tolerance, but also I don't want to further injure it this early in the season because then it becomes a chronic problem."
McCarthy, a preseason all-conference member, had the second most blocks for the Cardinals last season with 123 and was named to the 2008 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association First Team. The senior also has a .414 career attack percentage - the third highest percentage in Ball State history.
Coach Joel Walton said it is frustrating for McCarthy to be injured when Ball State is playing the tougher portion of its non-conference schedule, but he also wants McCarthy to be fully healed for its conference opener next week.
"I'm still waiting for Matt to tell me, 'Coach I'm OK to go. I'm OK to swing,'" Walton said. "Matt can play. He can get out and block and attack where most of his attacks are going to be tips. We are just trying to give him enough time as needed to get his shoulder to recover so when he gets back he is not going to regress."
Along with the recent shoulder injury, McCarthy played the majority of the 2007 season with a lower-back stress fracture but had a team-high 104 blocks.
Having a shoulder injury is more limiting, McCarthy said, because of how frequently he uses his shoulder for attacks and blocks.
"With the shoulder injury, that's pretty much my entire game," he said. "When I'm attacking, it's 100 percent of my game and when I'm blocking, it still hurts my game. It's a lot of pain sometimes to block."
Without McCarthy in the lineup, Stanford outhit Ball State .314 to .184 - the Cardinals' third lowest attack percentage in the last nine matches dating back to last season.
In addition to McCarthy's offensive numbers, starting middle attacker J.D. Gasparovic said McCarthy's experience benefits the Cardinals, especially against a team like Penn State (3-0).
"Matt's one of our leaders, and he's very knowledgeable about the game," Gasparovic said. "He just knows so much and he can help you out. His knowledge of the game extremely helps us out in certain situations against other veteran middles."
Penn State, which has two All-American middle attackers returning from last season's team, defeated three nationally ranked teams at the Outrigger Invitational Jan. 8-10 in Hawaii to open its season. It also received all 16 first-place votes in this week's coaches poll.
If McCarthy is unable to play in the match, he said, Ball State can still beat Penn State because Gasparovic and middle attackers Andy Nelson, who played for McCarthy against Stanford, are highly skilled. He also said he would meet with the team's trainer before Friday's match to see if he can play.
"I'm not 100 percent," McCarthy said. "Hopefully soon."
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