For coach Joel Walton, dropping one spot in the coaches poll is not important right now because what truly matters for his team is Saturday night.
Four days before playing No. 4 Stanford University at Worthen Arena in its season opener, the Ball State University men's volleyball team moved down one spot to No. 13 in the newest coaches poll released Monday.
"I'm not concerned moving from 12 to 13 because right now we are an unknown commodity," Walton said. "There is no use to make a comparison before we play Stanford."
The Cardinals received 49 votes in the top-15 coaches poll - 21 fewer votes than in the preseason poll released Dec. 30 - and dropped behind No. 9 UC-Santa Barbara and the No. 11 University of Hawai'i.
Santa Barbara moved up five spots after defeating No. 4 Long Beach State University and the University of Pacific last week. Hawai'i beat then-No. 11 Ohio State University in the Outrigger Invitational on Friday as the Buckeyes dropped three spots to No. 14 after losing all three of its matches in the tournament.
Stanford moved up four spots to No. 4 in the coaches poll after defeating two nationally ranked teams to advance to the Premier Elephant Bar Collegiate Invitational championship match last week.
Walton said he was not surprised Stanford jumped into the top four. He also said Stanford's new ranking will not affect the way Ball State prepares for Saturday's match.
"We knew they are going to be strong opponents," Walton said. "I don't know though how much of a difference there is between No. 4 and No. 10 or No. 13 the polls."
Stanford coach John Kotsay said he is not thinking too much about the national rankings because it's still early in the season and some teams, such as Ball State, have not played a match. Kotsay, who is a voting member of the coaches poll, also said right now the rankings are based more on what a team did last season and its potential.
"Where anyone is at is kind of relevant, but really not," he said.
Stanford will be the second highest ranked team to play Ball State at Worthen Arena in the last four seasons and the highest ranked West Coast team to travel to Muncie since Hawai'i played Ball State in 2005.
Both coaches said the rankings will be irrelevant when the match starts Saturday.
"Regardless if you are one or 15 if you are a national ranked team you can beat any team on any given day," Kotsay said.
Coaches poll1. Penn State2. Cal State Northridge 3. Pepperdine4. Stanford5. UC-Irvine6. USC7. Long Beach State8. UCLA9. UC-Santa Barbara10. BYUT-11. HawaiiT-11. Lewis13. Ball State14. Ohio State15. George Mason
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