Returning from central Pennsylvania on Saturday night, players on the No. 13 Ball State University men's volleyball team sat in silence for the beginning of their bus trip back to Muncie.
After arriving on Thursday with an opportunity to get two wins and defeat the defending NCAA Champions, coach Joel Walton said all his players left only thinking about what could have been from a disappointing weekend.
Ball State lost both its matches this weekend - losing to No. 1 Penn State University in four games on Friday and then losing to unranked St. Francis University in four games on Saturday.
"I don't know if there was one area where I could tell the team we played well," Walton said. "We need to work on every area of our game, and every guy needs to work on things for us to get better."
Walton said the biggest problem in the losses was the Cardinals' offense being inconsistent, especially from the two left outside attacker positions.
In the loss to the Nittany Lions, the four Ball State players who played at the left outside attacker combined for 17 of the team's 48 kills and had a -0.04 attack percentage. The Cardinals also had no starting left outside attacker finish with more than seven kills in either match.
"We've got to work on our offense," Walton said. "We've been out-performed offensively. We need to find another outside attacker."
Along with having a lower team attack percentage in both matches, Walton said he has been unable to find a consistent lineup throughout the first three matches.
During both matches this weekend, 11 of the 14 players on Ball State's active roster played in at least two of the four games.
"We haven't gotten into the offensive or defensive rhythm that we need to get in," he said. "We got to find that quickly."
Middle attacker Matt McCarthy - a preseason all-conference selection - did not play in either match because of a shoulder injury.
McCarthy said he will start practicing with the team this week and could be ready for Ball State's conference opener against No. 12 Lewis University on Friday. He also said starting middle attackers J.D. Gasparovic and Andy Nelson - who both had 10 kills against St. Francis -ยก- played well, but at times the entire offense struggled.
"I saw some good things this weekend," McCarthy said. "We never backed down, but we really never stepped up either."
The loss to the Red Flashes ended the Cardinals' 25-match winning streak against unranked teams, and it was their first loss to an unranked team in more than two years.
It was also the second time in the last three years Ball State lost a road match to St. Francis in the last three years. Ball State lost at St. Francis in January 2006 - its final loss against an unranked team prior to Saturday.
Setter Ethan Pheister said Ball State started the match slow and did not play its best against an under appreciated St. Francis team.
"I really think St. Francis is a very good team," he said. "Rankings don't mean anything. They hit well. They pass well. They have a great crowd behind them. [Saturday] they were a top 10 team."
Walton said he would probably vote for the Red Flashes in this week's top 15 coaches poll that will be released on Monday afternoon.
Despite opening the season on a three-match losing streak, McCarthy and Pheister said the team is not panicking yet because it is still early in the season. They also said Ball State is using these non-conference matches to achieve its main goal, winning a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association championship.
Walton said he hopes his team uses this weekend as extra motivation as it prepares to play Lewis University, which was predicted to win the MIVA in the preseason.
"Right now we need to have a good week of practice," he said.
Related article: MEN'S VOLLEYBALL: How the top 15 fared
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