In his four-year college career, outside attacker Todd Chamberlain has been named to two all-conference teams, but Tuesday was the first time he received a weekly award from the conference.
Chamberlain was named the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Player of the Week after having a career-high 20 kills in the No. 13 Ball State University men's volleyball team's three-game loss to then-No. 4 Stanford University on Saturday.
Coach Joel Walton said it has been difficult for Chamberlain to win these weekly awards in the last three season because unlike this season, the senior outside attacker was not the Cardinals' main offensive threat.
"He's had some other strong players he's played with," Walton said. "Right now for our team to succeed he is going to have to be that guy on a nightly basis."
In the Stanford match, Chamberlain became the third Ball State player during the rally scoring era to have at least 20 kills in a three-game match.
Chamberlain -¡- a member of the MIVA All-Conference Preseason team -¡- finished last season in the conference's top 10 averaging 3.2 kills per game and was named to the 2008 MIVA Second Team All-Conference.
Walton said Chamberlain did a good job offensively against Stanford. The coach also said Chamberlain has been more successful offensively since moving from the left outside attacker position to the right outside attacker position during Ball State's preseason. "The ability to focus on offense and not worry about passing serves has made him more aggressive on the court," Walton said.
Ball State's next match will be against No. 1 Penn State University at 7 p.m. Friday in University Park, Pa.
Walton said he is hoping Chamberlain can have similar offensive numbers against the defending NCAA Champions Nittany Lions.
"We would like to see Todd have another strong match and have similar performances from other guys," he said.
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