Less than 72 hours before opening the season against a top five team, coach Joel Walton is still trying to figure out the right lineup to stop all-conference outside attacker Evan Romero.
Walton said Wednesday he is considering three players to start at the left outside attacker position, who would be responsible for blocking Romero in the No. 13 Ball State University men's volleyball team's match against No. 4 Stanford University at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Worthen Arena.
"Our ability to set up a good block in front of him will be critical to our gameplan," Walton said.
Lee Meyer, Dominic Spadavecchio or Matt Sprague will start alongside Marcus Imwalle at the two left outsider attacker positions, Walton said. The coach said the ability to block Romero would probably be the biggest factor in deciding who will start.
Romero had a team-high 426 kills last season, including a career-high 34 kills in a five-game win against Ball State in California. He also had a team-high 18 kills in Stanford's four-game loss to No. 2 California State University, Northridge, at the Elephant Bar Restaurant Collegiate Invitational championship match on Saturday.
"He is a very good attacker," Walton said. "He has a wide variety of shots. We are going to have to be able to dig as many of his shots as possible because he will hit balls past the block."
In four career matches against teams from the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association, Romero has 81 total kills and is averaging 7.36 kills per game.
Walton said he expects Romero to get the majority of Stanford's attack opportunities against Ball State. He also said Ball State gained some knowledge about how Romero plays from its match against Stanford last season.
"You just have to respect his side of the net," Walton said. "We need to be ready to set up a good block in front of Romero and our back-row defense is going to have to make plays."
Meyer played in 16 matches as a freshman last season and had a career-high four blocks against Quincy University in March. Meyer's biggest strength, Walton said, is his blocking and ability to be in the right position.
Spadavecchio redshirted last season after making the team as a walk-on. He is a good passer and blocker, Walton said.
Sprague started six matches last season, including the conference semifinals match, and had a career-high four blocks in a win against George Mason University. Walton said Sprague has good instincts as a blocker but isn't the team's most physical blocker.
The important thing for each player is blocking Romero and passing instead of being an offensive threat, Walton said.
"The way the team is set up we will probably be generating most of our offense through our middles," he said. "That second left side spot isn't necessarily where we have to generate a lot of offense. That's a spot that is going to be doing more of the intangible things for our team."
The opening at left outside attacker comes after Walton moved Todd Chamberlain to the right outsider attacker to replace Patrick Durbin, who graduated in May after leading the conference in kills last season. Chamberlain had the second-most kills on Cardinals last season as a left outside attacker and was named to the Preseason All-Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association team.
Setter Ethan Pheister said despite the lineup changes from last season, the offense has started to look good in the team's two weeks of practice leading up to the Stanford match. He also said whichever player starts won't affect his ability to run Ball State's offense.
"I think each one is doing good things and each brings different things to the game," Pheister said.
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