The No. 13 Ball State University men's volleyball team lost its season opener to No. 4 Stanford University 30-20, 32-30, 30-22 on Saturday at Worthen Arena.
Playing in front of home-record attendance of 3,729 people, Stanford out-hit Ball State .314 to .179, including a .464 attack percentage in the final game.
"We didn't play our best [Saturday], and we had to play our best to win the match," coach Joel Walton said.
Walton said Stanford was successful because of its passing ability. He also said Stanford had multiple good attackers that put pressure on Ball State.
"A ball on a typical night we go up and hit and they end as kill," Walton said. "That team was gobbling them up, and not allow that, but putting them right on the plate."
Stanford's Evan Romero, Brad Lawson and Spencer McLachlin each had a team-high 11 kills.
Outside attacker Todd Chamberlain had a match-high 20 kills in the loss -- the third Ball State player in the rally scoring era to have at least 20 kills in three-game match.
Chamberlain was the only Ball State player to have more than seven kills.
Chamberlain said the offense wasn't working at its fullest efficiency. He also said it's common for teams playing in its season opener to have these types of problems.
"We have a lot of new guys out there, and we were still kind of mixed up on what position people are going to be playing," Chamberlain said. "It is to be expected, but it sucks doing it in front of this many people."
Middle attacker Matt McCarthy, a preseason all-conference player, did not play in the match because of a shoulder injury.
Walton said he hopes to have McCarthy back for the Cardinals conference opener in two weeks against No. 11 Lewis University. He also said he is unsure what McCarthy's status will be for Ball State's match against No. 1 Penn State University on Friday.
"He could have gone out and blocked and did some tips for us," Walton said. "As much as anything, we're really focused on trying to get him healthy now so will have him for the most important matches of the season that are our league matches."
With this loss, Ball State ended its three-match winning streak against a West Coast team when the match was played in Muncie.
This was Stanford's (5-1, 1-0 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation) fourth win against a nationally ranked team, including a sweep against No. 14 Ohio State University on Friday.
For more men's volleyball coverage continue to check bsudailynews.com.
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