Throughout this week's preparation for its match against No. 1 Penn State University, one of the thoughts for coach Joel Walton was his team's travel arrangements.
After the traveling nightmare Ball State University had last season going to Penn State, one can't blame the coach for the being concerned.
For the first time since the Cardinals' bus broke down en route to a match against Nittany Lions last season that forced about a two-hour delay to the start of the match, No. 13 Ball State will return to University Park, Pa., to play Penn State at 7 p.m.
"We are looking for a good, working bus," Walton said.
Entering the March 29 match with an 11-match winning streak and ranked No. 7, Ball State's travel delays resulted in the team having a shortened warmup time as the then-No.1 Nittany Lions swept the Cardinals.Traditionally having a 90-minute warmup for a match, middle attacker Matt McCarthy said, the reduced 30-minute warmup affected the Cardinals.
"It was terrible," he said. "It was terrible because we had been practicing and were so pumped up for the match. ... We are on the bus and getting taped on the bus. It kind of flustered us a little bit."
As Ball State arrived to the arena about 75 minutes after the match's original start time, Penn State coach Mark Pavlik said he met with Walton to see how much warmup time Ball State needed. He said the biggest problem wasn't the warmup; instead it was the players being forced to sit in a bus for the eight-hour drive and then trying to play.
"It wasn't lack of effort," Pavlik said. "They just couldn't overcome the travel."
After Penn State opened the match on a 9-5 run, the Nittany Lions won the first game 30-26 as they outhit the Cardinals .367 to .152. With no Ball State player finishing the match with more than nine kills, Penn State won the next two games to complete the sweep.
McCarthy said he does not know if Ball State would have defeated Penn State, which would go on to win the NCAA Championship in May, had the Cardinals not had travel problems, but he said it is something to think about.
"I felt we would have been better prepared going into it, maybe a little more mentally focused," McCarthy said. "I can't say if it would have won the match, but it would have been nice to see where we would have been if we had the whole warmup."
Following the match, coach Joel Walton said one positive was the athletics departments agreeing to allow the men's volleyball team to travel one day prior to the match for its East Coast matches.
Having its first of two East Coast road trips this weekend, the Cardinals left for Pennsylvania on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a hotel near the Penn State campus.
Walton said the full day of rest and not traveling will help his players. Also, with Ball State's limited budget, the coach said staying an extra night at a hotel shows how important the Cardinals view this match against the Nittany Lions.
"With our team's budget and economic times that are coming around, we don't always have that opportunity," Walton said. "There are places we will travel to within our league that are two to four hours and those trips we will still be making the day of."
Pavlik said the Cardinals will be able to do some pass and serve drills in Penn State's arena Friday morning before the match. He also said he likes Ball State coming day early because it will probably result in a better match Friday night against two top 15 ranked teams.
"This is what athletics should be about. This is all pointing towards a great matchup," Pavlik said.
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