After more than one month into the season, the Ball State University men's volleyball team has a winning record.
Ball State (5-4, 1-0 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) defeated Carthage College 30-20, 30-21, 30-19 on Saturday in Kenosha, Wis., to extend its winning streak to four matches.
"Our guys played with consistency and took control of the match from start to finish," coach Joel Walton said.
The Cardinals finished the match with a season-high 12 service aces - the fourth most serving aces Ball State had in the three-game match during the rally scoring.
Setter Ethan Pheister had a career-high five service aces to become the 10th player in school history during the rally scoring era to have at least five serving aces in a sweep.
Growing up about one hour from Kenosha, Pheister said, it was nice to have this type of performance in front of about 20 friends and family members who attended the match. He also said he had a simple philosophy Saturday when he was serving.
"I went in there and tried to hit the crap out of the ball," Pheister said. "I wasn't doing what Joel was talking about and focusing on getting it in. I was going in and hit the crap out of the ball and lucky for me they landed in. It could have easily have been the other way and I could have had 12 serving errors."
Along with Pheister, outside attackers Marcus Imwalle and Todd Chamberlain each had two service aces.
Pheister said the team's competitive nature was a big reason for Ball State's success serving.
"We see someone getting aces and then you want to see what you can do," he said. "I feel like all the starters wanted more aces."
Ball State out-hit Carthage .455 to .123 and had three players with at least seven kills. Outside attacker Matt Sprague had a match-high nine kills.
The Cardinals' next two matches will be conference home matches against IPFW on Friday and Loyola University on Saturday.
Walton said the entire team played better in its match against Carthage than in its sweep against the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Friday.
With nine matches remaining in the MIVA regular season, both Walton and Pheister said these matches are critical for Ball State's chances of winning its first conference regular season title since 2002.
"Loyola and IPFW are good teams. You can't come in and take anything for granted," Pheister said. "If we play to our potential we will be fine, but if we slack off there will be problems."
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