Traveling is starting to get a little bit old for coach Joel Walton.
Having already played six road matches in two weeks, the Ball State University men's volleyball team will travel to the East Coast for two more road matches this weekend.
Ball State will play Rutgers-Newark University at 7 p.m. Friday in Newark, N.J., and George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., to conclude the team's largest portion of road matches this season.
"I will be glad not to be traveling," Walton said.
At the end of this weekend, the Cardinals will complete a 16-day span in which it played in six states and traveled more than 12,000 miles to play in the eight road matches.
In this stretch, Ball State (11-7, 4-3 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) is 4-3, with all three loses last week against MIVA teams.
Walton said he never wanted to make the schedule this way. The coach also said had to rearrange the Cardinals' schedule because of the basketball teams' schedules and when the gymnastics team started playing its home matches at Worthen Arena instead of Irving Gym, which is under renovations this year.
"It was not by my design," Walton said. "It just happened that all these matches concentrated around Spring Break."
These two weekend matches will be Ball State's second longest road trip this season.
The Cardinals will have an 11-hour bus ride to Newark before making a four-hour ride south from Newark to Fairfax. It will also have a nine-hour drive back to Muncie following the match against George Mason.
After this weekend, Ball State's only remaining regular season road match will be against IPFW in April.
Walton said this stretch of matches challenged his team, especially when trying to maintain its energy late in the matches. The coach also said this was one of the reasons he decided to cancel Wednesday's practice after Ball State swept Carthage College at a home match on Tuesday.
"I just wanted to give them a chance to rest their legs and recharge," Walton said.
Practicing Thursday morning, Walton said his players seemed more prepared for tonight's match against Rutgers (8-7, 5-1 Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association).
In four matches against the MIVA this season, the Scarlet Knights are winless and have been swept three times, including a three-game loss to Ball State in February at Worthen Arena.
Despite Ball State's amount of matches in the last two weeks, Walton said he plans to play his starters the entire match - unlike their first meeting. A reason for this change, the coach said, is because of Rutgers middle attacker Kenny Rienecker.
Rienecker, who did not play in the first match against Ball State, is 10th in the EIVA with a 3.66 kills-per-game average.
"He is the guy putting up the biggest numbers," Walton said. "He's going to bring another element to Rutgers' offense."
In its last three matches, Ball State offense has hit less than its .298 attack percentage season average.
Walton said the team's goal this weekend is to improve its offensive rhythm. He also said Dominic Spadavecchio will start at right outside attacker in an attempt to generate more offense for the position.
This will be the redshirt freshman's third consecutive start and his sixth career start. Spadavecchio had six kills and a .167 attack percentage before being pulled midway through the second game of Ball State's win against Carthage earlier this week.
Walton said he is confident Spadavecchio can help correct the offensive problems. The coach also said with Ball State's schedule becoming lighter after this weekend he believes this team can win its final seven regular season matches.
"As long as the guys are using their time to restore and recharge the batteries I think we can go on a late season run," he said.
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