As coach Joel Walton traveled back from back to Muncie late Saturday night he still had a little trouble believing what happened in the last four days.
A combined nine points made the entire week completely unbearable for the 11-year head coach.
Entering the week in first place in the conference, the Ball State University men's volleyball team lost three consecutive conference road matches in five games to most likely eliminate the team from a regular season title.
"This has been especially gut wrenching," Walton said. "We were right there in all of them."
Ball State lost to No. 15 Ohio State University on Wednesday and No. 10 Lewis University in a fifth-game overtime match Friday and blew a two-game lead to lose in five games to Loyola University on Saturday.
With three conference matches remaining, the Cardinals (10-7, 4-3 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) are in third place in the MIVA and trail the first-place Buckeyes by one-and-a-half matches - a lead probably too large for Ball State to overcome, Walton said.
"A whole lot of craziness would have to happen for us to now win it," Walton said.
Walton said he could not recall a team losing three consecutive five-game matches since arriving at Ball State as a player about 20 years ago. The coach also said the Cardinals struggled to close out teams in each fifth game.
Ball State was out-hit in two of the three game fives, allowing a combined .323 attack percentage, including a match-high .667 attack percentage in its five-point game-five loss to Loyola.
"This is not how we thought things would go when we scheduled these matches," Walton said.
The loss to Loyola concluded Ball State's six-match road trip in 10 days that had matches in Arizona, Illinois and Ohio.
It was the most road matches the team has played in a 10-day span in 15 seasons. It was also the first time Ball State has lost three consecutive MIVA matches since the 2000 season.
Outside attacker Matt Sprague said the large amount of matches in the last few days was not the reason for Ball State losing its final three conference matches. He also said fatigue was not the reason for making errors late in the matches.
Sprague led Ball State in kills in the Cardinals' last two matches, including a career-high 21 kills in the loss to Loyola.
Despite the offense struggling, Walton said, he was pleased with Sprague's performance throughout the three matches last week. He also said the problems on offense can be corrected before the start of the conference tournament in late April.
"We played good volleyball," Walton said. "We just need to get back in the gym and work on producing offense from the back row."
With the chances of a conference regular season title done, Walton said, Ball State is hoping to finish in second place.
The team that finishes in second place will receive a bye in the conference tournament quarterfinals. Ball State trails second-place Lewis by one-match but holds the tie-breaker against the Flyers.
Regardless of where the Cardinals finish the regular season, Sprague said, he still considers Ball State the best in the conference and capable of winning the MIVA Tournament to advance to the NCAA Final Four.
"We know we are the best team and the team to beat," Sprague said. "We just need to start showing that."
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