As middle attacker J.D. Gasparovic stares across the net tonight, it won't take him long to find his main challenge.
Leading the conference in attack percentage, the sophomore will attempt to block the person second in attack percentage - middle attacker Ben Spurlock.
The two conference leaders will go against each other as the No. 14 Ball State University men's volleyball team plays Ohio State University at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Worthen Arena.
"He's a great player, and I know it is just going to be a battle," Gasparovic said.
Gasparovic enters this match second in the nation with a .494 attack percentage. The middle attacker also has 154 kills this season, including 13 kills in a five-game win against George Mason University last week.
Spurlock, a 2008 second team all-conference selection, trails Gasparovic with a .457 attack percentage and has 98 kills - fourth most for Ohio State (9-9, 5-1 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association).
Coach Joel Walton said he is looking forward to this matchup because Gasparovic and Spurlock are two of the better middle attackers in the conference. The coach also said these types of matches usually happen when two of the top teams in the conference play each other.
"When you play against top teams in the league you get to go up against them," Walton said. "In our Ohio State match these similar types of matchups happen. You can very easily make it personal challenges between players."
With three conference matches remaining in its regular season, Ball State (13-7, 4-3 MIVA) is in third place and trails first-place Ohio State by two-and-half matches.
This will be the second time the two teams have played this season, with Ohio State winning the first match in five games March 11 at Columbus, Ohio. In that match, both Gasparovic and Spurlock had more than a .500 attack percentage.
Ohio State coach Pete Hanson said one of the biggest differences from that last match is the health of Spurlock, who was recovering from an ankle sprain. The coach said the injury has limited Spurlock's playing time this season, but he expects the senior to play in tonight's match.
"He's still coming back from that," Hanson said. "Ben has been a steady player throughout the years. He's having a pretty decent senior season."
Walton said the key to tonight's match will be passing off of the serve. The coach also said the team that passes better will have better production from its middle attackers.
After struggling to find its offensive rhythm the last two weeks, Gasparovic said in the win against George Mason the team was able to be successful because setter Ethan Pheister began setting more balls to the middle attackers. Gasparovic also said Ball State will try to have that same balanced offense throughout tonight's match.
"Once their blockers stop respecting us Ethan is going to get us more involved," he said.
One way Ball State plans to limit Spurlock and Ohio State middle attacker is doing more jump serves, outside attacker Todd Chamberlain said.
In the first match between the two teams, Ball State had seven aces and 22 serving errors - 10 more than Ohio State.
Throughout this week in practice, Chamberlain said the team has focused on making better serves that are more difficult to pass.
"We hope to bring some service pressure, get some good crisp balls, put them in play and make them side out and make them work," he said. "We think that will be a major key for the game for us."
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