As coach Joel Walton prepared for tonight's road match, he knew the next week and a half would define the No. 15 Ball State University men's volleyball team's regular season.
Having a one-match conference lead, Ball State will play six road matches in the next 10 days, including four conference matches starting tonight against Quincy University at 8 p.m.
"That is going to go a long way to determining where we finish in the MIVA this year," Walton said.
Along with playing last-place Quincy, Ball State (7-4, 3-0 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association) will play conference road matches against No. 13 Ohio State University on Wednesday, No. 9 Lewis University on March 13 and Loyola University on March 14. The Cardinals will also play two non-conference matches against Grand Canyon University - a Division III team in its inaugural season - on Saturday and Sunday in Arizona.
With all but one of its five MIVA road matches being played in the next 10 days, middle attacker J.D. Gasparovic said this stretch of matches is the most important part of Ball State's season.
"We need to have some successful road wins in order to get us prepared for the MIVA championship," he said.
If Ball State wins all four of these conference matches, it will be one win away from clinching its first MIVA regular season title in the last seven seasons. In addition, if Ball State finished in first place, the MIVA Tournament semifinals and championship match would be played in Worthen Arena.
"There is a lot of pressure on us because that's what we want," libero Billy Ebel said. "Our goal is to host the MIVA Tournament at home and bring it back home to Ball State. That's what we want."
This will be the most conference road matches Ball State will play during a 10-day span in the program's 45-year history. It is also the most total road matches the Cardinals have played in less than two weeks since playing six matches in two days at the Asics Grand Prix in San Diego during the 1994 season.
Gasparovic said when he first saw the schedule in September, he could not believe the amount of road matches the team had in this portion of the season.
"I was shocked, especially with it being Spring Break," he said. "I was like 'wow, this week is going to be ridiculous. It's going to be jam-packed with volleyball.'"
Walton said the team has an unusual schedule this season because of the number of teams playing in Worthen Arena.
The coach said he typically has to adjust his initial schedule because of men's and women's basketball home games. This season though, Walton said he also had to rearrange the schedule because of gymnastics, which has its home meets in Worthen Arena because Irving Gym is being renovated.
"When I initially put together our schedule, it didn't look like this," he said. "We had to adjust at that point in time. I was adjusting, and I was looking at really mostly full weeks."
The last time Ebel said he played in this many critical matches in a short span was when he was in high school and competed at the Junior Olympics. Having that experience, the libero said he learned the most important thing a team can do is be mentally prepared for the each match.
"It's who wants it more," Ebel said. "If we go into every road match thinking we are going to win, then we are going to win."
Ball State enters the road trip on a six-match winning streak, including home wins against IPFW and Loyola during the weekend. It also moved back into the top 15 of the coaches poll Monday for the first time in about one month.
After starting the season losing four of its first five matches, Walton and Gasparovic said, Ball State is now playing up to its potential at the right time.
"We are connecting every week," Gasparovic said. "We got our offense going. It comes at a good time because we have this critical week. We are getting closer and closer to the MIVA."
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