No. 13 Ball State University has cleared its first hurdle in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament, but its biggest obstacle remains.
Ball State prevailed in a 30-28, 30-23, 30-22 win against IPFW in the MIVA Tournament quarterfinals at Worthen Arena on Saturday. Its reward is the right to take on No. 10 Ohio State University on Wednesday night in Columbus, Ohio.
Ohio State is the two-time defending MIVA Tournament champions and has a seven-match winning streak against Ball State. The Buckeyes also have the No. 1 seed in this year's tournament.
"The second this [IPFW] match ended, that was our thought," middle attacker Anders Nelson said. "We actually talked about Ohio State in our huddle. We'll be ready for them."
To get to the Ohio State matchup, the Cardinals had to beat the Mastodons for the third time this season. The final two matches were sweeps for the No. 4 seed Cardinals, who improved to 19-10 on the season. Fifth-seeded IPFW concluded its season with a 12-17 record.
"We've got them this year and I know [IPFW] coach [Arnie] Ball is not going to be happy about it," Ball State coach Joel Walton said. "He's going to go out and recruit and bring in some players that are going to be a lot more competitive next season."
The Cardinals used a balanced offense Saturday as four players finished the match with double digit kills. Outside attacker Eric Schulte led the Cardinals in kills with 12 while Nelson, J.D. Gasparovic and outside attacker Lee Meyer had 11 kills each.
"That's exactly what you want to see," Walton said. "A plus-.300 hitting percentage, and an offense that's running through a lot of different players. That's really ideal."
IPFW ran its offense through its outside attackers, Elon Fyfield and Darryl Shank, as both had a team-high 10 kills.
Meyer said Ball State knew where IPFW was attacking from the whole match because of Fyfield and Shank, as evident by libero Billy Ebel's match-high 12 digs.
"We really trusted our defense," Meyer said. "We weren't quite there in game one, and we made some adjustments in game two and game three."
Meyer credited Ball State's success to Nelson and Gasparovic as IPFW could not find an answer for Ball State's middle attackers. Nelson had a match-best .600 attack percentage while Gasparovic led the Cardinals in blocks with seven. Both Nelson and Gasparovic earned All-MIVA honors last week.
"I have to give credit to our middles," Meyer said. "They've been performing admirably the entire season."
Game one was the closest of the three as IPFW held a 26-24 lead before Ball State ended the game on a 6-2 run.
"I feel like IPFW competed well in game one," Walton said. "It was a hard game to win. A sign of growth in this team is that we were in situations like that earlier in the season here in Worthen Arena and we lost those games. This team has grown this year, and a further sign of growth is going to be what we do against the Buckeyes Wednesday."
Ball State has not won a game against Ohio State yet this season, being swept both times.
Meyer said he thinks that confidence and staying in their routine will be keys to playing better Wednesday night.
"Staying in our routine and staying confident and feeling that pride of Ball State will help push us forward," he said. "Ball State has a strong tradition in men's and women's volleyball. We have to keep that tradition rolling and feel that pride."
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