The No. 15 Ball State University men's volleyball team ended its roller coaster regular season on an upswing.
Ball State swept No. 13 Loyola University 30-25,30-28,30-28 Saturday night in Worthen Arena and denied Loyola's bid a sharing the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association regular season title.
It was Ball State's second win against a ranked team this season.
"The guys did their part and they played well," coach Joel Walton said.
It was one of the Cardinals' best offensive performances of the season against a ranked opponent as they ended the night with a .364 attack percentage, including a .731 attack percentage in the game one.
"You are going to have to look back a long way before you see .731 in any game," Walton said. "That would have been spectacular if we could have maintained that kind of offensive performance."
Just 24 hours ago, setter Ethan Pheister was being heckled by Ohio State University fans as Ball State was swept by No. 11 Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio.
On Saturday night Pheister and fellow seniors Eric Schulte, Billy Ebel, and Matt Sprague were honored on senior night after their victory.
"When I'm on the road I try to play within my self, I try to do what I do well." Pheister said. "I try not to let the fans get in my head. When I'm home I just let the energy from the fans feed me and let the energy out that I want there."
Schlute tied his career-high in kills as he led the Cardinals with 15.
"It's really just going out there and enjoying the time out there on the court," Walton said. "I just wanted to come out and play my best because I know I don't have all that much longer regardless what happens in the tournament."
Ball State had three players with double digit kills as middle attackers Anders Nelson and J.D. Gasparovic had 13 and 12 kills. Outside attacker Lee Meyer had nine kills.
"We had great balance tonight and that is something we would like to see out of our offense." Walton said. "I just like the fact that we got some players playing confidently right now. Ethan has good options in all positions and it has really kept our opponents off balance."
The Cardinals had a 14 to 4.5 advantage in blocks against the Ramblers with Gasporvic having nine blocks with one solo.
Ball State committed more service errors than Loyola but had a 5-2 edge in aces. The Cardinals tried to take Loyola's Mike Bunting out of play with their serve, Walton said.
"The fact that we put enough serving pressure on Loyola to get five aces. The fact that we hit Bunting," Walton said. "Those were both critical to put game plan."
Ball State (18-10, 7-5 MIVA) ends the regular season and will enter the MIVA Tournament as the No. 4 seed. Ball State will play the No. 5 seed IPFW in the quarterfinals on April 24 Worthen Arena.
Loyola (18-5,10-2 MIVA) is the No. 2 seed and will play last-place Grand Canyon University in the quarterfinals.
"They've done some really good things this season," Walton said about Loyola. "They are certainly going to be a force to be reckon with anybody that plays them in the conference tournament."
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