No. 13 Ball State University is two matches away from a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association title.
Ball State prevailed 30-28,30-23,30-22 against IPFW in the MIVA Tournament quarterfinals on Saturday in Worthen Arena.
"We had a really good scouting report on them, and we felt like we matched up well against them," middle attacker Anders Nelson said.
Ball State has swept the three-match season series with IPFW.
"We've got them this year and I know coach [Arnie] Ball is not going to be happy about it," 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 were able to balance their offense as four players ended with double digit kills.
Outside attacker Eric Schulte led the Cardinals in kills with 12. Middle attacker Anders Nelson, J.D. Gasparovic and outside attacker Lee Meyer each ended the match with 11 kills.
"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 outside attackers Elon Fyfield and Darryl Shank as both had a team-high 10 kills. Ball State knew where IPFW was attacking from the whole match because of them, Meyer said.
"We really trusted our defense, it was a key especially [with] Fyfield and Shank," Meyer said. "We weren't quite there in game one and we made some adjustments in game two and game three."
Meyer said he credits Ball State's success to the Nelson and Gasporivc as IPFW could find an answer for the middle attackers.
Nelson hit at a team-best .600 attack percentage, while Gasparovic led the Cardinals in blocks with seven.
"I have to give credit to our middles," Meyer said. "They've been performing admirably the entire season."
The previous match with IPFW, the Mastodons committed 23 service errors The Mastodons and Cardinals each had 11 service errors Saturday.
"We knew that they were not going to play that way again the last time we played them," Nelson said. "We figured that both teams were going to up their game because it's tournament time."
Game one was the closest of the three as IPFW had 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."
IPFW ends its season at 12-17.
Ball State is 19-10 and advances to the MIVA Tournament semifinals to play No. 10 Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Ohio State is the two-time defending MIVA Tournament champions and has defeated Ball State twice this season.
"The second this match ended that was our thought," Nelson said. "We actually talked about Ohio State in our huddle. We'll be ready for them."
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
