COLUMBUS, Ohio — No matter what the No. 15 Ball State University men's volleyball team tried, it could not prevent No. 11 Ohio State University from achieving its fourth straight conference regular season title.
The Buckeyes swept the Cardinals 30-26,30-2630-19 Friday night in Columbus, Ohio to finish in first place in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association.
Ball State has lost to Ohio State seven straight times dating back to 2008.
"We played to win and [Friday] they outplayed us," coach Joel Walton said.
Ohio State's Shawn Sangrey and John Klanac led the offensive attack for the Buckeyes. Sangrey had 10 kills in game one and ended with 17. Klanac had a match-high 18 kills.
"Early on Sangrey was doing a good job for them," Walton said. "It seemed like we would get into rallies and he would bail them out. Late in the match we started to do a better job on him and Klanac heated up.
Outside attacker Eric Schulte had a team-high 12 kills for Ball State.
"We came out slow and missed way too many serves," Schulte said. "The way we were serving it's not a surprise we didn't win the game."
The Buckeyes had a 6-4 advantage in aces and committed one fewer service error. The Cardinals committed 15 service errors with 11 of them coming in the first two games.
Four Cardinals also ended the night with a negative attack percentage.
"We couldn't get any left side production tonight," Walton said. "When your four left side guys are hitting negative that's not a good equation for success."
The Cardinals (17-9, 6-5 MIVA) no longer has control of obtaining the No. 3 seed in the MIVA Tournament. If Lewis defeats Grand Canyon University on Saturday it will capture the No. 3 seed bringing Ball State down to the No. 4 seed. Ball State has already secured a quarterfinal home match in the MIVA Tournament on April 24.
Ball State will most likely play IPFW, which can clinch the No. 5 seed by winning at least one game in its match against Quincy University on Saturday afternoon.
The Buckeyes (19-7, 11-1 MIVA) will have home court advantage throughout the MIVA Tournament.
Whether a large about of people will be in attendance to see the Buckeyes in the conference tournament remains questionable.
There were 525 people in attendance for Ohio State's match against Ball State on Friday. More than 1,500 fans filled Worthen Arena during a blizzard when Ohio State visited in Feb. 5.
"They had 525 fans for a conference championship match," Walton said. "That's crazy."
Ball State will end the regular season at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Worthen Arena against No. 13 Loyola University. Loyola swept Ball State in the season opener in Chicago.
The match will be senior day for Schulte, libero Billy Ebel, setter Ethan Pheister, and outside attacker Matt Sprague.
"It will be bittersweet," Sprague said earlier this week. "It's fun to play here and we have more fans than anybody else."
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