A successful start to the weekend for Ball State ended in a crushing disappointment Sunday.
After wins against Lewis and King College to start the weekend, Ball State fell to Lees McRae 22-25, 25-22, 16-25, 27-25, 16-14 on Sunday.
"We had some errors at the wrong times that came back to cost us," coach Joel Walton said. "We were serving for match points and missed the serve.
"Those kinds of little errors are things that a team can't do."
Middle attacker Anders Nelson finished a successful three-match stretch by leading the Cardinals with 14 kills and a match-best .458 success rate.
The middle attacker next to Nelson, J.D. Gasparovic, also played well, earning 10 kills to go along with seven blocks.
Even so, Walton said he was disappointed with how his right-side attack performed against Lees McRae.
"We're still trying to get better with our right-side attacking," he said. "We tried a number of different players there the other night and really couldn't find an answer."
The Cardinals' record fell to 14-9 following Sunday's match. The loss comes after Ball State captured an upset win over 12th-ranked Lewis on Friday and King College on Saturday.
Playing in its second three-game series of the season, Ball State may have suffered from fatigue Sunday, Walton said.
"We knew after I had set up this schedule that this was going to be a difficult weekend," he said. "We at least put the most important match at the beginning, and the guys took care of business there."
The Cardinals' defense had no luck in stopping the Bobcats' Chad Mercado, who scored 24 kills in the five-game match. Mercado ranked third in the nation entering the weekend in kills-per-game at 4.69.
Outside attackers Larry Wrather and Lee Meyer hit 10 and nine kills against Lees McRae, respectively.
Overall, Ball State's offense struggled, ending the match with a low .194 attack percentage.
Walton said the Cardinals left the match in Tennessee feeling like they missed an opportunity to make a statement.
"I know we're all frustrated and kind of soul-searching as to why we weren't able to finish off [Sunday's] match," he said.
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