Two disappointing results and several injuries last weekend did nothing to extinguish the positive vibe surrounding the Ball State women's volleyball team.
Sophomore outside hitter Kylee Baker made that evident enough Monday afternoon.
"I think we got a big wake-up call," she said.
In interviews Monday, whether it was Baker or coach Steve Shondell, optimism and a renewed sense of confidence for the Cardinals' future were articulated with almost every word spoken.
"I was more than satisfied with the way we competed and the way we played this weekend," Shondell said. "We weren't sure what to expect after all of the emotional trauma that we had been through this past week. It was like nothing we had ever experienced before. But I was really proud of our effort this weekend."
Almost all of Ball State's emotional distress came from a season-ending knee injury to sophomore setter Jacqui Seidel last week. Matters weren't helped by ankle injuries to middle blockers Jennifer Boyd and Mindy Marx.
While Boyd's injury is lingering from two weeks ago, Marx caught the injury bug only last week. Both issues left Ball State with only one fully healthy middle blocker in senior Kelsey Brandl.
Coupling those problems with matches against Northern Illinois and Western Michigan, the current respective top two seeds for the MAC Tournament, should have spelled disaster for Ball State.
Yet, there's no sense of panic resonating from Ball State, even with only two matches left in the MAC regular season. There's only things to work on and ways to improve.
"We really learned what we need to work on, and I think that's a huge thing going into the MAC Tournament," Baker said. "We have two weeks to work on that. If that's blocking or passing or whatever it is, we have time to work on it. So what if we can't win the conference championship? We can go to the NCAA [Tournament] which is 10 times better."
Some of the reasons for the team's cheerfulness are easy to point out. Players hidden on the bench for most of the season could start seeing less time on the sidelines and more time on the court.
That begins with junior defensive specialist Lauren Schlaker, who started in the Western Michigan match and finished with 13 digs. Shondell said he'll evaluate Schlaker in practice this week to determine if she'll receive a bump in playing time.
"I thought she did as well as she was expected to do in really her second appearance this season," he said. "Right now, she's got the inside track on it, but we're always going to try the player that's playing best in practice. We'll look at her again this week and go from there."
Seidel's injury could also make way for walk-on freshman setter Jaclyn Fullove, who has played only one point all season.
"That would be the other option," Shondell said. "She's another player we want to look at that position, because she's a tough competitor and is very comfortable playing that position. She's played right-back all of her life, and she's an outstanding defensive player."
With its final two matches this week, returning to health will be a primary concern for Ball State.
"Most importantly, we just want to get healthy," Shondell said. "We hope the middles will continue to get stronger. We've got a team that's playing good volleyball right now, we just need to get everyone healthy,"
The upcoming schedule doesn't make that any easier, with matches against Eastern Michigan, who beat Ball State 3-1 on Oct. 8, at home Thursday, and Central Michigan at home Saturday.
But if Ball State proved anything last week, it was that no amount of adversity could keep them from staying competitive in the most strenuous matches.
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