The phrase "Road to Galen," a reference to the site of the NCAA Men's Volleyball Championship this year at USC's Galen Center, has become popular with players like Jeff Aucoin and Matt Leske on Twitter this season.
The Ball State men's volleyball team took the first step toward reaching that incredible goal on Saturday against Grand Canyon.
Despite losing the second game 25-15, Ball State came out on top of the other three frames, securing a 3-1 (26-24, 15-25, 25-19, 26-24) win over Grand Canyon in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament Quarterfinals.
A semifinals match at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Ohio State now awaits Ball State as it advances to the next round of the MIVA Tournament.
As expected in a match between the 4th and 5th seeds in the tournament, Ball State and Grand Canyon provided the most competitive result of the opening round.
Both teams failed to get any production on offense as the defensive intensity controlled the flow of the match.
Ball State finished with a .140 attack percentage while Grand Canyon hit only slightly better at .156.
In order to seize control in a battle between two evenly-matched teams, Ball State turned to the two players it has leaned on all season long - Leske and Kevin Owens.
The team's two starting middle attackers, who were both selections to the All-Conference Second Team last week, controlled the net throughout the match with their strong blocking abilities.
Leske collected a match-high eight blocks while Owens earned five of his own to stonewall Grand Canyon into a poor offensive performance. Even on offense, both players recorded the highest two attack percentages on the team.
With sophomore Graham McIlvaine at setter, the ball was spread around to create an equal amount of kills between five players, all tied to lead the team.
Owens, Aucoin and juniors Larry Wrather, Jamion Hartley and Greg Herceg all ended the match with eight kills.
With the four outside attackers from that group each taking at least 20 swings at ball, Wrather stood out as the featured weapon with a team-high 28 attacks. However, he ended with lowest attack percentage in that group at .036.
With its match against Ohio State only two days away, Ball State will almost certainly have to play better on offense in order to win. The Buckeyes have proven that over the past several years in the postseason, winning the previous four MIVA Tournaments.
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