Injuries have haunted Steve Shondell since the end of last season, and they haven't left him yet.
As the Ball State women's volleyball team prepares for the start of the 2012 season on Friday, five players have missed practice time in the last week, Shondell said.
Injuries have taken such a toll on the team that it was forced to cancel its annual Red and White scrimmage scheduled for last Saturday to rest its players.
"We've just had a lot of health issues in the first week and it just wasn't worth the risk to play on Saturday night to take a chance on having girls not ready to go this week to practice because we have had five girls that have missed practice," Shondell said. "It was just a decision that I made to hopefully allow us to have our players ready to play this weekend."
While losing some more game preparation might hurt, Shondell said the risks outweighed the reward.
"I asked myself: 'is it more important that we win the Cardinal and White scrimmage or the match against Gardner-Webb?'" he jokingly said. "The Gardner-Webb match was the deciding vote."
Sophomore outside hitter Marquita Marshall will likely miss a significant amount of time with an undisclosed leg injury. Shondell said he would find out later on Tuesday how bad the injury will be after an MRI.
Marshall injured herself in practice while landing awkwardly that related to an injury she suffered in her junior year of high school during the state finals.
With Marshall out indefinitely, the depth in the front court is a question mark. Junior outside hitter Kylee Baker has also missed practices recently because of an injury she suffered during the spring offseason. That leaves seniors Kara Bates and Claire Farkas as the team's only healthy outside hitters along with sophomore Hayley Benson who is normally a middle blocker.
"It's pretty significant," he said. "She goes to the doctor for x-rays [Tuesday]. They're pretty sure she's going to be out for a significant amount of time."
Shondell only has one name for a replacement: Benson.
Benson, who Shondell said has had a strong preseason, is a big reason why Shondell is able to redshirt freshman Mallorie Kah despite a lack of depth up front.
"She's really impressed with her ability to be able to put the ball away compared to last year when she's just got a lot more physical," Shondell said. "She's worked really hard in spring and worked really hard in the weight room."
Benson will likely be the first player off the bench for Ball State because of how versatile she is in the front. Shondell said she will help out at both outside positions along with her normal middle blocker role.
"She's given us a little added boost that we weren't 100 percent sure we would get this year," Shondell said. "We were looking at her as being a really great player down the road, but I think she's really going to contribute to our team this year."
To help shore up some of the practice team depth for the outside hitters, Shondell plans on slotting new sophomore transfer Alex Fuelling into that role. Fuelling will be redshirted this year after Morehead State decided not to release her to Ball State. She will be able to practice starting Wednesday after she takes her physical.
The only two players to be redshirted so far have been Kah and Fuelling, and Shondell doesn't expect there to be any more unless plans change.
Ball State begins its season Friday and hosts the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge against Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m.
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