It had been 11 months since the last time they took the course, but the Cardinals were thrilled to get back out there in Florida.
Ball State fell to Northern Illinois 78-74 on Monday afternoon. The two were originally scheduled to play Jan. 20, but that game was postponed due to COVID-19.
Tom Brady made his seventh Super Bowl title look familiar - despite moving south to a new team and conference during a pandemic.
For Coleman, anchoring the Cardinals’ comeback Saturday all began with improved communication with his teammates. He said it was the No. 1 factor that led to the Zips coming out of the gate early, which changed after his coach called a couple first-half timeouts.
Friday and Saturday marked the 110th and 111th all-time meetings between the two schools dating back to 1980. For the first time since 2018, the No. 15 Cardinals got back into the winning column against Purdue Fort Wayne.
As the old saying goes, “All good things must come to an end.” That quote resonated with Ball State (9-6, 7-4 MAC) Saturday night, as the team ended its five-game win streak and fell 89-84 in overtime to Akron (5-10, 2-10 MAC).
The score was 19-6 in favor of the Rockets halfway through the first half and the Cardinals needed something to go their way. Ball State ended up winning the game 81-67.
Thursday night’s match found Toledo winning in five sets while Friday night’s match ended the same way with Ball State Women’s Volleyball coming out on top.
Five matches into 2021, Ball State is 4-0 in matches with a 4-3 margin — thanks in part to Friday’s victory over Xavier.
This is against a program they had lost five of their last six against and after that timeout, a flip switched for Ball State Women's Basketball. From that moment to the final buzzer, they outscored Central Michigan by a 28-13 margin, which was good enough for the Cardinals' fifth straight victory.
Head coach James Whitford knows Ball State remains a long way from reaching its absolute potential. But their absences didn't stop him from reflecting on the positives that came out of the loss.
This is what head coach James Whitford and senior Ishmael El-Amin said was one of the deciding factors in Ball State Men’s Basketball 78-58 loss to Buffalo.
The Cardinals improved their record to 2-0 on the season with a 194.425-187.975 win over Illinois State. Despite the large margin of victory, head coach Joanna Saleem focused more on team improvement than the final score.
Ball State Women's Tennis (1-2) defeated Valparaiso (0-1) with a final score of 6-1. Across the board, the Cardinals found success early and often in both singles and doubles. In singles, the Cardinals took home five of the six sets.
With the victories, the Cardinals improve to 3-1 — their best start since 2018.
Losing their third consecutive game, Whitford said the Cardinals’ struggles against the Zips all came down to a lack of one element: chemistry.
Ball State Men’s Basketball Head Coach James Whitford alluded the Cardinals’ (6-8, 4-5 MAC) 74-42 loss against Akron (10-3, 8-2 MAC) to a possession in football where the start of the play appears to go well but can’t quite get finished off.
Obtaining their fourth consecutive win Saturday afternoon, the Cardinals showed one important trait key to a team’s success: toughness.
"Nerve-wracking" was the feeling going through sophomore outside attacker Bryce Behrendt’s head when he made his Ball State home debut in the first match of a back-to-back home series against Lincoln Memorial (1-4, 0-0 IVA) Jan. 28.
More than a year since winning the 2019 Mid-American Conference Title, Ball State Women’s Volleyball (4-0 MAC) hasn’t missed a beat through its first four games of its delayed 2021 season.
