After winning last year’s Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament, the No. 10 team in the American Volleyball Coaches Association poll, Ball State Men’s Volleyball has a chance to repeat after their sweep of Lewis in the semifinal round Wednesday.
The energy inside Worthen Arena was constant throughout Saturday’s quarterfinal sweep (25-20, 25-19, 25-15) for the No. 10 Cardinals (19-8, 11-3 MIVA) in the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament against the No. 8 seed Quincy.
“We trained really hard,” head coach Donan Cruz said. “Our team is in a good rhythm and the guys are buying into what we are doing at this point of the year. We just emphasized how important it is for us to execute the little things and I thought tonight was a good reflection of that.”
While the Cardinals (13-8, 6-3 MIVA) may not have played their best volleyball Friday, they played well enough to earn a four set (25-13, 20-25, 25-19, 25-21) victory over Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) rival Quincy (7-14, 0-9 MIVA).
On a night when Ball State was honoring the 50-year anniversary of Munciana Volleyball Club, the Cardinals (12-7, 5-2 MIVA) reinforced Muncie’s reputation as a national hub for volleyball by capitalizing on the Buckeyes (11-9, 4-3 MIVA) 15 total errors and allowing 36 kills to their 41 en route to the win.
“This is something I’ve dreamed about,” Fisher, a senior, said. “I’ve been at [Muncie] Burris my whole life, since kindergarten, and I’ve been coming to these basketball games. I know this group [of seniors] has always wanted to get to this moment.”
“It was good to get it in three,” head coach Donan Cruz said after No. 12 Ball State Men’s Volleyball swept Central State in straight sets (25-16, 25-9, 25-19) Wednesday.
Saturday, the Cardinals (9-5, 4-2) exited the Pepsi Center on the campus of Quincy University with the win in straight sets (25-23, 25-22, 25-22). The win for Ball State was actually the seventh-straight loss via sweep for the Hawks (4-10, 0-6).
The Cardinals (7-5, 2-2) took down Purdue Fort Wayne (10-4, 1-3) in a five-set (25-20, 24-26, 25-22, 19-25, 15-8) battle Saturday in the first meeting of the two teams since last year’s Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) championship match.
Ball State Men’s Volleyball suffers five set loss (22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-20,16-18) to Lewis in its first Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) game of the season.
