No. 14 Men's Volleyball On Three Match Road Swing

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CARDINALS CONCLUDE SIX-MATCH ROAD SWING: The No. 14 Ball State men's volleyball team will conclude its six-match road swing this week, starting Wednesday with a 7 p.m. Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association showdown at No. 15 Ohio State . . . The Cardinals will also visit MIVA foes No. 10 Lewis (Friday) and Loyola (Saturday) this weekend for 7 p.m. (CT) matchups.

STREAKING:
After starting the season with an 0-3 record, the Ball State men's volleyball team has won 10 of its last 11 matches, including an active nine-match winning streak . . . During its current winning spell, the Cardinals have won the program's 1,000th match (Feb. 13 vs. MSOE) and given head coach Joel Walton his 200th career victory (Feb. 18 vs. No. 14 Loyola) . . . BSU's nine-match winning streak ties Cal State Northridge's as the longest active streaks in the nation . . . Penn State and Lees-McRae own the longest overall winning streaks this season at 10 matches each.

LEAGUE LEADERS:
The Ball State men's volleyball team enters the week with a perfect 4-0 MIVA record, and holds a half-match lead over No. 15 Ohio State (4-1) for the top spot in the standings . . . No. 10 Lewis holds third at 3-1, with its only league loss coming at Ball State . . . Rounding out the league are IPFW (1-3), Quincy (0-3) and Loyola (0-4).

BALL STATE VS. OHIO STATE:
The Cardinals currently hold a 98-77-1 lead in the all-time series versus Ohio State, despite losses in seven of the last 10 meetings . . . Last season, the teams split the regular-season series with each squad defending its home court . . . The Buckeyes also scored a 3-0 (30-19, 30-24, 30-21) win over BSU in the championship match of the 2008 MIVA Tournament, which was hosted by OSU . . . Overall, the home team has won the last six meetings in the series.

BALL STATE VS. LEWIS:
BSU owns a 24-14 advantage in the all-time series versus the Flyers, including 10-straight wins . . . Earlier this season, the Cardinals handed Lewis its first MIVA loss with a 3-0 (30-26, 32-30, 34-32) victory at Worthen Arena Jan. 30 . . . The Flyers' last win in the series came Jan. 18, 2005 on its home court.

BALL STATE VS. LOYOLA:
Including a 3-2 (29-31, 30-27, 30-25, 23-30, 15-7) win over the Ramblers Feb. 28, the Cardinals hold a slim 17-16 edge in the all-time series . . . BSU has won the past two meetings between the two squads, with both coming at Worthen Arena . . . Ball State has not won at Loyola's Alumni Gym since the 1999 season, having lost its last 10 road matches versus the Ramblers.

SCOUTING BALL STATE:
The Cardinals enter the week with a 10-4 overall record and ranked 14th in the latest Bison/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll after going 3-0 last week . . . Todd Chamberlain paces the Ball State attack with a 3.49 kills-per-game average, while J.D. Gasparovic leads the BSU offense and nation with a .560 (100-11-159) attack percentage . . . At the net, Gasparovic also owns a NCAA-best 1.67 blocks-per-game average . . . Ethan Pheister has set the BSU offense to an MIVA-best .309 rate of success this season, while adding 1.15 digs and 1.26 blocks per game . . . Billy Ebel holds down the BSU backcourt with a team and league-best 3.06 digs-per-game average.

SCOUTING OHIO STATE:
The Buckeyes enter the week with a 7-8 (3-1 MIVA) record and ranked 15th in the latest Bison/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll after losing to Juniata last week . . . Robbie Klein paces the Ohio State attack with a 3.68 kills-per-game average, while Kevin Heine leads the team with a .431 (115-25-209) attack percentage . . . At the net, John Albertson owns a team-best 1.50 blocks-per-game average . . . Steven Kehoe has set the OSU offense to a .273 rate of success this season, while adding 2.23 digs and 0.85 blocks per game . . . Mik Berzins holds down the Buckeyes backcourt with a team-best 2.88 digs-per-game average.

SCOUTING LEWIS:
The Flyers enter the week with a 12-5 (3-1 MIVA) record and ranked 10th in the latest Bison/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll after going 1-2 on the west coast last week . . . Drew Pickering paces the Lewis attack with a 4.17 kills-per-game average, while Alex Vigansky leads the team with a .422 (117-23-223) attack percentage . . . At the net, Billy Sahagian owns a team-best 1.15 blocks-per-game average . . . Mike Iandolo has set the Lewis offense to a .295 rate of success this season, while adding 1.45 digs and 0.71 blocks per game . . . Nick Perakes holds down the Flyers backcourt with a team-best 2.90 digs-per-game average.

SCOUTING LOYOLA:
The Ramblers enter the week with an 8-7 (0-4 MIVA) record after losses at Irvine and California Baptist last week . . . Krisjanis Berzins paces the Loyola attack with a 3.90 kills-per-game average, while Michael Morice leads the team with a .415 (91-23-164) attack percentage . . . At the net, Morice also owns a team-best 1.00 blocks-per-game average . . . Michael Huntz has set the Loyola offense to a .245 rate of success this season, while adding 1.59 digs and 0.47 blocks per game . . . Tommy Becker holds down the Ramblers backcourt with a team-best 2.12 digs-per-game average.

CARDINALS IN THE POLLS:
After a win over Quincy and a pair of victories at Grand Canyon last week, Ball State climbed one spot to 14th in the latest Bison/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll . . . BSU was ranked 12th in the preseason poll, 13th in the Jan. 12, Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 polls and 15th in the March 2 poll . . . This week, Lewis is the top-ranked MIVA squad at 10th, while Ohio State is 15th.

PICKING UP MEDIA VOTES:
The Ball State men's volleyball team was also tied with UC San Diego for 10th in last week's Molten/Volleyball Men's College Magazine Top 10 Media Poll . . . It was the first time the Cardinals have appeared in the poll this season . . . This week's poll was unavailable at the time of this release.

1,007 AND COUNTING:
With three more wins last weekend, Ball State men's volleyball has amassed an overall program record of 1,007-393-8 in 45-plus years . . . The program joins baseball (1,358-1,267-14 in 88-plus years as of March 8) and men's basketball (1,078-979-1 in 87-plus years as of March 8) as the only programs in school history to reach 1,000 wins . . . In addition, only one other NCAA Division I/II men's volleyball program has eclipsed 1,000 wins, with UCLA entering the week with a 1,179-248 record over 46-plus years (as of March 6).

THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM:
For the third time in his career, BSU junior setter Ethan Pheister picked up MIVA Player of the Week accolades after guiding the Cardinals to a 3-0 mark last week in matches versus Quincy and Grand Canyon . . . In BSU's three matches, the team hit .414, including a season-best .469 mark in Sunday's win over GCU . . . In addition, Pheister is the third different BSU player to earn the award this season, joining Todd Chamberlain (Jan. 20) and J.D. Gasparovic (Feb. 2).

FIVE MORE TO GO:
With 136 assists in BSU's three matches last week, Ethan Pheister passed Dave Carlson (2005-06) for sixth on BSU's all-time career assists list . . . Pheister enters the week with 2,226 career helpers and could pass Jeff Robertson's (1997-2000) career total of 2,313 assists to move into fifth this week . . . Pheister became just the seventh player in program history to reach 2,000 career assists in the Feb. 21 match versus Carthage, while becoming the 13th player in program history to log over 1,000 career assists in BSU's win over Mercyhurst (Feb. 16, 2008) . . . Chris Cooper (1987-90) is the program's all-time leader with 7,281 assists.

TOP DOG:
Dubbed "The Bulldog" by public address announcer and BSU men's volleyball alum Steve Shondell, sophomore J.D. Gasparovic leads the nation with a .560 hitting percentage . . . Gasparovic has hit .500-or-better in nine of BSU's 14 matches this season, including a .591 rate of success after smashing a career-high 15 kills on 22 swings with just two errors in the win over then-No. 11 Lewis (Jan. 30) . . . In BSU's three matches last week, Gasparovic hit .714 with 25 kills on 35 swings with no errors.

HE CAN BLOCK TOO:
In addition to leading the nation in hitting, J.D. Gasparovic is the nation's top blocker entering the week . . . After tying a career-high with 13 total blocks in Sunday's win over Grand Canyon, Gasparovic raised his season average to 1.67 blocks per game . . . In BSU's three matches last week, Gasparovic tallied 27 total blocks for a 2.45 average.

JOINING GASPAROVIC IN THE BLOCKING RANKINGS:
In addition to national-leader J.D. Gasparovic, Ball State has two more players ranked in the top 20 nationally in blocking . . . Sophomore transfer Andy Nelson ranks third in the MIVA and sixth nationally with his 1.35 average, while Ethan Pheister ranks sixth in the league in 18th in the nation at 1.28 blocks per game.

BSU IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS:
Overall, the Ball State men's volleyball team ranks fifth in the nation with its 3.42 blocks-per-game average . . . BSU also ranks sixth in digs (10.69), hitting percentage (.309) and winning percentage (.714).

CHAMBERLAIN GOING FOR TOP 20:
After collecting 38 kills last week, including a career-high tying 20 markers in Saturday's win at Grand Canyon, senior Todd Chamberlain raised his career kill total to 760 . . . Chamberlain, who ranks 16th in program annals with a 2.91 career kills-per-game average, needs 85 more kills to pass Lee Killian's (1980-83) total of 844 kills for 20th on BSU's career list.

MORE ON CHAMBERLAIN:
Todd Chamberlain also raised his career digs total to 407 and career blocks total to 156 after posting 12 digs and seven blocks last week . . . Chamberlain is currently on pace to become one of only 13 players in program history to record over 850 kills and 500 digs in a career, with Nick Meyer (2004-07) being the last player to accomplish the task at 1,415 kills and 557 digs.

EBEL DIGGING IT UP:
Junior libero Billy Ebel, who has posted double-figure digs in eight of Ball State's 14 matches this season, enters the week ranked first in the MIVA and fourth nationally with a 3.06 digs-per-game average . . . Ebel posted a career-high 18 digs in the Feb. 27 win over IPFW, which is a BSU rally-scoring era record for digs in a three-game match . . . In league-only matches, Ebel owns a 3.53 digs-per-game average.

SOME MORE FROM SUNDAY'S GCU MATCH:
Junior Eric Schulte smashed a career-high 15 kills in Sunday's win over the Antelopes, while sophomore Lee Meyer added nine kills and a career-best .600 (9-0-15) attack percentage . . . As a team, BSU hit for a season-best .459 attack percentage, while limiting the hosts to a -.069 mark, a season-low for a BSU opponent.

WALTON REACHES 200:
Head coach Joel Walton became just the second coach in program history to record 200 career victories with Ball State's 3-2 (29-31, 30-27, 30-25, 23-30, 15-7) win over then-No. 14 Loyola Feb. 28 . . . Over his 11-year tenure, Walton has amassed a 203-108 (.653) career record . . . He picked up his first career head coaching victory versus Mercyhurst Jan. 17, 1999, while his 100th win came versus Springfield College Feb. 1, 2004 . . . In league action, Walton owns a 107-41 (.723) MIVA ledger with his 100th career victory coming at Mercyhurst (March 8, 2008).

TEAM EFFORT LEADS BSU TO 1,000TH WIN:
In the Feb. 13 win over MSOE, 14 of BSU's 15 active players helped guide the program to its 1,000th all-time win . . . Redshirt junior Ben Irwin and sophomore James Emming led the BSU offense with seven kills apiece, while sophomore transfer Andy Nelson added six . . . Overall, 11 different Cardinals recorded at least one kill in the contest, with Lee Meyer providing the match winner for one of his five connections with the hardwood floor . . . Overall, over 250 alumni and 18 current student-athletes have helped the Cardinals reach the 1,000 win plateau . . . Eight alumni and program founder Don Shondell have been inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame.

THE ATTENDANCE:
The BSU men's volleyball team opened the 2009 season with a Worthen Arena record 3,729 fans at the Jan. 17 match versus No. 4 Stanford and followed with 1,507 fans versus No. 11 Lewis (Jan. 30) . . . Last weekend, the Cardinals drew 1,266 fans versus IPFW (Feb. 27) and 1,377 fans versus then-No. 14 Loyola (Feb. 28) . . . Since Worthen Arena began hosting BSU men's volleyball in 1992, the Cardinals have cracked the 1,000 mark in attendance a total of 19 times, with 17 of the crowds coming in the last four seasons . . . The largest crowds to watch volleyball in Worthen Arena came when BSU hosted the 1992 NCAA Men's Volleyball Championships with 7,391 in attendance for the championship match which saw Pepperdine sweep Stanford April 25, 1992 . . . 5,711 fans attended the April 24, 1992 semifinal matches.

BALL STATE ON THE RADIO:
WCRD 91.3 FM will serve as the radio home for the Ball State men's volleyball team during the 2009 season . . . The student-run station is slated to broadcast all 12 home matches, as well as selected road matches and the entire MIVA Tournament . . . James Rider will provide the play-by-play action, while Nick Golden provides the color commentary and Adam Lickliter brings the sideline reports . . . The station also serves as the home for "The Joel Walton Show", a weekly BSU men's volleyball report which airs Tuesdays from 6-7 p.m. . . . All WCRD broadcasts will be streamed live and FREE of charge at www.ballstatesports.com.

Players Mentioned

Todd Chamberlain

Billy Ebel

James Emming

J.D. Gasparovic

Ben Irwin

Lee Meyer

Anders Nelson

Ethan Pheister

Eric Schulte

Ball State University Athletics