Ball State University Athletics
Live Stats For This Weekend's Men's Volleyball Matches
March 20, 2009 | Men's Volleyball
BSU vs. Rutgers-Newark Live Stats Link
BSU vs. George Mason Live Stats Link - - Click on the LAUNCH GAMETRACKER button under the coverage section of the BSU vs. GMU match.
CARDINALS HAVE THREE MORE THIS WEEK: The Ball State men's volleyball team has three matches on tap this week, starting Tuesday with a 7:30 p.m. home contest versus Carthage . . . The Cardinals will then head to the east coast for road matches at Rutgers-Newark (Friday) and George Mason (Saturday) . . . Both road contests start at 7 p.m. GOING THE DISTANCE: Ball State suffered three five-game Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association road losses last week to snap a nine-match winning streak . . . Prior to last week, BSU was 1-0 in five-game matches in 2009, topping then-No. 14 Loyola Feb. 28 . . . The last time Ball State played three straight five-game matches was in 2000, when the Cardinals defeated Lewis (Jan. 28), Rutgers-Newark (Feb. 4) and Stanford (Feb. 5) . . . Those are the only two times in program history the Cardinals have played three straight five-game matches. AROUND THE MIVA: By virtue of its win over the Cardinals last Wednesday, Ohio State (5-1) has a half match lead over Lewis (4-1) for first place in the MIVA standings . . . Ball State (4-3) fell from first to third after the rough week, while IPFW (1-3) is fourth, followed by Loyola (1-4) and Quincy (0-3).
BALL STATE VS. CARTHAGE: The Cardinals own a 5-0 advantage in the all-time series with Carthage, including a 3-0 (30-20, 30-21, 30-19) victory over the Red Men Feb. 21 . . . BSU has only dropped three sets in the series . . . This will be the third meeting between the two clubs in Worthen Arena. BALL STATE VS. RUTGERS-NEWARK: Ball State holds a 39-7 lead in the all-time series with the Scarlet Raiders, including 11 straight wins . . . Earlier this season, the Cardinals posted a 3-0 (30-23, 30-23, 30-21) sweep over RNU at Worthen Arena (Feb. 6) . . . Rutgers-Newark's last win in the series was a 3-2 (30-28, 27-30, 19-30, 30-27, 15-8) home victory Jan. 26, 2002.
BALL STATE VS. GEORGE MASON: BSU has a 35-24 lead in the all-time series with the Patriots, despite losses in seven of the last nine meetings . . . Earlier this season, George Mason posted a 3-0 30-25, 30-26, 30-24) win over the Cardinals at Worthen Arena . . . Last season, the two teams split the regular season series, with each winning on the road . . . BSU tallied a 3-2 (33-35, 30-24, 26-30, 30-26, 17-15) win at GMU last season. SCOUTING BALL STATE: The Cardinals enter the week with a 10-7 overall record after losing three straight five-game road matches in MIVA play last week . . . Todd Chamberlain paces the Ball State attack with a 3.43 kills-per-game average, while J.D. Gasparovic leads the BSU offense and league with a .507 (128-16-221) attack percentage . . . At the net, Gasparovic also owns a NCAA-best 1.60 blocks-per-game average . . . Ethan Pheister has set the BSU offense to an MIVA-best .298 rate of success this season, while adding 1.27 digs and 1.03 blocks per game . . . Billy Ebel holds down the BSU backcourt with a 2.82 digs-per-game average.
SCOUTING CARTHAGE: The Red Men enter the week with a 4-23 record after going 0-5 last week . . . Randy Hansen paces the Carthage attack with a 3.25 kills-per-game average, while Tim Walker leads the team with a .443 (138-33-237) attack percentage . . . At the net, Matt Yanz owns a team-best 0.95 blocks-per-game average . . . Scott Marita has set the Carthage offense to a .197 rate of success this season, while adding 0.89 digs and 0.35 blocks per game . . . Tyler Berry holds down the Red Men backcourt with a team-best 2.50 digs-per-game average. SCOUTING RUTGERS-NEWARK: The Scarlet Raiders enter the week with an 8-7 record after posting weekday wins over NJIT and New York last week . . . Nate Stott paces the Rutgers-Newark attack with a 3.98 kills-per-game average, while Kenneth Stumbaugh leads the team with a .401 (72-17-137) attack percentage . . . At the net, Jon Keller owns a team-best 1.40 blocks-per-game average . . . Liran Shapiro has set the Red Men offense to a .237 rate of success this season, while adding 1.30 digs and 0.64 blocks per game . . . Cadem Mulligan holds down the Rutgers-Newark backcourt with a team-best 2.68 digs-per-game average.
SCOUTING GEORGE MASON: The Patriots enter the week with an 8-8 record after suffering three losses on the west coast last week . . . Kyle Gramit paces the George Mason attack with a 4.68 kills-per-game average, while Erik Lanham leads the team with a .407 (59-13-113) attack percentage . . . At the net, Brandon McLaughlin owns a team-best 1.49 blocks-per-game average . . . Ryan Kwiatkowski has set the George Mason offense to a .234 rate of success this season, while adding 1.07 digs and 0.84 blocks per game . . . Eric Lucas holds down the Patriots backcourt with a team-best 2.91 digs-per-game average. CARDINALS IN THE POLLS: After suffering three five-game road losses last week, the Ball State men's volleyball team dropped out of the latest Bison/AVCA Division I-II Men's Coaches Top 15 Poll . . . BSU received 14 votes in this week's poll, falling two shy of breaking into the top 15 . . . So far this season, BSU has been ranked 12th (preseason poll), 13th (Jan. 12, Jan. 19 and Feb. 2), 14th (March 9) and 15th (March 2) . . . This week, Lewis is the top-ranked MIVA squad at 11th, while Ohio State is 14th and Loyola is 15th.
1,007 AND COUNTING: After going 0-3 last week, Ball State men's volleyball has amassed an overall program record of 1,007-396-8 in 45-plus years . . . The program joins baseball (1,362-1,269-14 in 88-plus years as of March 14) and men's basketball (1,079-980-1 in 88 years as of March 13) 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 1,180-249 record over 46-plus years (as of March 6). SPRAGUE GOES FOR THE KILL: Outside attacker Matt Sprague logged double-digit kills in all three of BSU's matches last week, marking the first time in his career the junior has logged double-digit kills in three straight matches . . . At Ohio State (Mar. 11), Sprague smashed 12 kills while hitting .259 . . . He followed with a then-career-high 18 kills and a .324 attacking mark at Lewis (March 13) . . . Sprague capped the week with a career-best 21 markers and a .425 attack percentage at Loyola (March 14) . . . For the week, Sprague averaged a team-best 3.40 kills per game, while hitting .346 (51-15-104).
SPRAGUE DOUBLES UP AT LOYOLA: In addition to smashing a career-high 21 kills at Loyola, Matt Sprague tied a career-high with 12 digs in the contest . . . The double-double effort was the first of his career. MORE CARDINALS DOUBLE UP: After posting only one double-double through the first 15 matches this season, four Cardinals posted double-doubles this past weekend . . . In the match at Lewis, Todd Chamberlain tallied 17 kills and 10 digs . . . At Loyola, Matt Sprague (21 kills, 12 digs), Ethan Pheister (61 assists, 11 digs) and Dominic Spadavecchio (12 kills, 10 digs) each finished the contest with double-doubles.
THE DOMINO KID: Redshirt freshman Dominic Spadavecchio turned in the best performance of his career at Loyola, firing off a career-high 12 kills while collecting a career-best 10 digs for his first career double-double . . . Spadavecchio also served up a career-best three aces, while tying career-highs with three block assists and one solo block. FOUR MORE TO GO: With 172 assists in BSU's three matches last week, Ethan Pheister passed Jeff Robertson (1997-2000) for fifth on BSU's all-time career assists list . . . Pheister enters the week with 2,398 career helpers . . . John Shondell (1989, 1991-93) is fourth on BSU's all-time list with 3,840 assists . . . 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 MIVA with a .507 hitting percentage . . . Gasparovic has hit .500-or-better in 10 of BSU's 17 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 .371 with 28 kills on 62 swings with five errors. HE CAN BLOCK TOO: In addition to leading the MIVA in hitting, J.D. Gasparovic is the nation's top blocker entering the week with a 1.60 blocks-per-game average . . . In BSU's three matches last week, Gasparovic tallied 21 total blocks (two solo and 19 assists) for a 1.40 average . . . In the March 8 win at Grand Canyon, Gasparovic tied a career-high with 13 total blocks (one solo and 12 assists) . . . Gasparovic has posted five-or-more blocks in each of the last eight matches and 10 times overall this season.
CHAMBERLAIN GOING FOR TOP 20: After collecting 49 kills last week, including a career-high 22 markers in Wednesday's match at Ohio State, senior Todd Chamberlain raised his career kill total to 809 . . . Chamberlain, who ranks 15th in program annals with a 2.93 career kills-per-game average, needs 36 more kills to pass Lee Killian's (1980-83) total of 844 kills for 20th on BSU's career list . . . So far this season, Chamberlain has posted 20-or-more kills in three matches, while adding double-figure kills in 11 of BSU's 17 matches, including seven of the last eight outings . . . He posted his first double-double of the year with 17 kills and 10 digs at Lewis. MORE ON CHAMBERLAIN: Todd Chamberlain also raised his career digs total to 433 and career blocks total to 165 after posting 26 digs and nine 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 nine of Ball State's 17 matches this season, enters the week ranked second in the MIVA and 11th nationally with a 2.82 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 2.80 digs-per-game average. BALL STATE IN THE NATIONAL RANKINGS: Overall, the Ball State men's volleyball team ranks seventh in the nation with its 3.21 blocks-per-game average . . . BSU also ranks seventh in hitting percentage (.298), 10th in digs (10.41) and 13th in both winning percentage (.588) and aces per game (1.41) . . . Individually in the top 10 for the Cardinals are, J.D. Gasparovic who leads the nation with a 1.60 blocks-per-game average, while Ethan Pheister is ninth in the nation with a 0.45 aces-per-game average.
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 203-111 (.646) 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 107-44 (.709) 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.
