Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
10-9 (4-4MIVA)
Grand Canyon
12-7 (4-5MIVA)
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Canyon | 26 | 24 | 21 | 25 | 15 | 3 |
| Ball State | 24 | 26 | 25 | 19 | 10 | 2 |
Men?s Volleyball Falls To Grand Canyon In Five
March 14, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. - - The No. 12 Ball State (10-9, 4-4 MIVA) men's volleyball team marked its second five-set loss of the season Friday night in a narrow 3-2 (24-26, 26-24, 25-21, 19-25, 10-15) heartbreaker to Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association opponent Grand Canyon (12-7, 4-5 MIVA). The five-set final marked the first in ten matches to go beyond three sets for the Cardinals.
Ball State came out strong, battling for extra points in the first two sets and opened with an attack percentage of .346 in the first set, while the 'Lopes marked .379. Grand Canyon then turned it around to cinch the final two games with only a total of 9 attacking errors and posting an overall .226 attack percentage to the Cardinals .146 overall.
“I felt like all night long we struggled on passing serve consistently,” Ball State men's volleyball head coach Joel Walton said. “I'm also a bit surprised that we out blocked Grand Canyon because they really seemed to be in a better offensive rhythm than we were most of the night.”
All games were back-and-forth, with 11 lead changes through the first three games, while the entire fourth and fifth set held Grand Canyon in the lead consistently. The teams also fought through 30 tie scores in the five sets.
The offensive spotlight was held by junior Marcin Niemczewski when he posted four of the Cardinals seven overall aces, which sits tied for fourth highest in Ball State all-time rally-scoring records in a five set match. Niemczewski also posted a team-high of 11 kills, paired with four block assists.
Defensively, senior libero David Ryan Vander Meer notched 13 digs and four assists, while freshman Matt Walsh tallied eight block assists. Juniors Edgardo Cartagena and Hiago Garchet marked the two solo blocks of the match.
Walsh also rounded out his stats with a stellar 10 kills for a .529 attack percentage. Walsh's 10 kills match his season high, which was set in the Feb. 7 match against George Mason.
“I thought we played well, but Grand Canyon is a scrappy team they were getting a lot of good balls and just we just couldn't stop them,” Walsh said. “For tomorrow, we need to have a better serving game, even though it was probably our best serving game of the year. Even though I thought we played well, Grand Canyon came to play we need to come back harder tomorrow.”
The Cardinals' stats were overall very similar to the 'Lopes throughout the five-set match. Ball State held the advantage in blocks (16.0-15.0), digs (40-36), and aces (7-4), despite falling in kills (60-49), attack percentage (.226-.146) and attack errors (29-30) to the Antelopes. Ball State suffered from 11 service errors and 30 attack errors compared to Grand Canyon's 17 service errors paired with 29 attack errors.
Senior Shane Witmer received an error-free 24 shots, held seven kills, tallied three block assists, and two digs, all the while racking up 8.5 points.
Grand Canyon's Ryan Mather racked up 18 kills with three of the team's four aces, while freshman Shalev Saada posted six digs and six block assists, paired with 16 kills.
“We need to look at what happened tonight and make sure our guys understand that our offense was just off all night long,” Coach Walton said. “We have some time before tomorrow's match, so we'll try to switch some things up and see if we can play a better match. We need to come out with all kinds of determination, because every single one of our league matches are all very important. We have only one more home match before we play six of our remaining league matches on the road.”
The Ball State men's volleyball team will fight for redemption when they round out the series with Grand Canyon in Worthen Arena Saturday night at 7:30 p.m.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State men's volleyball, follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB on Twitter and Instagram.
