Ball State University Athletics
Men's Volleyball Preps For Action With Lewis, Loyola
March 25, 2015 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. -- The Ball State men's volleyball team (12-11, 5-6 MIVA) will face their toughest week of conference competition yet, when it takes on Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association opponents No. 4 Lewis (17-2, 8-1 MIVA) Thursday in Romeoville, Ill. and No. 2 Loyola (16-1, 8-1 MIVA) Saturday at Worthen Arena. Thursday's match is set for 7 p.m. central time, while Saturday's action is set for 7:30 p.m. eastern time and will hold the senior night recognition session following the match.
Last weekend, the No. 14 Ball State (12-9, 5-4 MIVA) men's volleyball team held a busy three-match schedule against Princeton, Lindenwood and Quincy. The Cardinals kicked it off by battling for a 3-2 (26-24, 15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 20-18) win over Princeton (8-7, 4-1 EIVA) Wednesday evening in Worthen Arena.
A well rounded Ball State team pushed Princeton to extra points in two of the five games, along with settling two other sets within a three point gap. While Princeton marked an outstanding attack percentage of .433 in the fifth set, Ball State upped it with an attack percentage of .440. It was a huge turnaround for the Cardinals after starting at a .267 in the first, then dramatically dropping to a .077 in the second. Overall though, the Tigers averaged a .344 attack percentage, topping Ball State who marked a .270.
The two teams grinded through 23 lead changes and 45 tied scores, and the Cardinals' stats were just as similar to the Tigers over the course of the extensive five-set match. Ball State held the advantage in blocks (12.0-8.0) and digs (37-33), despite falling in kills (68-54), attack percentage (.344-.270) and aces (7-4) to Princeton. Ball State suffered from 16 service errors and 23 attack errors compared to the Tigers' 27 service errors paired with 23 attack errors.
Friday night, the Cardinals fell in 3-0 (17-25, 22-25, 19-25) sweep to MIVA opponent Lindenwood (8-7, 3-5 MIVA) in Saint Charles, Mo.
Leading the Cardinals offensively was junior Marcin Niemczewski with seven kills paired with one block assist and one ace, along with freshman Matt Walsh who posted five kills, three block assists and the only other Ball State ace.
Defensively, senior libero David Ryan Vander Meer notched seven digs, while junior setter Hiago Garchet marked six digs of his own along with a .347 setting percentage in the process of earning 25 assists. Sophomore Brendan Surane and Garchet also earned three block assists throughout the three set match, while Surane also tallied four kills for the Cardinals.
Ball State suffered from seven service errors and 22 attack errors compared to Lindenwood's eight service errors paired with 20 attack errors.
The Lions held the advantage in nearly every statistic, including kills (35-27), attack percentage (.163-.056), total attacks (92-89), aces (9-2), digs (36-29) and blocks (12.5-11.0).
To round out the week's action, Ball State fell in a marathon of a loss Saturday night in a 3-2 (27-29, 18-25, 37-35, 30-28, 9-15) final to MIVA foe Quincy (11-9, 4-7 MIVA). The five-set heartbreaker marked the second conference loss in a row for the Cardinals, in the midst of the seven-match conference lineup.
Ball State came out strong, battling for extra points in the three of five sets despite dropping to a two game deficit early in the evening. Quincy then turned it around to close out the final game with only a total of two attacking errors and posted a fifth set attack percentage of .467 to the Cardinals .071.
All games were back-and-forth, pressing through 23 lead changes, while the teams also fought through 62 tie scores in the five sets.
The Cardinals' stats were overall very similar to the Hawks throughout the five-set match. Ball State held the advantage in blocks (16.0-12.0) and assists (62-59), despite falling in aces (6-3) and attack percentage (.208-.203) to Quincy. The teams were all squared up with 65 kills and 51 digs each, although Ball State suffered from 25 service errors and 33 attack errors compared to Quincy's 20 service errors paired with 32 attack errors.
SCOUTING LEWIS: The Flyers currently hold a 17-2 overall record, with a 8-1 MIVA conference record. Their lone conference loss came when they traveled to Ohio State, where the teams went to five sets. Ball State is all squared up in the all-time series with Lewis at 25-25, including just two home and one road win in the last five years. This year, top players for the Flyers include Greg Petty and Geoff Powell who hold 220 and 214 kills, respectively, while Powell posts 53 total blocks and Petty records a team-high of 29 aces. Along with Powell's claimed 90 digs, Lucas Yanez holds a team leading 120 digs. Other standouts include Bobby Walsh, brother of Ball State's Matt Walsh, who has earned a team-high of 84 total blocks and Scott Fifer who has posted 579 assists. Bobby Walsh leads the nation at 1.53 blocks per set, while Matt Walsh follows in second at 1.48, with team statistics having Lewis leading the nation at 3.18 blocks per set, while Ball State follows in third at 2.92.
SCOUTING LOYOLA: The Ramblers hold a 16-1 record on the season, with a 8-1 record in the MIVA. The lone loss of the season came at home against MIVA powerhouse Lewis, who took the match 3-1. Loyola holds the 27-19 advantage over Ball State, going 10-1 over the last five years. The Ramblers have only given the Cardinals a total of 12 winning sets and one match victory in the last five years, with the winning match taking place at home on April 17, 2010. Standouts for the Ramblers include both Thomas Jaeschke and Cody Caldwell, who post 218 and 135 kills, respectively, while Jaeschke also holds a team-high of 34 aces and was named MIVA Offensive Player of the Week this week. Loyola is coming off of a 2014 season record of 29-1, with the lone loss coming from then-No. 11 USC. Loyola sits at sixth in the nation in blocks per set (2.83) and fourth in assists per set (12.79), while the Ramblers Jeff Jendryk sits in seventh in blocks per set (1.26) and Peter Hutz in second for assists per set (11.33).
Live Stats and Broadcast will be available for fans unable to attend this weekend's matchups at:
LEWIS:
Live Audio: http://www.lewisu.edu/wlra/
Live Stats: http://sidearmstats.com/lewisu/mvball/
LOYOLA:
Live Broadcast: http://ballstatesports.com/liveEvents/liveEvents.dbml?SPID=7635&db_oem_id=14200
Live Stats: http://ballstatesports.com/liveStats/liveStats.dbml?SPID=7635&DB_OEM_ID=14200&LIST_SPORT__VOLLEYBALL
Looking ahead, the Ball State men's volleyball team will round out regular season action when they travel to MIVA matchups with Ohio State and McKendree on Thursday, Apr. 9 and Saturday, Apr. 11, respectively.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State men's volleyball action, follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB on Twitter and Instagram.
