Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
Sacred Heart
Men?s Volleyball Downs Sacred Heart In 3-1 Comeback Victory
January 15, 2016 | Men's Volleyball
MUNCIE, Ind. -- The No. 15 Ball State (2-1) men's volleyball team clinched a narrow 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-21, 25-22) comeback win over Sacred Heart (0-4) Thursday evening in Worthen Arena. After dropping the first set to the Pioneers, the Cardinals rallied for three straight set wins, battling through 34 tie scores and seven lead changes.
“After the second set, we started to get some momentum and the guys seemed to relax a bit and had some good things happen, so we won games three and four as well,” Ball State men's volleyball head coach Joel Walton said. “I felt like the turning point in the match was when we finally started to play better defense. We started to put some pressure on them with our serve and started to get some blocks, and get some digs up and transition those plays to get some kills.”
Junior Brendan Surane marked a team-leading 13 kills, one ace and three block assists. Major kills were marked by senior Jack Lesure, junior Alex Pia and sophomore Mitch Weiler, helping the Cardinals build momentum to pull ahead of the Pioneers over the course of the night. Weiler erupted at the front line with nine kills, while Pia held a 1.000 attack percentage through the first two sets prior to closing out with five kills and seven block assists.
Defensively, freshman libero Adam Wessel held down the Ball State backcourt by facing 26 serves and finishing the match with a perfect reception percentage. Weiler also helped solidify the back row with an additional 27 receptions for a perfect 1.000.
Sophomore Matt Walsh continued to stand out at the net, marking five block assists, six kills, and two aces on the night, while he teamed up with senior setter Hiago Garchet, who earned four block assists and one solo block.
“I think we still have a lot to improve on and we have a lot of guys who are great players, but we just need to find out a way to start well,” Garchet said of the comeback win. “We didn't start well today again, but we worked our way up towards the end of the game and we came back and I think that is huge going into the match tomorrow. We need to start with energy and a little more ambition, but we are working towards that and we should do a much better job tomorrow.”
The Cardinals led the Pioneers in several statistical categories over the course of the four sets, including aces (6-3), blocks (14.0-8.0) and attack percentage (.279-.221), although Sacred Heart topped the kills (54-48), digs (42-36) and assists (50-45) categories. The match was also peppered with 29 service errors, the lesser of 14 coming from the home team. The win also improved Ball State's all-time series record with Sacred Heart to an undefeated 8-0.
Building off of tonight's emotional battle, the Ball State men's volleyball team will battle its second consecutive EIVA opponent in Harvard tomorrow night, prior to hitting the road for a six-match stretch. The Friday night matchup is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start.
“I'm pleased not with our overall play, but I'm pleased with some of the adjustments that we made that allowed the guys to be in better positions later in the match,” Coach Walton said. “We need to continue to improve our ball control so that we have better opportunities to swing. We weren't passing real crisp, and that ball control is going to be critical for tomorrow night's game.”
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