Cardinals to take on No. 12 Pepperdine and George Mason in Uvaldo Acosta Invitational

Match One
14 Ball State vs. 12 Pepperdine
Saturday, Jan. 27 (7 p.m.)
Fairfax, Va.
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Match Two
14 Ball State at George Mason
Sunday, Jan. 28 (5 p.m.)
Fairfax, Va.
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MUNCIE, Ind. – The 14^th ranked Ball State men's volleyball team (4-2) is set to travel east this weekend to compete in the Uvaldo Acosta Invitational in Fairfax, Va. The Cardinals will take on #12 Pepperdine on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. Ball State will then take on host George Mason Sunday, Jan. 28 at 5 p.m.

Scouting Pepperdine:

Pepperdine comes into this weekend after just fallen two spots in the AVCA Coaches Poll due to a 3-1 loss to UC Santa Barbara. The Waves are 1-2 so far this 2018 season also falling UC Irvine (3-1), but taking down Cal Lutheran (3-0).

Pepperdine leads the all-time series 7-1. The last time the Cardinals met the Waves was back in 2010. Ball State lost that contest, 3-0 (30-25, 31-29, 30-18.)

Scouting George Mason:

In the second match of the weekend, Ball State will take on host George Mason. The Patriots are coming off a 3-1 win over Mount Olive. George Mason is 2-4 so far this season, falling twice to Grand Canyon, to Lewis and Loyola.

Ball State leads the all-time series 43-27, winning the last two. The last meeting took place last season in Muncie with a Ball State 3-1 victory (30-32, 25-15, 25-16, 25-19). Mitch Weiler racked up 14 kills while Matt Szews had nine. Matt Walsh had five blocks, one service ace and one assist. Adam Wessel led the way in digs with 12. He also had four assists.

Cardinal Facts:

Senior Matt Walsh is coming off a dominate weekend which included a total of 27 kills for a 63 hitting percentage. Walsh also had 15 block assists and one solo block, averaging 1.78 blocks per set. He added three service aces, one assist and one dig for the weekend. Those numbers were good enough to earn him the MIVA Offensive Player of the Week along with Sport Imports/ AVCA National Player of the Week. This was his first conference honor of the season and his first career AVCA national player of the week honor. The last time a Ball State men's volleyball player was named national player of the week was in Feb. 2014. Walsh now moves into second in school history (during rally scoring era) in total career blocks with 402.

Matt Szews and Ben Chinnici also had big weekends for the Cardinals. Szews tallied 30 kills while Chinnici had 20. Szews was also able to knock down three block assists and one solo block. Chinnici had four block assists.

Jake Romano had 61 assists on the weekend, 8.71 assists per set. Courtland Scharenborg had 26 assists in four sets of play.

Rankings:

As a team, the Cardinals are highly ranked among the MIVA and nationally in multiple categories. Below are the team rankings:

-Block Assists (109): 1st in MIVA
-Total Team Blocks (62): 1st in MIVA
-Blocks per set (2.80): 1st in MIVA, 5th nationally
-Digs (211): 1st in MIVA
-Assists (251): 3rd in MIVA
-Service Aces (29): 3rd in MIVA
-Digs per set (9.59): 3rd in MIVA, 7th nationally
-Assists per set (11.41): 5th in MIVA, 13th nationally

Individually, Ball State has multiple athletes ranked in the conference and nationally ranked. Below are the individually rankings:

-Attacks per set: Matt Szews (9.05) 1st MIVA, 5th nationally
-Kills per set: Matt Szews (3.42) 4th in MIVA, 12th nationally
-Hitting percentage: Matt Walsh (.433) 5th in MIVA, 10th nationally
-Blocks per set: Matt Walsh (1.41) 3rd in MIVA, 3rd nationally
-Blocks per set: Anthony Lebryk (1.15) 5th in MIVA
-Assists per set: Courtland Scharenborg (8.71) 6th in MIVA, 20th nationally
-Digs: Nick LaVanchy (44) 3rd in MIVA

For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State men's volleyball team, please follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB.

Cardinals to take on No. 12 Pepperdine and George Mason in Uvaldo Acosta Invitational

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Players Mentioned

Ben Chinnici

Nick LaVanchy

Anthony Lebryk

Jake Romano

Courtland Scharenborg

Matt Szews

Matt Walsh

Mitch Weiler

Adam Wessel