Ball State University
5-1,2-0MIVA
Purdue Fort Wayne
0-2,0-2MIVA
Men’s Volleyball Closes MIVA Opening Weekend With 3-0 Sweep Over PFW
February 06, 2021 | Men's Volleyball
Ball State had already taken the first match of the series Friday night 3-1. It was the first time the Cardinals had won the MIVA series over their longtime in-state rival since the 2018 season.
Coach Walton spoke about the competitiveness between the two schools that has dated back to when he was a player at Ball State back in 1985-88.
The first set was close but Ball State never lost sight of victory. The Cardinals eventually leading by as many as five (15-10) after a triple threat block from Blake Reardon, Will Hippe and Kaleb Jenness. PFW wasn't going to go away quickly coming to within one-point (18-17) off of a kill from the Mastodons' Mitch Geiger. But back-to-back kills from Reardon and Felix Egharevba put BSU back up by three which eventually led to the Cardinals taking the first set 25-21.
After that, Ball State was on fire in the second frame and the Mastodons didn't stand a chance as BSU plowed through the set taking four straight points right off the bat eventually building a commanding 13-3 advantage. PFW was unable rally its way back to even come close as Ball State took set two, 25-14.
Purdue Fort Wayne regrouped in set three to make it a close contest as both teams played even all the way through with the set tied at 21-21 and it looked as if set four could be on the horizon. Jenness sealed the deal with some pivotal kills to put the Cardinals in position to take the match. Reardon then put the exclamation mark to take the third frame and the match from PFW.
The Cardinals played as a team tonight which is not measured as a stat but there was an all-around great performance from Ball State. Reardon led the way with 10 kills and five block assists. Veterans like Hippe, Jenness, and Quinn Isaacson along with Egharevba and Shepherd also played a part in tonight's victory.
The Ball State men's volleyball team will travel to Lewis for a two-game MIVA series starting Friday, Feb. 12 with first serve at 8 p.m. ET.
For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State men's volleyball team, please follow @BallStateSports and @BallStateMVB on Instagram and Twitter.
JOEL WALTON ON SATURDAY'S WIN OVER PURDUE FORT WAYNE:
… ON TONIGHT'S STRONG BLOCK:
Early on, our blocking was a real key. We made their attackers uncomfortable. Anytime you're attacking and you're getting blocked, it's a shot to the ego that no volleyball player wants to deal with. I thought our block really set a good tone.
Tonight, we took them out of system a lot and that allowed our third blocker to get in there. It puts a lot of pressure on the attackers, especially if they're still trying to hit it hard and drive the ball in that situation.
… ON THE TEAM's OFFENSIVE PERFORMANCE:
If we're hitting over .300, that's really good. It's been hard for our team to accomplish that kind of a number consistently over the last number of years. If we can get our offense to where we're hitting that efficiently on a nightly basis, we're going to be hard to stop.
… ON THE TEAM'S DEFENSE:
We're starting to figure out how to play better defense, our middles are figuring out the blocking part of it and there's a lot of things I like that we're doing.
… ON THE TEAM'S ENERGY:
Right now, we have a group of players that are playing for each other. There's a good transfer of energy, there's joy when either they are playing well or their teammate is playing well. That just benefits our whole group.
… ON NEXT WEEK'S MATCHES AT LEWIS:
Two nights in a row in their gymnasium, that's going to be hard as Lewis is returning a lot of experienced players from last season. To say it's going to be a hard week of practice and a very focused week of practice would be an understatement. I would like to go up to Lewis and play well and show what this year's Ball State Cardinals are capable of. That's what we are working for this week and we will see what happens next weekend.
