Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
Wabash College
MVB Opens 2024 Season Tuesday & Wednesday; Hosts Wabash College & Thomas More
January 01, 2024 | Men's Volleyball
Match Info
Ball State vs. Wabash College
Tuesday, Jan. 2 (6 pm ET)
Muncie, Ind.
Ball State vs. Wabash College
Wednesday, Jan. 3 (11 am ET)
Muncie, Ind.
Ball State vs. Thomas More University
Wednesday, Jan. 3 (2 pm ET)
Muncie, Ind.
MUNCIE, Ind. - The Ball State men's volleyball team opens its 2024 season Tuesday at 6 pm ET in Worthen Arena and will play two matches on Wednesday against Wabash at 11 am ET and then Thomas More at 2 pm ET.
Wabash College is located in Crawfordsville, Ind. This marks the first-ever meeting between the Cardinals and the Little Giants. This is only the fourth season Wabash has had men's volleyball. Last season the Little Giants finished off the year with a 9-19 overall record.
Thomas More is located in Crestview Hills, Ky., The Saints and the Cardinals will also be playing for the first time in program history. This is only the sixth year the Saints have had a men's volleyball program. Last year Thomas More ended the season with a 13-13 ledger.
Ball State head coach Donan Cruz enters his third season at the helm of the Cardinals and owns an overall record at BSU of 43-13 (.767) along with a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament Championship, two MIVA regular season titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
The Cardinals are looking to continue an already historically successful program. Ball State is coming off another Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) regular season title and its second-straight MIVA Tournament championship appearance. Ball State ended the season with a 20-9 record.
The 2024 roster is a good mixture of some familiar faces along with several newcomers. One of the Cardinals returnees is sophomore outside hitter Tinaishe Ndavazocheva who was recently named to the 12-member preseason All-MIVA conference team. Ndavazocheva turned in quite the rookie season for the Cardinals last year. He earned MIVA Offensive Player of the Week honors and Off the Block National Honors on Feb. 7. He turned in a career high 27 kills against Lewis (2/9) and had 22 double digit kill performances in 2023. Ndavazocheva ended the season ranked second on the team in kills (342) and in points (397.5). He also received All-MIVA First Team honors and AVCA Honorable Mention All-American.
The Cardinals are starting the 2024 season with five-straight matches. After Wednesday, Ball State will play at No. 18 BYU Friday (Jan. 5) and Saturday (Jan. 6). Both BYU matches will begin at 9 pm ET in Provo, UT. BYU leads the all-time series 18-5.
