Ball State University
UC San Diego
Men’s Volleyball Plays Three-Straight Home Matches This Weekend Starting Thursday
January 10, 2024 | Men's Volleyball
Match Info:
Ball State vs. UC San Diego
Thursday, Jan. 11 (7 pm ET)
Muncie, Ind.
Ball State vs. Tusculum
Friday, Jan. 12 & Saturday, Jan. 13 (6 pm ET)
Muncie, Ind.
MUNCIE, Ind. - The No. 13 Ball State men's volleyball team will be home for three straight matches as the Cardinals look to host UC San Diego on Thursday at 7 pm ET. The Cardinals will close out play against Tusculum Friday and Saturday in Worthen Arena. First serve for those matches will be at 6 pm ET.
Notes:
The Cardinals will face UC San Diego for their first of three matches. Ball State leads the all-time series record 9-0 over UC San Diego. Last season the Cardinals defeated the Tritons in a five-set thriller (23-25, 25-19, 25-15, 23-25, 15-12). UC San Diego is a member of the Big West Conference. The Tritons come to Muncie with a 2-1 overall mark while the Cardinals enter Thursday's contest with a 3-2 ledger. UC San Diego has defeated No. 20 George Mason (3-1) and NJIT (3-2) with its lone loss coming against No. 7 Grand Canyon (0-3).
After Thursday, the Cardinals will compete against Tusculum where Ball State has won the only two matches it has played against the Pioneers. Although last year's win against Tusculum was a close call Ball State was able to defeat the Pioneers in five sets. Trevor Phillips led BSU offensively that contest with 16 kills.
Ball State head coach Donan Cruz enters his third season at the helm of the Cardinals and owns an overall record at BSU of 46-15 (.767) along with a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament Championship, two MIVA regular season titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
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.
After this weekend, the Cardinals will play one more match at home on Tuesday, Jan. 16 against Trine University before competing at the First Point Collegiate Challenge (Jan. 19 & Jan. 20) against USC and Stanford, respectively.
