Ball State University Athletics
No. 12 Men's Volleyball Returns Home This Weekend to Host Two Matches Against the Royals
February 29, 2024 | Men's Volleyball
The Cardinals will play the University of Queens Charlotte on Friday at 7 pm ET and Sunday at 2 pm ET
No. 12 Ball State (12-7, 5-1 MIVA) |
Queens University of Charlotte (6-11, 2-6 MIVA)
Last Meeting: Ball State 3, Quincy 0 (1/27/23)
Series History: Series History: Ball State leads the all-time series with Queens by a margin of 2-0
Setting the Scene:
Coach Cruz: Ball State head coach Donan Cruz enters his third season at the helm of the Cardinals and owns an overall record at BSU of 54-19 (.767) along with a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament Championship, two MIVA regular season titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Match Recap: Ball State extended its win streak to three after earning a sweep over Quincy last Friday in the Cardinals lone match last weekend. Ball State controlled the tempo of the contest in all three frames as the Cardinals motivation continues winning their third-straight Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association match. The Cardinals were led offensively tonight by Tinaishe Ndavazocheva with 15 kills while hitting a staggering .636 from the floor off 22 swings. This week's MIVA Offensive Player of the Week Patrick Rogers, turned in an 11-kill performance. The Cardinals' setter Lucas Machado dished out 31 assists for a .451 accuracy.
First Serve: Ball State sits tied for first place with its arch nemesis Ohio State in the current Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) standings. The Cardinals will face the Royals in their first official MIVA meeting as the Queens of Charlotte joined the conference just this season. Ball State has won both meetings all-time against the Royals. The most recent was on Jan. 27, 2023 in Worthen Arena which resulted in a 3-0 victory for the Cardinals.
Ndavazocheva Earns MIVA Offensive Player of the Week: Ndavazocheva led the Cardinals to a 3-0 victory over Quincy. The junior outside hitter had 15 kills on 22 attempts with just one error, working out to a .636 hitting percentage. He added an ace in the win. His 15 kills averaged to 5.00 per set.
Rogers MIVA Offensive Player of the Week: Patrick Rogers led No. 13 Ball State to a pair of wins over Purdue Fort Wayne and then-No. 10 Loyola Chicago. The sophomore outside hitter totaled 40 kills in eight sets for a 5.00 average per set while hitting .395 for the week. Against the Mastodons, he had 22 kills in three sets on a blistering .515 hitting clip then followed it up with 18 kills on .302 hitting in five sets against the Ramblers. He added an ace against the Mastodons.
Preseason All-MIVA: 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 Legend Don Shondell: The Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association has announced changes to the MIVA Tournament format. The conference has also announced that future tournament winners will receive the Don Shondell MIVA Championship Trophy.
The MIVA Tournament has been played after every regular season since 1980 except 2020 and was also played from 1964-69. The new format for the MIVA Tournament will reward the highest seeds, providing an advantage for a path to the NCAA tournament via the MIVA's automatic bid.The opening round of the eight-team tournament will be played at the higher four seeds. No. 1 will host No. 8, No. 2 will host No. 7, No. 3 will host No. 6, and No. 4 will host No. 5.
The semifinal and final rounds will be hosted by the highest remaining seed in the field. The field will also re-seed. The highest remaining seed will host the lowest remaining seed and the other two teams will play in the other semifinal. The two winning teams will play in the final match for the Don Shondell MIVA Championship Trophy.
