Ball State University
Tusculum University
No. 8 Men's Volleyball Hosts Tusculum Thursday and Friday
January 29, 2025 | Men's Volleyball
Last Meeting: Ball State 3, Tusculum 0 (1/13/24)
Series History: Ball State leads the series 4-0
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This Week in Ball State Men's Volleyball: The Cardinals are home again this week and will welcome Tusculum for two home matches Thursday and Friday with first serve scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.Â
Last Serve: Ball State is coming off two cleen-sweep victories from last week against Lees-McRae and Maryville. In their first match of the week, the Cardinals shutdown Less-McRae with a .417 hitting average to the their -.104. Freshman Ryan Louis led the charge, hitting .600 from the floor with 12 kills, five blocks and an ace. Joining Louis on the offensive front were Rodney Wallace (.727), Ryan Bartz (.214) and Patrick Rogers (.571). Griffin Satterfield led the team in assists, totaling 31 on the night.Â
The Cardinals stayed dominant into Friday, hitting a season-best .513 in their 3-0 victory over Maryville. Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led the team with 14 kills, tying his season best. Ndavazocheva also recorded four aces and two blocks to help secure the win. Setting up the Cardinals' offense was Lucas Machado, who dished out 37 assists and added a match-high of 11 digs. Â
First Serve vs Tusculum: Last season, the Cardinals welcomed Tusculum for an early two-match homestand. In the first match, Ball State won 3-1 under the lead of Nathan Goh who connected at a .476 (11-1-21) clip. Match two was a 3-0 sweep with Goh once again leading the offense, hitting .667 (12-0-18) from the floor and recording a career high in kills.Â
Scouting Tusculum: Tusculum enters the matches 3-5 after winning 3-1 on the road against North Greenville earlier in the week. The Pioneers started their season 0-3 after getting swept at the UCSB ASICS Invitational by CSUN, UC Irvine and UC Santa Barbara. They secured their first win when they visited Erskine, beating the Flying Fleet 3-0 (25-13, 25-21, 25-21). This was the first Pioneer victory for the program's new head coach, Alberto Chiaparini. Tusculum is 1-1 against MIVA schools this season, with a 1-3 (22-25, 26-24, 15-25, 8-25) loss to Queens and a 3-1 (29-27, 15-25, 25-21, 25-21) victory over Quincy. Senior Deklan Wingo currently leads the Pioneers' offense with 134 kills on the season, averaging 4.79 kills per set and hitting .338 from the floor.Â
Ball State in the NCAA: Ball State is among the winningest men's volleyball teams in the NCAA. Currently, the Cardinals have the fifth highest all-time winning percentage at .701 (1285-545). Loyola is fourth at .701 (577-246), Ohio State third at .703 (1189-502), Penn State second at .755 and UCLA leads the NCAA with the highest winning percentage of .793 (1482-387). Ball State is also ranked fifth for the most amount of wins from a program in the last five years with 88 wins and a .704 percentage. Rounding out the top five are Lincoln Memorial with 89 wins, UCLA with 104, Penn State with 106 and Hawaii leading the past five years with 111 program wins.Â
Coach Cruz: Ball State head coach Donan Cruz enters his fourth season at the helm of the Cardinals and owns an overall record at BSU of 69-26 (.726) along with a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament Championship, three MIVA regular season titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance.
Preseason All-MIVA:Â Â The 2025 roster welcomes back many well-known faces and also offers several exciting new additions. Two impactful returners include senior outside hitter Tinaishe Ndavazocheva and junior outside hitter Patrick Rogers. Ndavazocheva and Rogers were named to the Preseason All-MIVA team, along with Cardinal newcomer Rajé Alleyne. Alleyne, the opposite senior transfer from Quincy, brings a wealth of experience at the net. Last season, Alleyene led the MIVA in kills per set (4.41) and in points scored (421.5), averaging 5.08 points per set. He also earned First Team All-MIVA honors and AVCA All-American Honorable Mention. Â
Looking Ahead: Following the pair of Tusculum matches, the Cardinals will prepare to enter MIVA play as they host their first conference game at home against Purdue Fort Wayne on Thursday, Feb. 6. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET in Worthen Arena. Â
