MVB Continues Conference Play at Queens

No. 13 Ball State Men's Volleyball (14-8; 6-3 MIVA) vs Queens (10-11, 2-6 MIVA)
Match 23 vs. Queens	Thursday, Mar. 20 at 7 p.m. ET & Saturday, Mar. 22 at 2 p.m. ET Live Stats \| ESPN+ (Thursday) \| Watch (Saturday)
Game Notes	Ball State \| Queens
Social Media	X \| Instagram \| Facebook

No. 13 Ball State (14-8, 6-3 MIVA) vs Queens (10-11, 2-6 MIVA)
Last Meeting: Ball State 3, Queens 0 (4/13/24)
Series History: Ball State leads the series 5-0

This Week in Ball State Men's Volleyball: The No. 13 Ball State Cardinals will travel to Charlotte, N.C. this week to take on Queens University of Charlotte. The teams will compete in two matches in Levine Center, first on Thursday (Mar. 20) at 6 p.m. ET and the final match on Saturday (Mar. 22) at 2 p.m. ET.

Last Serve:
• Last week, Ball State traveled to Honolulu, Hawaii for the University of Hawaii's Outrigger Invitational. The Cardinals opened the invite facing the host, No. 3 Rainbow Warriors (19-2, 2-0 BW). Despite going into extra points in the third set, Ball State lost the match in a 3-0 sweep ( 19-25, 13-25, 27-29). Patrick Rogers led Ball State's offense with 11 kills at a .292 clip while Vanis Buckholz and Wil Basilio led the defense, each recording three blocks.

• In match two, the Cardinals took on No. 5 USC (16-2, 4-0 MPSF), falling to the Trojans 0-3 (22-25, 17-25, 19-25). Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led Ball State's offensive efforts, recording eight kills and hitting at a .583 clip.

• In the Cardinals' final match of the week, the team went head to head with No. 19 Penn State (5-13, 2-2 EIVA). Ball State defeated the Nittany Lions in a 3-2 (25-20, 20-25, 25-12, 20-25, 15-10) thriller to secure third in the invitational. Rajé Alleyne was a major difference maker both, offensively and defensively. At a .371 clip, Alleyne added 17 kills and three aces for the Ball State offensive efforts. He also recorded four blocks and four digs to help shut down the Nittany Lions.

Hawaiian Homecoming:
• Last week's trip to Hawaii was a special homecoming for Cardinals' head coach Donan Cruz and senior libero Xander Pink. Cruz, from Maui, and Pink, from O'ahu, were welcomed by friends and family during their return to the islands.

First Serve vs Queens:
• Since the first meeting between these two teams on Jan. 11 2020, the Cardinals have gone 5-0 against Queens and have yet to drop a set to the Royals.

• This will also be the first time Ball State travels to Charlotte to play in the Royals' home arena at Levine Center.

• The last matchup between the Cardinals and the Royals was last season in the MIVA tournament quarterfinals. At home in Worthen Arena, top-seeded Ball State swept the eighth-seeded visitors 3-0 (25-22, 25-18, 25-18) to move on to semifinals. Among Ball State's leaders of the match were Tinaishe Ndavazocheva who added 10 kills, three aces and four blocks, and Will Patterson who had five kills and a block.

Scouting Queens:
• The Royals are coming off two 0-3 losses on the road at Ohio State.

• Queens' two MIVA wins come against Quincy (7-11, 1-7 MIVA) and Purdue Fort Wayne (8-10, 1-8 MIVA). The Royals defeated the Hawks 3-0 (25-17, 25-10, 25-23) after dropping the first match against the Illinois team 1-3 (16-25, 25-20, 20-25, 19-25). Queens also split the series with Purdue Fort Wayne, winning match one 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 27-25) and dropping match two 1-3 (25-21, 24-26, 23-25, 21-25).

• Queens' defense is ranked fourth in the conference for both blocks and digs. The team averages 2.29 blocks per set and 8.79 digs per set.

• Individually, junior middle hitter, Nathan Vaupel, is ranked third in the MIVA for blocks. Vaupel averages 1.08 blocks per set, ranking him 13th in the NCAA as well.

Ball State in the NCAA:
• Ball State is among the winningest men's volleyball teams in the NCAA. Going into the 2025 season, the Cardinals claimed the fifth highest all-time winning percentage at .701 (1283-546). Loyola was fourth at .701 (577-246), Ohio State third at .703 (1189-502), Penn State second at .755 and UCLA led the NCAA with the highest winning percentage of .793 (1482-387). Ball State was 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 were Lincoln Memorial with 89 wins, UCLA with 104, Penn State with 106 and Hawaii leading the past five years with 111 program wins.

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 77-29 (.726) along with a Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) Tournament Championship, three MIVA regular season titles and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Looking Ahead:
• The Cardinals will return home next week for the final two home matches of the regular season. Ball State will host Quincy on Friday, Mar. 28 for a 7 p.m. first serve. The home schedule will finish with McKendree on Mar. 29 at 5 p.m. for senior and alumni recognition night.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Wil Basilio

Vanis Buckholz

Tinaishe Ndavazocheva

Will Patterson

Xander Pink

Patrick Rogers