With the Ball State Cardinals ranked #11 in our preseason rankings, coach Joel Walton and his squad from Muncie, Indiana hope to improve on their 19-10 record last year. Their results last seaspn also included a 9-7 mark in MIVA play and a MIVA Tournament loss in the championship match to eventual national champion Ohio State in five sets. With the men’s national champion coming from the MIVA each of the last four seasons (Ohio State and Loyola), it was imperative for coach Walton to schedule tough.
“The highly competitive nature of this year’s schedule will give us a very clear indication of where our team ranks in the country,” said Walton. “We are going to play great teams from all the different conferences and through those competitions our guys will be battle tested and ready for post-season competition at the end of the year.”
The Cardinals start their schedule with six straight home matches, starting Friday, January 5 and Saturday, January 6 against Lees-McRae and Emmanuel, respectively. The following weekend, Ball State hosts two storied programs from the west, with BYU arriving to play on Friday, January 12 and Stanford playing visitor on Saturday, January 13. Rounding out their home-opening stretch are two EIVA teams in Sacred Heart and Harvard, playing in Worthen arena on Friday, January 19 and Saturday, January 20.
A six-match road trip follows the six-match home stretch. The Cardinals travel to Pepperdine, George Mason, Penn State, Saint Francis, Ohio State and McKendree. The latter two matches are the MIVA openers for the squad.
In all, Ball State faces fourteen preseason ranked teams, including two-time defending national champion Ohio State (twice), BYU, Loyola (twice), UC Irvine, Stanford, Penn State, Pepperdine, Lewis (twice), UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara and George Mason. You can click here to see the full men’s volleyball schedule at Ball State’s website.
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