Enough West coast bias, how ’bout a little MIVA volleyball. This is the first match of the season on which I’ve written an in-depth write-up where neither team was MPSF. Hopefully there will be more to come.
Grand Canyon entered this match without their main scorer, Belgian import Ben Ponnet, who injured his ankle in the 4th set of last night’s 5-set Ball State win between these same two teams. Taking his place on the outside was junior Ben Hunt, who had played in all 10 GCU matches this season but had only started one of them. The tallest tree in the Antelopes’ starting lineup is 6’6″ middle blocker Ryan Mather, though they do have some underclassmen even taller (GCU seem to me to have a rather large roster altogether). Grand Canyon have the same sort of quirky schedule that Hawaii do, playing conference opponents two at a time and have to reimburse opponents if they host a conference tournament match. Do what you gotta do, I guess.
The Ball State Cardinals entered this season with a bit of an identity crisis, as their leading scorer from last year, senior outside Larry Wrather is lost for the season with a shoulder injury. So the mantle of ‘backbone of the offense’ passes to fellow senior Greg Herceg, who came into the match averaging a very fine 4.3 kills per set. Underclassmen Shane Witmer and Jack Lesure are also pressed into front-line roles, while Matt Leske and Kevin Owens are their big forces up the middle.
Grand Canyon edged ahead early in the first set at 4-2 on the strength of a service ace from Robbie Brannick, and then up three at 7-4 by winning a joust against Owens at the net. Owens was upset about something, but it wasn’t clear what it was. Grand Canyon were certainly strong coming out of the gates, getting a high sideout percentage, keeping the Cardinals from cutting into the lead. The rally ending 12-10 was impressively long, the longest of the first set, ending with a kill for Lesure. The Cardinals closed back to within a point at 12-11 on another long rally, this time a hitting error off the hand of Brannick. The Antelopes kept the Cardinals from coming even by siding out with a kill for Hunt, and went back up three at 14-11 with a service ace for Mather. The lead extended to four at 16-12 on a bad set from Dan Wichmann, prompting Ball State’s timeout.
Urim Demirovski came in as a serving sub for Ball State on 17-14. It was another long rally, and it brought the Cardinals back within two with a left-side double block from Owens and Leske. Graham McIlvaine came in as a blocking sub for Wichmann at around this point, but he had to rotate out again afterward without so much as touching the ball. Serving sub is hard, that’s gotta be even harder. At least as a serving sub you know you’re gonna do something. On the rally ending 22-18, Lesure tried to play the ball off Grand Canyon’s right-side block for a kill, but he was instead called for a lift. On the next point, Ball State looked to want interference called against their setter, but they got no call, and the point went against them as their attack attempt was wide. They took their final timeout trailing 23-18, their largest deficit of the first set. The Cardinals sided out coming out of the timeout with Lesure on the left side — even though they earlier played a ball that was bound to go long for an Antelope hitting error. But Grand Canyon still finished the set off 25-20.
Ball State took the early lead in set 2 at 4-2 with a kill from Herceg on what should have been a free-ball. It was a classic example of ‘campfire defense’ as the Antelopes surrounded the ball, but no one really tried to play it. Those happen sometimes….but they really shouldn’t. The Antelopes made it up with a service ace from Gerrard Lipscombe (who Grand Canyon curiously list at L/OH), and later a Cardinal right-side hit into the antenna put them ahead for the first time in the set. Ball State then took a few on serve to go back on top at 8-6, and Leske came up with a powerful ROOF! on the rally ending 11-8. The rally ending 12-10 was a picture-perfect example of ideal offense, with a perfect back-row pass to the setter enabling Wickman to set Leske, who went SMASH. You need a good pass to be able to do that, and this one was perfect. However, Grand Canyon drew even again at 12 with a service ace from Brannick, as the seesaw set continued. Ball State were the first to 15, at 15-13, but just as quickly Grand Canyon drew even yet again, and then up again at 17-15 at Ball State’s timeout.
Grand Canyon came out of the timeout great, with some scrambling defense to keep a ball alive, ending with a kill for Mather off the block and out. Matt Sutherland at last sided the Cardinals out at 18-16 from the left side. Demirovski came in again as a serving sub, and send a jump-float basically right at the up official. Not where you want it to go. The Cardinals managed to side out again, but then McIlvaine committed their second straight service error, which just kill you when you’re trailing this late in a set.
After a few more sideouts, Grand Canyon got a sneaky service ace from Hunt to make it 22-19 at Ball State’s final timeout, perhaps showing serving to be the big difference late on in the set. Shane Witmer got Ball State the crucial sideout after the timeout, and then Leske brought the Cardinals back within a point with a right-side block. The Antelopes got it to set point after a beauty of a serve from Hunt got the Cardinals out of system and led to a free ball. They set their middle Mather, who obliterated Leske on a 1-on-1 matchup at the net. Ball State got the sideout at 24-22, and then after an aggressive serve and some aggressive defense they staved off the first on serve to close to 24-23 at Grand Canyon’s first timeout of the set (and, indeed, match). On 24-23, Mather again got a good set up the middle, but he hit the ball wide. He thought he had won set point, but it was called wide and not off the touch, leading us to extra points. Despite a 1-on-1 on the next point, Witmer’s hit went long, to give Grand Canyon another set point at 25-24. Brannick’s serve was quite a good one, leading to a bad Cardinal pass, and Antelope setter Keith Smith (who had a very good match all around) sent the teams to the locker rooms with Ball State staring square in the face their first loss of the season.
Ball State stayed with secondary setter McIlvaine to start the 3rd. On Brannick’s serve, the Antelopes took the early 5-2 advantage in the third. McIlvaine got the home crowd their biggest reaction of the night, probably, with his emphatic jump-dump kill on the rally ending 5-4. McIlvaine later came up with a solo block closing them back to within a point again at 8-7, but his subsequent service error kept the Cardinals from coming even. The rally ending 10-8 was probably the point of the match, with some great execution on both sides and in both phases of the game, ending with a long hit from Herceg. Ball State libero Tommy Rouse, who was playing some great defense on the last rally, abandoned a serve on the next play that landed well in, to put the Antelopes up by three. At this point, Demirovski came into the match as a regular sub, thought I’m not sure who he replaced. On 12-9, Ball State played some gruesome defense, as they somehow managed to wind up with just one blocker at the net. The ball deflected off the blocker and fell in right where someone else probably should have been standing. The Cardinals took their first timeout trailing 13-9.
Grand Canyon took the first point after the timeout, a stuff block of Herceg. The up referee appeared that he first wanted to overrule the flagger and call the ball out, but the point went to the Antelopes, much to the Cardinals’ obvious chagrin. The Antelopes’ run continued, as Ball State began to take a few chances (can’t blame ’em, not much to lose). Witmer’s aggressive cross-court hit went wide to put Grand Canyon up 16-9. Herceg sided the Cardinals out at 16-10, and he then rotated to the service line. He uncorked a nice one, but the Antelopes still got the kill, targeting Demirovski in the back row. Back-to-back kills from Hunt put the Antelopes up a rather shocking 9 points, at 19-10, and it was pretty well over at that point. Leske’s wide hit off the quick set coming out of the timeout doubled the Antelopes up at 20-10. They only got the sideout with a service error from Grand Canyon. Cardinal serving specialist David Ryan Vander Meer had a pretty good run to make the set look more competitive than it was, but Ball State could make no significant inroads into the deficit.
Grand Canyon d. Ball State (25-20, 26-24, 25-17)
Ball State sure didn’t play like an undefeated team tonight. Prior to last week their coach Joel Walton (who has a vote in the AVCA poll) said that even he didn’t vote his team a national ranking because they lacked a win of any kind of significance. This performance tonight ensures that they won’t be ranked tomorrow (though if they’d won I have to imagine they’d have had a chance). Herceg was the only hitter that appeared to have a pulse, leading all scorers with 18 kills. His efficiency wasn’t any great shakes, going .237 at 18/9/38, but at least he had a little fire behind him. The mere fact that they changed setters halfway through the match also says a lot. You usually don’t do that unless things are going really wrong (and indeed, the starter Wichmann didn’t play a point in the 3rd set, though I bet he’s right back in there in Ball State’s next match as the 3rd set was the most lopsided).
Credit to the Antelopes, who are one of those teams that you’re a little surprised when you see their record because you figure they’re better than that. This match snaps a three-match losing streak, improving them to 5-6 on the season and 1-3 in the MIVA. It’s a huge result to get with their star hitter Ponnet out of action, and it’s gotta give them confidence going forward. They were led tonight by Lipscombe with 10 kills, at an acceptable .261 attack percentage (neither side had a statistically strong offensive match, with GCU hitting .198 to Ball State’s .171). Blocking, which was a huge edge for Ball State in their win on Saturday as they came up with 17.5 total blocks, was dead even tonight — 8 aside. You can really see the story of the match when you look at sideout percentages. In set 1, Grand Canyon sided out at 85%, and 75% in set 3. You’ll almost always win when you side out that much. In the second set, the only one in which Ball State ever led, the Antelopes’ sideout percentage fell to 56%, but it was still higher than the Cardinals’ 51%.
Grand Canyon return home for a volleyball festival of sorts next weekend, as they, Carolina Conference’s Barton College, and Division III team Concordia-Irvine play two matches with each opponent, all over the course of two days. That’s six total matches in two days — lots of volleyball! And all look to be freely available online. I may watch, but I doubt I’ll write them up. Ball State next play host to the IPFW ‘Volleydons,’ a match that curiously takes place on Wednesday. If it’s free video again, I’ll write it up, so we’ll see.
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