A packed early session this Friday night, that’s for sure!
First, Ball State played host to Ohio State in the two schools’ return match after a controversial yellow card helped the Buckeyes win the first, at Ohio State. Tonight, a few fans — not people in any way associated with the team, just fans — tried to rally the Ball State troops and set their arena’s home attendance record. They ended up well short of the record, but still managed to mass a crowd far larger than any of Ball State’s other matches this season. Ball State radio man CJ Allard told me on twitter he was over the moon with the electric atmosphere in the arena, even with “only” 2500-some people present (the record is more than a thousand more than that).
And what action it was. From first serve, Ball State never really looked threatened. They scored the first five points of set 1, and led 11-3 with all of Ohio State’s timeouts taken. They never looked back, claiming a (25-15, 25-21, 25-21) three-set sweep. Talk about a resilient team, they’d looked like johnny-come-latelies after winning 8 straight against pretty poor competition to open the season and following it up with five straight losses, including defeats at the hands of IPFW and Grand Canyon, hardly formidable foes. This win now gives the Cardinals back-to-back home wins over ranked teams, having also defeated Penn State, in four sets, back on March 10. It also puts them fourth in the MIVA, giving them the inside track for a home match in the MIVA tournament. No, we’re still not going to be talking about them for a national championship or anything, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a great result for them.
And for a few minutes it looked like great news for Lewis, too. With Lewis’ sweep win over Ohio State and loss to Loyola, they controlled their own destiny for the #1 seed in the MIVA tournament. Going a further match up on the Buckeyes would all but assure them the #1 seed, since their head-to-head sweep would mean that even a loss in the second head-to-head match would still give them the tiebreaker. And their task tonight? MIVA debutants Lindenwood. No problem, right?
Wrong. Problem.
In what has to be considered the biggest win in program history, Lindenwood held home court against the Flyers with a (25-23, 26-24, 26-24) three-set sweep of their own. While it did come on Lindenwood’s home court, it has to give an air of unpredictability to the MIVA tournament in a few weeks’ time, given Lewis’ last loss. After having previously won 13 straight, the Flyers are now 2-2 in their last 4 matches.
And the Loyola Ramblers, entering a match with the status of prohibitive favorites for perhaps the first time this season, held serve themselves against the winless Quincy Hawks, taking another three-set sweep. Of note in this match were Joseph Smalzer‘s 7 service aces, making him the school’s all-time leader in that category. It was also Loyola head coach Shane Davis‘ 200th career win.
Fuller match reports will follow for MPSF teams tonight, but it was a big night in the MIVA, no question about it!
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