Following their Thursday sweep of No. 10 Loyola Chicago, No. 11 Ball State Men’s Volleyball remained in contention for its second-straight regular season Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) championship. With that, comes the No. 1 seed in the upcoming MIVA Tournament.
The Cardinals (18-8, 11-3 MIVA) achieved the above Saturday with their sweep (25-17, 25-17, 25-22) of their MIVA rival Purdue Fort Wayne (16-12, 7-7 MIVA) in what was Senior Night for the program. Fifth-year outside attacker Kaleb Jenness wound up leading Ball State on offense with a game-high 15 kills.
Ball State outplayed the Mastodons throughout the contest and had the advantage in every category on the stat sheet. Purdue Fort Wayne was held to a total .244 hitting percentage (.161 and .172 in sets one and two), meanwhile the Cardinals maintained at least a .345 in the match and finished with a .381 hitting percentage.
Another way Ball State outperformed the Mastodons was on the service line. Compared to the Cardinals’ five aces, Purdue Fort Wayne only had one ace. Three of Ball State’s aces came from fourth-year outside hitter Bryce Behrendt.
On defense, the Cardinals had three of the seniors honored (Jenness, fifth-year middle blocker Felix Egharevba and fourth-year middle blocker Wil McPhillips) combine for 12 blocks. Fourth-year setter David Flores tallied 33 assists and eight assists, while another fourth-year, libero Sammy Adkisson, had seven digs and two assists.
As the No. 1 seed for the MIVA Tournament, Ball State hosts their first round matchup Saturday, April 15 against the No. 8 seed Quincy. A time has yet to be announced.
Contact the Sports Section with comments at sports@bsudailynews.com or on Twitter @dn_sports.
The Daily News welcomes thoughtful discussion on all of our stories, but please keep comments civil and on-topic. Read our full guidelines here.