The men’s volleyball team is not packing.
The Bruins are still focused on improving as the postseason looms, even after dropping four of their last six matches and falling from third to fifth in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation standings.
The No. 7 Bruins (10-7, 7-6) will use that focus when they arrive in Muncie, Ind., to face No. 14 Ball State (10-6, 5-1).
“We have to start getting better,” coach Al Scates said. “In about six weeks, we are going to be playing sudden death, and we need to win six in a row and go all the way, so we’re playing this to win.”
Despite losing to conference rival Cal State Northridge last week, Scates explained the men’s volleyball team is not losing focus nearing the close of the regular season and still played well in what was a very close match.
“The teams we are playing are very good,” Scates said.
The Ball State team is no different. When the Bruins faced the Cardinals early this season in Hawaii, the Cardinals were without two of their top players: redshirt senior Patrick Durbin and junior Todd Chamberlain.
“Those two starters are the two best players on their team, and they’re playing now, so this team will be tough,” Scates said.
Durbin leads the Cardinals with 4.25 kills per game, a higher average than any of the Bruin players’. Chamberlain is also a respectable force at the net, averaging 2.73 kills per game.
In addition, the Cardinals will return to their home court tonight after winning three of the four matches on their road trip, which included a win over the No. 8 Ohio State Buckeyes.
And the Cardinals’ home floor, Worthen Arena, is hardly hospitable. Tonight, the Cardinals are expecting 3,000 fans in attendance. But the Bruins don’t anticipate any distraction.
“A lot of these guys have played in hostile crowds before,” senior libero Tony Ker said. “We just use (the hostile crowds) to fuel our own game and fire ourselves up.”
“It’s an exciting thing, and in my experience it’s been more of an adrenaline rush,” junior quick hitter Jamie Diefenbach said.
The Bruins are expecting the usually strong play at the net by sophomore outside hitter Garrett Muagututia, who just had a career game against Northridge last week. Aside from that and the consistent play of Diefenbach, who is currently third in the MPSF with a 0.442 clip, the Bruins will bring something to tonight’s game they haven’t brought in a while.
Suffering two straight defeats, the Bruins enter tonight’s match tired of losing and hungry for a win.
“I think everyone is getting real frustrated of losing, and anybody would at this point,” Ker said. “I think this is a good beginning to get the team on some sort of streak.”
Two wins this weekend will give the Bruins momentum as they enter a key stretch of their season; eight of their next 11 matches will be against key league opponents.
“We are trying to stay focused now and trying to improve,” Diefenbach said. “Hopefully we can turn (our play) around.”