(BALL STATE RELEASE)
MUNCIE, Ind. - In their first-ever meeting, the Cardinals (2-1) took down the Railsplitters (1-4) in three sets (25-13, 25-17, 25-19) Thursday night in Worthen Arena.
Ball State controlled the tempo of the contest in all three frames much in part by using what they had been practicing on in preparation for this week's game.
The Cardinals were able to get 90 percent of their serves in play which is something Ball State has been working on all week, head coach Joel Walton said after the match.
Walton also was impressed with the Cardinals' defense tonight in both the blocking and digging categories.
Quinn Isaacson and Felix Egharevba each had two block assists apiece while Bryce Behrendt tallied two solo blocks. Colin Ensalaco finished the match with a team-high 18 digs.
"I think our guys played well," said Walton." We focused a lot on our blocking and I feel we had some good deflections. Another one of our keys going into tonight's match was to get our middles more involved and we were able to do that. Overall, I was pretty pleased with our teams' performance.
Behrendt led the Cardinals offensively with 11 kills off of 22 attacks. Isaacson also dished out 23 assists to help Ball State's offense run smoothly.
Behrendt after the contest commented on how the team played pretty error free and mimicked what Walton said about the team not having a lot of service errors or a lot of hitting miscues. Behrendt thought all that success stemmed from the teams passing and setting.
The Ball State men's volleyball team continues non-conference action against Lincoln Memorial Friday at 5 p.m. ET in Worthen Arena.
For the most up-to-date news on the Ball State men's volleyball team, please follow @BallStateMVB on twitter and instagram.