Outside attacker Patrick Rogers lived up to the billing of being the Preseason MIVA Player of the Year.
Rogers finished with a match-high 17 kills on a .577 attack percentage as No. 16 Ball State defeated No. 11 Stanford 25-17, 25-18, 23-25, 25-23 on Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona.
The senior opened the non-conference match leading all players with six kills in the first game and had one attack error through the first three games. Rogers also had a team-high five kills in the final game, including the match-winning kill to secure the victory and prevent the game from going into overtime.
Rogers was one of three Cardinals with double-digit kills to help the team earn its third win in program history against Stanford.
Opposite Ryan Louis had 12 kills highlighted with five kills in the first game.. Outside attacker Wil Basilio contributed 10 kills, while middle attacker Bray Savitski-Lynde had eight kills on a .538 attack percentage.
Along with the offensive performance, Rogers and Louis both had a team-high three aces. Ball State ended with eight aces – six more aces than Stanford.
Setter Lucas Machado in the victory guided offense to more than a .400 attack percentage each of the first two games and for the match the team out-hit Stanford .382 to .315.
Middle attacker Jacob Surette led all players with six blocks.
Ball State had 5.5 of its 8 blocks in the match occur in the second game as it limited Stanford to a match-worst .160 attack percentage in the win to take a two-game lead.
Stanford opposite Moses Wagner in the loss finished with a team-high 16 kills. In addition, Theo Snoey had 14 kills and hit .367 against Ball State.
The Cardinal with this loss has now lost its first three matches to open the season. All the losses, though, have come against nationally ranked teams.