Nothing came easy for No. 7/7 Ball State when it was one point away from extending its first-place lead in the MIVA.
Ball State thwarted a No. 11 Lindenwood comeback of fighting off six straight match-points and won in overtime to complete the sweep 25-20, 25-18, 26-24 on Thursday in St. Charles, Missouri.
The Cardinals led the final game 24-18 before the Lions’ run that featured three consecutive aces from setter Zach Solomon. In addition, two of Solomon’s aces were initially ruled out to end the match but the calls were overturned on successful Lindenwood challenges.
Ball State, though, recovered at the start of the overtime with a kill from middle attacker Braydon Savitski-Lynde and then a match-winning triple block against second-place Lindenwood.
Setter Lucas Machado along with contributing on the match-ending block guided the offense to out-hit Lindenwood .406 to .167.
Ball State had all but one of its starters finish with more than .400 attack percentage and for the match the team had eight attack errors – 12 fewer errors than Lindenwood.
Opposite Ryan Louis led the Cardinals with nine kills on a .438 attack percentage, while outside attacker Patrick Rogers added eight kills. Savitski-Lynde also had kills and no errors on a .750 attack percentage with half of those kills coming in the final game.
Middle attacker Will Patterson defensively had three blocks in the third game and ended with a match-high six blocks.
Solomon in the loss led all players with five aces. The setter entered this match leading the nation with a 0.67 aces per game average and now has at least three aces in four MIVA matches.
Lindenwood opposite Luke Kraft added a match-high 12 kills, including seven kills in the opening game. Kraft, though, was the only Lindenwood player to have both more than five kills and hit more than .200.
Ball State with this victory expanded its lead in the MIVA a full match. The Cardinals have four remaining conference matches and have a chance to win their fourth MIVA regular season championship in the last five years.
Lindenwood drops into third place in the MIVA and a half-match behind No. 10 Loyola. Loyola defeated No. 16 Lewis in four games on Thursday to jump into second place.