Quincy pulls off road stunner, upsets No. 14 Ball State

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Quincy delivered one final parting gift to No. 14 Ball State on its way out of the MIVA.

The Hawks snapped a 20-match losing streak to Cardinals as they pulled off the upset 13-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-21, 15-8 on Friday in Muncie, Indiana.

This is the first time since 2015 that Quincy has defeated Ball State and the first time it won a road match in the series since upsetting the Cardinals in the 2011 MIVA Tournament finals. It also is the Hawks’ first victory against a nationally ranked team since 2020.

Pin-hitter AJ Goedheeer led all players with 23 kills on a .313 attack percentage against the Cardinals.

Goedheeer had a team-high four kills in the decisive fifth game to complete the complete. In addition, Goedheer had three kills and a solo block as part of an 8-2 run in the final game.

Quincy had 13.5 blocks – 2.5 more blocks than Ball State – en route to earning its first conference victory in since early February

Aleksandar Sosa had two blocks in the fifth game and finished with five blocks. Both middle attacker Tomas Badan and setter Armaan Dosanjh finished with a match-high six blocks, while Reija Milosavljevic added five blocks.

Despite the loss, Ball State out-hit Quincy .286 to .258. The Cardinals, though, were limited to a match-low zero attack percentage in the final game, while the Hawks hit .471.

Outside attacker Tinaishe Ndavazocheva led Ball State with 17 kills on a .382 attack percentage. Ndavazocheva was the only Cardinal to have double-digit kills and hit more than .200.

Ball State with this loss drops into a tie for third place in the MIVA.

Quincy moves into a three-way tie with Queens and Purdue Fort Wayne for seventh place in the MPSF. The top eight teams in the MIVA qualify for the conference tournament in April.

This is Quincy’s final season in the MIVA before it joins the newly formed GLVC men’s volleyball conference next season.