MUNCIE, Ind. --- The Tusculum men's volleyball team fell to the No. 8 ranked Ball State Cardinals on Friday (Jan. 31) night to close out January.

The Pioneers (3-7) dropped their finale to the Cardinals (7-3) by scores of 25-14, 25-20, 25-18.

Ryan Louis led Ball State with 11 kills on a .667 hitting percentage. Lucas Machado (17) and Griffin Satterfield (12) combined for 29 assists, while six Cardinals landed a service ace: Satterfield, Raje Alleyne, Machado, Louis, Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, and Patrick Rogers. Defensively, Rogers finished with a team-high four digs, as Vanis Buckholz was credited with five block assists.

Deklan Wingo recorded a team-best 11 kills, followed by Joel Dubinsky (6), Aiden Roper (4), Donovan Nye (3), and Morgan Makovec (1). Kevin Blankenship dished out 22 assists, while Wingo also scooped up six digs. At the net, Makovec was credited with two total blocks.

Ball State hit .375 as a team with 38 kills and 11 errors on 72 total attempts. Tusculum hit .060 with 25 kills, 21 errors, and 67 total attacks. The Cardinals led the match in assists (32-25), service aces (6-0), and total blocks (8.5-3), while the Pioneers tallied more digs (21-18).

Tusculum wraps up its road trip with a match at Lees-McRae on Tuesday (Feb. 4). First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.