by Though Mike Iandolo was named the interim Ball State men’s volleyball head coach in June of 2025, he was officially given the title of head coach Dec. 16, 2025.
Three games into his tenure, the Cardinals are undefeated.
“I would be wrong if I didn’t say it was what we expected to be after this point of the year,” Iandolo said. “But it’s always good to see the work that we’ve been doing get some results.”
The Cardinals are coming off a 17-13 record in 2025, which included a 9-7 Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association mark. In the team’s first three games of 2026, Ball State topped the likes of Trine, Missouri S&T and New Jersey Institute of Technology. In those wins, the Cardinals only dropped one set.
With the team featuring many new faces — seven new players, including four freshmen — Iandolo said the start of the season was a good opportunity to see what the Cardinals were made of. Although the program graduated key pieces like Tinaishe Ndavazocheva, zero players entered the transfer portal following his promotion. Iandolo believes this shows the current state of Ball State men’s volleyball.
“Once we got back [to practice], we got everybody in the gym and started having our meetings and talking about what we were looking for this year,” Iandolo said. “The guys bought into that really quickly, and part of that is from our seniors and the guys who have now become our captains. There’s a lot of good leadership there, and they’re pushing the guys the right way.”
Leading the Cardinals on the court have been sophomore opposite Ryan Louis (48 kills), senior outside Patrick Rogers (37) and sophomore outside Wil Basillo (28).
“They’re very stable. There’s not a lot of ups and downs with those guys, even in practice,” Iandolo said. “They’re pretty consistent on a daily basis of the level they bring and the focus they put into how much they care about what we’re doing.”
Rogers has been a key piece for the Cardinals the last two seasons since transferring from St. Francis Brooklyn.
He has recorded 517 kills in his tenure with Ball State, and Iandolo said the help he has received from other Cardinals allows him to showcase other skills besides scoring.
“He felt last year he needed to be a little more perfect, where this year he’s got some guys that really balance him out in terms of helping with the passing line,” Iandolo said. “Then we’ve got guys that can score consistently around him, which has kind of taken some pressure off of him … It brings balance to our team and allows us to play a better brand of volleyball.”
Louis had 121 kills in 2025, and Iandolo said he expected him to continue right where he left off. Another player who has impressed him is junior middle blocker Jacob Surette. In Ball State’s first three wins, the transfer from Orange Coast College has seven kills, opening other opportunities for his fellow Cardinals.
However, Iandolo has not limited his coaching to on-court activities. He said it is important for the Cardinals — old and new — to understand the history that volleyball has in Delaware County.
“You just got to see it and experience it,” he said.
In the fall of 2025, the 1995 Ball State men’s volleyball team was inducted into the Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame.
Iandolo had the current roster meet the squad, and he said it was important for the team to see what success looks like. He also alluded that the former Cardinals are still close to one another 30 years later, something he hopes his players can mirror in their own lives.
“They’re all still friends. Some of them hadn’t been back here in 30 years, but they still talk to each other,” Iandolo said. “They still care about Ball State, and that’s what we want. We want to be a part of something like that.”
Now, Ball State heads on the road to Phoenix, Arizona, for the First Point Collegiate Challenge Tournament. The Cardinals’ first two matches are against No. 1 UCLA (Jan. 17) and No. 9 Stanford (Jan. 18).
Iandolo said playing top 10 teams like the Bruins and the Cardinals gives Ball State the opportunity to see where the team is and what the future could hold.
“Can we maintain that level of play and what we’re doing on the road?” Iandolo said. “I still think we measure up [to ranked teams] really well, even right now.”
Contact Zach Carter via email at zachary.carter@bsu.edu, zachcarter039@gmail.com or via X @ZachCarter85.
