[nitneylion452]

I'm confused as to why you put your guard down just as the ball was near the shooter.

In this case, the safety glasses might have made the impact worse! Instead of a spongy ball hitting you in the face, you had a spongy ball hit polycarbonate and plastic, which then proceeded to hit you in the face.

Either way, I got a good laugh and a look from the ~20 people around me in my university's computer lab.