The Ball State women's volleyball team started off strong and finished even stronger in a five-set victory (25-12, 21-25, 25-22, 20-25, 15-11) over the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The victory was the Cardinals' first match in this weekend's Active Ankle Challenge. After starting the season with nine consecutive losses, the Cardinals have bounced back, extending their win streak to three games.
The Cardinals came out of the gate firing on all cylinders to take a 10-2 lead. The Cardinals out-killed UNCG 17-6 to take the first set. Senior outside hitter Sabrina Mangapora tallied eight kills in the first set alone. Mangapora would finish the match with 19 kills.
The next three sets were back-and-forth throughout as there were a total of 19 tie scores and 10 lead changes in those three sets.
Up 10-9 halfway through the fourth set, the Cardinals looked poised to end the match in four sets but the Spartans had other plans. Junior outside hitter Ashley Muench led the Spartans with 15 kills and helped UNCG bring this match to a fifth set. The Cardinals also struggled with errors in the fourth set as they racked up eight of them, the most in any set.
The Cardinals fell behind 3-2 early in the fifth set but never trailed again as the Cardinals out-killed the Spartans 9-7 in the fifth set. UNCG made a run to make it 10-8 late in the set which forced Ball State head coach Kelli Miller to call a timeout. The timeout proved to be beneficial for the Cardinals as the Spartans would only score two more points in the match.
Sophomore outside hitter Brooklyn Goodsel had 17 kills and freshman Kate Avila led the way for Ball State with 20 digs.
Ball State plays Valparaiso (6-5) at 8 p.m. Sept. 16 and will finish up the Active Ankle Challenge Saturday Sept. 17 against Ohio State (7-2) at 6 p.m. The Active Ankle Challenge will conclude the Cardinals' non-conference schedule for the 2016 season.
