Ahead of the beginning of the 2024 season, women’s volleyball head coach Kelli Miller Phillips emphasized the importance of the Cardinals seeking the toughest competition during pre-conference play.
This past weekend, Ball State played three teams who made appearances in the 2023 tournament, the perfect competition for pre-Mid-American Conference (MAC) play.
“We’ve got to be prepared, we’ve got to see where we’re at, we’ve got to be challenged,” Phillips said. “Especially with such a young group. That’s a critical part and component to figuring out where we still need to improve.”
The Cardinals took an opening-day win against James Madison but ended the weekend with back-to-back sweeps to No. 7 Penn State and No. 9 Kentucky.
Game One
Last season, James Madison was 25th in the nation in Rating Percentage Index (RPI), a system that ranks teams based on the toughness of their competition, and earned its second consecutive NCAA birth.
After taking set one in extra points, Ball State lost the second in the same fashion before a two-set run to seal the victory. The first two sets were close, but the Cardinals settled into the match well, winning sets three and four by five and eight points, respectively (27-25, 25-27, 25-20, 25-17).
“It showed our resilience,” Phillips said. “We just kept fighting and not really overly concerning ourselves about what the scoreboard looked like, but just trying to play it one point at a time.”
Freshman outside hitter Carson Tyler was a revelation in the match, hitting a team-high 21 kills on a .347 hitting percentage. Only hitting seven kills in her first three collegiate matches was a career-high for the New York native as well.
“That’s not surprising at all,” Phillips said. “Carson’s a great player. She rose to the challenge and had her opportunity and I thought she really took advantage of it this whole weekend.”
Carson Tyler was not the only Cardinal firing against the Dukes, with four players hitting double-digit kills. Aniya Kennedy (14), Aayinda Smith (13) and Madison Buckley (10) rounded out a strong attack that outhit James Madison 64-50.
Phillips said the Cardinals will need to have 4-5 attackers hitting double digits a night to be successful this season.
“If we’re going to be competing against really good teams, we have to be very balanced offensively (and) not rely heavily on just one or two attackers,” she said.
The success in the attack was made possible by a match-high 57 assists from senior setter Megan Wielonski, while Tyler also showed out on defense.
Tyler also had eight digs and two blocks in the showing and was key for Ball State in the serve-receive department, facing 27 serves — more than anyone else.
“I just went in with the mindset that I’ve been given the opportunity to play six rotations and just to take advantage of it and play like I can,” Tyler said.
Defensively, Ball State held James Madison to a season-low .273 hitting mark with just a .180 rate of success. In total, the Cardinals registered 11 total blocks and 76 digs against the Dukes.
Game Two
Against the No. 7 ranked team in the country, the Cardinals suffered a 3-0 sweep to Penn State. Despite the sweep, the 25-22, 25-21 and 25-21 scoreline detailed a much closer affair.
“I thought we played really hard,” Phillips said. “We battled defensively, that was the thing I was most proud of our group. Defensively, we stayed the course, we were playmaking (and) putting pressure on Penn State consistently.
Overall, I thought it was a good effort. It was still frustrating to come up short, but I thought we learned a lot from that match that we can take with us for the rest of the season.”
Tyler again found success against the Nittany Lions with 12 assists, but it would be the redshirt sophomore Kennedy who led the way with 4 assists. As an attacking unit, Ball State had the best hitting percentage of the season (.271 rate of success) against the undefeated Penn State squad.
The Cardinals also outblocked Penn State 7-6 with sophomore Gwen Crull leading the line with four total blocks. In the backcourt, freshman Sophie Ledbetter built on her standout performances last weekend, recording 13 digs and a perfect reception percentage (12 attempts).
Game Three
Ball State suffered the same fate against No. 9 Kentucky (25-17, 25-21, 25-13) despite leading the Wildcats for the majority of the second set.
“Kentucky is a great team, they’re going to be a top 10 team, and for a reason,” Phillips said.
They’ve got two left-side attackers that are just super physical and they hurt us probably more at the service line.”
Kennedy was at it again, leading the Cardinal attack with nine kills while Tyler stayed solid with seven kills and two solo blocks. Ledbetter recorded a team-high seven digs while Wielonski was just behind with five while dishing out 22 assists.
“I think we showed really, really good moments and we hung with two of the best teams in the nation,” Wielonski said. “It just speaks that we’re continuing to grow. It’s really early in the season and we’re still building on a lot of things. We’re going to build on all these things that we’re seeing in these games. We’re competing with the best of the best right now, the sky’s the limit for the rest of the season.”
Ball State, now 3-3 on the season, will stay in the Hoosier state for its third consecutive weekend of traveling competition, heading down to Bloomington for the IU Invitational.
“It was a good weekend, it was a good opportunity for us, but it definitely gave us a show of things that we need to continue to get better at,” Phillips said.
The Cardinals will play Chicago State in the first matchup of the weekend, with first serve slated for 3 p.m.
Contact Daniel Kehn with comments at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on X @daniel_kehn.
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