“We were not good,” Kelli Miller Phillips said.
Ball State Women’s Volleyball’s head coach did not mince her words when reflecting on the Cardinal’s performance against Bowling Green (7-6, 2-0 MAC) this afternoon — a performance that included 26 attacking errors from the Cardinals and a .021 hitting percentage (both season lows).
“It’s super disappointing because I thought we had a good game plan,” Phillips said. “I thought we would bounce back from last night, so [there is] just a lot to learn.”
After coming out on the wrong end of a five-set thriller against the Falcons to open up Mid-American Conference (MAC) play Friday night, the fans in Worthen Arena could have expected a much closer rematch. However, slow starts in each set proved insurmountable, with Bowling Green heading back to Ohio with the sweep victory (25-12, 25-23, 25-13).
“I think we just lacked confidence, especially after last night losing a big game at home,” freshman Sophie Ledbetter said. “We talked about, before the game, having a point to prove and we just didn’t execute that.”
Ledbetter, a defensive specialist, recorded a tied-team-high seven digs with senior setter Megan Wielonski, while Ball State gave up six reception errors total to Bowling Green’s high-caliber serving unit.
“They served in the seam really well and it caused us to not communicate,” Ledbetter said.
Averaging a .245 attack percentage last season and currently averaging a .252 percentage so far this season, the woeful percentage in today’s match was the standout stat. In two of its three sets, Ball State was hitting in the negatives (-.179 in set one and -.097 in set two).
“One [solution] is serve receive,” Phillips said. “We’ve got to handle the ball better. Two, we got to make better decisions setting and put people in better positions. And three, out hitters have to make better decisions — understand when there’s a kill opportunity, understand when it’s a recycle opportunity.
Junior opposite hitter Madison Buckley recorded a team-high 11 kills (.304 hitting percentage), but was the only Cardinal with more than five attempts to hit above .100. Redshirt sophomore Aniya Kennedy did not register a kill, hitting a team-low -.429 percentage.
“I thought we were very impatient attacking-wise and just kind of playing mindless,” Phillips said. “That’s what I talked to the group about, we have to play mature, we have to make sure we’re making good decisions. [There is] a lot we can learn from this weekend.”
Phillips always preaches how important it is to be playing the best volleyball of the season in November when the postseason rolls around, but said this weekend “felt like a step back” compared to the progress Ball State has made this season.
“If anything, it’s early,” she said. “It’s a learning opportunity. I told them there’s still a lot of season left to be played, so that’s the good news. We can use these learning opportunities and grow from that.”
While the coaching staff will go back to the drawing board, review film and find ways for Ball State to use this loss for the best, Phillips challenged her players to be motivated by it going forward.
“I’m anxious to see how our leadership responds [and] I’m anxious to see how the team responds in practice,” she said. “It can’t be all coach-led. It’s got to be players that are driven and that’s something we’ve been working through and talking about quite often.”
That response is still to be determined, Phillips emphasized. The Cardinals, now 0-2 in conference play and 7-6 overall, will get the opportunity to respond on the road against Central Michigan (11-3, 2-0 MAC) next weekend with their first matchup Oct. 4 at 6 p.m. before a mid-afternoon matchup Oct. 5 at 4 p.m.
“There’s a lot of things we can learn from tonight,” Wielonski said. “We’re going to take that going forward and hopefully that really fuels the fire under our team and motivates us.”
Contact Daniel Kehn via email at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on X @daniel_kehn.
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