Ball State Women’s Volleyball started Mid-American Conference (MAC) season play with a marathon five-set thriller against Bowling Green tonight that saw 36 tie scores and 13 lead changes.
Despite taking the first set by five points and pushing for a five-set after going 2-1, the Cardinals (7-5, 0-1 MAC) fell to the Falcons (25-20, 18-25, 28-30, 25-17, 11-15).
“I thought we had moments, we did some good things, but [we had] way too many moments of just not playing in a mature way,” head coach Kelli Miller Phillips said. “There were too many moments we were trying to do too much [and] overplaying. I think part of that is just reminding ourselves: play confident [and] do basic things.”
Up against Bowling Green’s Lauryn Hovey, an outside hitter and one of the nation's top servers, Ball State had eight reception errors while Hovey combined with defensive specialist Sydnie Hernandez for five service aces while various players added the remaining three.
“They are a good serving team, no doubt about it, but we did not handle their service pressure well,” Phillips said.
Another notable stat in the loss was the Cardinals’ 13 service errors, with freshman defensive specialist Sophie Ledbetter giving up a team-high four. Ledbetter also collected 11 digs, which led all Ball State players.
“I did not think we had played how we had that first four weeks,” Phillips said. “Part of that [was] just a little bit of nerves. First game [in] MAC play, but also we just got to be better, we got to be tougher.”
Ball State only trailed two MAC teams in the league’s annual coaches preseason poll with 98 points, one of those teams Bowling Green had 102 (Western Michigan topped the poll with 121). As a matchup with two of the top teams in the league, Phillips said she knew it was going to be a tougher match, but said the point-for-point play was not an influence on the Cardinals’ fitness levels.
“I think we were very much so anticipating that exact type of match,” Phillips said. “We talked about that all week. We talked about that today. When you’re playing two good offensive teams, two good defensive teams, two good, fundamentally sound teams, you’re going to have battles. That’s part of the deal with the MAC, you’ve got to be ready for these long nights.”
A silver lining on the night was the return of redshirt sophomore Aniya Kennedy, who missed matches against Butler and Wright State last week. The outside hitter marked her return with 17 kills, second on the roster behind freshman Carson Tyler who finished with 20.
“It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but after the first one, I was like ‘Okay, I know how to do this,’” Kennedy said. “I just got to be aggressive, go hard, don’t take any point off and just be myself.”
It was a minor knee injury that forced her out of action, but Kennedy said she is “at 100 percent now.”
“It was nice to get her back in there,” Phillips said. “I thought she started out hot and kind of had some lapses there in the middle of the match, but [it was] certainly nice to have some additional depth back.”
Elsewhere on the stat sheet, senior setter Megan Wielonski topped Ball State with 53 assists and also led with three service aces. Wielonski’s work in the build-up allowed Ball State to record a .260 hitting percentage, besting the Falcon’s .260.
At the tape, Tyler combined with graduate student middle blocker Aayinde Smtih for nine block assists between them.
“I think playing a game like this helps us prepare for the MAC because we will see more competitive teams,” Kennedy said. “Coming out with BG is very tough, obviously, but I think it will prepare us for the rest of the season.”
Ball State will be able to take another crack at the Falcons tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Worthen Arena. Phillips said the Cardinals will find potential keys to success in the film room before the quick turnaround rematch.
“Our staff’s got to do our due diligence [and] get back and watch the film, figure out if there are any adjustments we want to make whether it’s defensive, offensive [or] scheme-wise,” Phillps said. “I know we’ve tried a few different things on the fly here in the match, but once we can get back, you kind of see what worked, what didn’t [and] make a few adjustments.
It still comes down to serve and pass. I think you can maybe get a point here or there based on a scheme, but you can’t give them that many points on serve and pass.”
Contact Daniel Kehn via email at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on Twitter @daniel_kehn.
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