Kelli Miller Phillips was actually a little surprised when she heard. It isn’t something she really keeps track of.
Her brother was the one who confirmed she had won her 100th Mid-American Conference (MAC) match as head coach of Ball State Women’s Volleyball (15-8, 8-4 MAC).
“That’s pretty cool,” she admitted after the match. “I’ve had a lot of great people surrounding me and a lot of great teams and fun players.”
The match was won with a 3-0 sweep, but started pretty even. The sides were going point-for-point, but the Cardinals got a two-point lead before the media timeout. They would return to the court and explode on an 8-3 run to force an Eastern Michigan timeout.
“I told ‘em [in the timeout] I’m tired of us not starting to play until the media timeout,” she said. “It’s been a little bit of a theme for us. That’s something that we have got to get over the hump on and figure out how we can — from set one — play like it matters.”
Set two saw a similar script to start, but Eastern Michigan managed to get three points to the good on the Cardinals before a four-point run with Lindsey Green at the service line helped put the home side back in the driver’s seat.
“Service pressure can certainly change a match and I thought she really set the tone,” Phillips said. “Really, really tough serves [from Green]. I thought that definitely switched the tone of set two for us and we were able to build off that.”
The third set was a smoother ride compared to the first two as Ball State won by six to seal the match win. While Green had back-to-back aces in the second set run, senior setter Megan Wielonski dished up three in the opening four points of the third frame. The Cardinals would not look back from there and Wielonski would finish the night with six aces and 21 assists.
“We’ve been really focusing on serving a lot, so it’s nice to see it come through,” Wielonski said. “It’s really [about] trusting our training and not feeling like you have to go for the ace every single time [and] just put pressure on the other team. It’s kind of been our mojo.”
The win is especially important because the Eagles’ 7-4 MAC record coming into the match was deadlocked with Ball State’s. A win puts the Cardinals ahead by a game in the standings as they look to secure a higher seed in the MAC Tournament.
“Everything’s critical,” Phillips said. “Every single win is critical. Certainly, ones where you’re in a tie-breaking position with people. At this point in the season, every single win matters and we just got to focus on what’s the next one ahead and doing the same thing tomorrow.”
Redshirt sophomore Aniya Kennedy, freshman Carson Tyler and junior Madison Buckley acted as a three-headed monster in attack, combining for 30.5 points on the night — just under 50 percent of Ball State’s team total.
“We’ve struggled a bit throughout the season [with] ups and downs, but now everything’s starting to click and it’s really showing in practice and even out here in games,” Kennedy said. “Everyone’s found their role and everything’s starting to flow together.
Playing the next couple of teams, they’re going to see that what they saw in the beginning is not what they’re going to see in the end.”
With the tournament creeping its way into everybody’s mind as November sets in, Ball State’s final six matches include four against opponents currently higher than them in the standings (two matches on the road to Toledo, and two matches at home against Western Michigan).
“All we control is what we’re going to do with what’s in front of us,” Phillips said. “There’s so much volleyball left to be played. If you’re looking at it as one huge match, it can go bad quickly so it’s just about playing about one at a time.”
Ball State has a second match against Eastern Michigan tomorrow at 4 p.m. in Worthen Arena.
Contact Daniel Kehn via email at daniel.kehn@bsu.edu or on X @daniel_kehn.
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