Women's Volleyball Falls to Xavier in Season Opener

Ball State vs. Xavier Box Score

Michigan State vs. IPFW Box Score

Muncie, Ind. - - The opening day of the 2006 Ball State Nike/Active Ankle Weekend proved to be unkind to its Indiana participants, as both the Ball State and IPFW women's volleyball teams dropped their season-opening matches to out-of-state opponents. The Cardinals suffered a 0-3 (23-30, 29-31, 21-30) loss at the hands of Xavier, while the Mastodons fell to Michigan State 1-3 (30-28, 23-30, 20-30, 13-30).

In Ball State's season-opening setback, junior Brittany May (Gaston, Ind./Wes-Del H.S.) paced the BSU offense with 10 kills, marking the first time in her career the 6-0 outside/middle attacker has paced the Cardinals that category. May also logged a team-best three block assists, while adding two digs and a service ace.

BSU senior outside attacker Kelly Cochran (LaPorte, Ind./Michigan City Marquette H.S.) was also able to reach a milestone despite the loss, recording six digs on the night to bring her career total to 1,004. Cochran is just the 10th player in program history to break the 1,000 career digs plateau. In addition, she logged six kills to move her career total to 941 in that category.

Overall, the Cardinals were unable to stop the Xavier offense, which posted a .393 (59-13-117) attack percentage, which more than doubled BSU's .182 (36-16-110) rate of success.

The Musketeers also held a 51 to 40 advantage in digs, despite a match-high 18 from BSU senior Amanda McCormick (Muncie, Ind./Central H.S.), who moved within 37 digs of 1,500 for her career at 1,463.

The opening set, the Cardinals and Musketeers played to a 10-10 tie before a four-point XU run gave the visitors from Ohio the edge for good at 14-10. Sophomore transfer Christine Kennedy (San Marcos, Calif./University of San Diego H.S.) would record her first kill as a member of the Cardinals and the first of a career-high eight to spark a 5-2 run that would get BSU within two at 19-17. However, Xavier managed to pull ahead 24-19 and win the game 30-23. Kennedy would also finish the contest with career-highs of seven digs and three service aces.

The second stanza was the hardest fought of the night, with 12 ties and seven lead changes. Redshirt freshman Elaina Kakatolis (Arcanum, Ohio/Franklin Monroe H.S.) would give Ball State an 18-16 advantage mid-way through the frame with her first career kill. Kakatolis would also help the Cardinals tie the game at 25-25 with back-to-back kills, after BSU trailed by three at 25-22. The teams would remain even at 29-29 before a BSU attack error and a service ace from Xavier's' Lauren Kaminsky gave the Musketeers a 31-29 game-two win.

Two more BSU newcomers would get there first career kills in the third frame, as true freshman Julie Breivogel (Boonville, Ind./Boonville H.S.) and redshirt freshman Rachel Alcorn (New Castle, Ind./Chrysler H.S.) each found the Worthen Arena hardwood floor. However, the Cardinals would fall behind by four-points early (10-6) and never recover, dropping the third frame 30-21.

Overall, six of the 11 Ball State players who saw time on the court were making their first appearances in a match for the Cardinals.

Also playing in their first matches for Ball State were redshirt freshman Madison Monk (Granger, Ind./Penn H.S.) and true freshman Ana Gabriela Pedrosa (Belo Horizonte, Brazil/Colegio Arnaldo). Both players would log their first career digs in the loss.

Redshirt junior setter Angie Parrell (Black Earth, Wis./Wisconsin Heights) and senior Kirby Gibson (Lafayette, Ind./Jefferson H.S.) round out BSU's contributors in the contest. Parrell finished the night with 26 assists, three kills, a dig, an ace and a block assist; while Gibson logged three digs, a pair of kills and a block assists.

Three Musketeer players recorded double-figure kills in the match, paced by Astyn Bjorklund's 19. Kaminsky added 12 kills and a team-best 14 digs for her first double-double of the season, while Jenni Horvath added 11 kills. Jenn Welsh would quarterback the XU offense with 50 assists.

Day two of the 2006 Ball State Nike/Active Ankle weekend gets underway Saturday morning, when the Cardinals host IPFW in a 10 a.m. At 12:30 p.m., Michigan State and Xavier will square off.

The tournament ends Saturday evening, when IPFW and Xavier do battle at 5:30 p.m. and Ball State hosts Michigan State in an 8 p.m. showdown.

Ball State University Athletics

Women's Volleyball Falls to Xavier in Season Opener

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Players Mentioned

Rachel Alcorn

Julie Breivogel

Kelly Cochran

Kirby Gibson

Elaina Kakatolis

Brittany May

Amanda McCormick

Madison Monk

Angie Parrell

Ana Gabriela Pedrosa

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