Ball State University Athletics
Women's Volleyball Falls to Tennessee Tech
September 15, 2006 | Women's Volleyball
Bowling Green, Ky. - - Despite holding the advantage in every statistical category, the Ball State women's volleyball team opened the Lady Topper Invitational with a 2-3 (29-31, 30-23, 30-17, 29-31, 8-15) loss to Tennessee Tech Friday afternoon at E.A. Diddle Arena. With the loss, the Cardinals fall to 2-6, while Tennessee Tech improved to 3-7 overall and 2-0 in the tournament after defeating Appalachian State 3-2 earlier in the day.
Four Cardinals posted double-figure kills in the loss, paced by senior
Cochran also tallied 17 digs to collect her second double-double of the season. Added to double-double were her career-high two solo blocks and three assists.
Also posting double-figure kills were freshman Julie Breivogel (Boonville, Ind./Boonville H.S.) with 18, sophomore
Breivogel would add a career-high 16 digs for her third-straight double-double, along with a career-best three aces.
Senior libero Amanda McCormick (Muncie, Ind./Burris H.S.) turned in a solid effort in the backcourt, becoming just the second player in school history to record three-straight matches with 30-plus digs. McCormick finished the contest with a match-high 40, marking the second time this season and the third time in her career that she has tallied 40-plus digs. She would also score six assists and an ace in the loss.
Freshman Ana Gabriela Pedrosa (Belo Horizonte,
After a Pedrosa ace gave the Cardinals a 3-1 advantage in the opening set, the Golden Eagles quickly rallied off the next four points to pull ahead 5-3. Ball State would answer with a five-point rally of its own - - capped by a Kennedy solo block - - to regain the advantage at 8-5. BSU would maintain its lead until a four-point TTU run tied the game at 13-13.
From the 13-13 mark, the teams would battle to a 24-24 tie before Tennessee Tech posted another four-point run to pull ahead 28-24. BSU would answer the rally by tying the game at 29-29. However, back-to-back kills from Laura Tyburski would give the Golden Eagles a 31-29 game-one victory.
In the second game, Ball State would score the first two points before building a 10-point advantage on a Breivogel kill at 16-6. BSU would then see its advantage fall to just two points at 23-21 after a 15-7 TTU run. Kills from Breivogel and Cochran, back-to-back Golden Eagles errors and a Kirby Gibson (Lafayette, Ind./Jefferson H.S.) kill would stretch the lead back to seven at 28-21, while Kennedy and May scored back-to-back kills two points later to end the game at 30-23.
After giving up the first point in the third set, the Cardinals would tally the next five to push the score to 5-1. TTU would cut the gap to one point at 7-6, only to have Cochran and Breivogel traded off the next four kills to give BSU a five-point edge at 11-6. From there, BSU would pull ahead by 10 points at 20-10 and win the frame by 13 off a Cassie Conner (Willow Springs, Ill./Lyons Township H.S.) service ace at 30-17.
In the fourth game, the Cardinals and Golden Eagles would trade the lead early, only to play to a 16-16 tie. Breivogel would break the tie with a kill, giving BSU a 17-16 edge that proved to be its last of the game, as TTU answered with four-straight to pull ahead 20-17.
BSU would manage to tie the game at three more times, including a block assist from Kennedy and Gibson that dead locked the score at 29-29. However, TTU would get a pair of kills from Caitlin Bullock to end the game at 31-29.
After pulling head 2-1 in the fifth set on kills from Gibson and Breivogel, Ball State would fall behind 8-2, before losing the game 15-8 and the match 3-2.
Kennedy would add eight total blocks in the contest, to go along with her 12 kills, while May tallied a pair of block assists and a pair of aces.
Junior setter Angie Parrell (Black Earth, Wis./Wisconsin Heights H.S.) logged a match-high 57 assists and 10 digs for her third double-double of the season, while pounding seven kills and blocking three balls.
Gibson tallied six total blocks in the contest, moving her career total to 205. She also finished the match with six kills.
In addition to her game-three winning ace, Conner tallied two digs, while
Statistically, the Cardinals held a .152 (73-40-217) to .126 (55-30-198) advantage in hitting, while out-digging TTU 101 to 88, out-blocking the Golden Eagles 14 to 10 and out-acing Tennessee Tech 10 to 5.
Bullock paced three Golden Eagles players who tallied double-figure kills with 16. Amanda Lindgren added 13 kills and a team-best 25 digs, while Tyburski recorded 12 kills and 17 digs.
Ball State will continue play in the Lady Topper Invitational Saturday, when they play Appalachian State at
