Volleyball Completes Season Sweep Of Toledo

MUNCIE, Ind. - - The Ball State women's volleyball team completed a season sweep of Mid-American Conference rival Toledo Thursday evening, scoring a 3-0 (30-27, 30-22, 30-21) senior day sweep at Worthen Arena.

The win snaps BSU's nine-match losing streak and gives the Cardinals their 41st-straight win over the Rockets.

With the victory, the Cardinals improve to 3-10 in MAC action, while raising its overall record to 4-22. Toledo drops to 3-21 (0-13 MAC) with the loss.

BSU seniors Brittany May (Gaston, Ind./Wes-Del H.S.) and Angie Parrell (Black Earth, Wis./Wisconsin Heights H.S.) turned in a pair of strong efforts in their final regular-season home match, with May scoring nine kills, while Parrell added 29 assists and helped guide the Ball State offense to a .164 (42-21-128) attack percentage.

In addition to the play of its seniors, junior Christine Kennedy (San Marcos, Calif./University of San Diego H.S.) paced all players with 15 kills, while adding six total blocks.

Freshman Alexis Shonkwiler (Marion, Ind./Eastbrook H.S.) and sophomore Elaina Kakatolis (Arcanum, Ohio/Franklin Monroe H.S.) tied for match-high honors with eight block assists.

The match opened with the teams playing to a 5-5 tie before a small Toledo run put the guests ahead by three at 8-5. The Rockets managed to pull ahead by four points at 16-12, before a kill from Kakatolis sparked a 6-2 BSU run to tie the score at 18.

After a UT kill pushed the score to 19-18, May answered with back-to-back kills to give BSU a 20-19 edge. BSU followed with four more points to build a 24-19 lead and went ahead 29-23. The Rockets tried to rally back, closing within two points at the 29-27 mark, but May celebrated senior day with a game-winning kill on the next play.

After falling behind 4-1 in the second game, the Cardinals were able to rally around a pair of Toledo errors and the serving of freshman Karin Caudill (Selma, Ind./Burris Laboratory School), as a 6-0 run gave BSU an advantage it would not relinquish in the game. Caudill had a pair of aces in the rally and helped force a UT ball handling error with her strong serving.

BSU's largest advantage in the set came at the end of the game, when a Kennedy kill followed by a Toledo attacking error gave the Cardinals a 30-22 set win.

Kakatolis opened the third game with a kill, while Rachel Alcorn (New Castle, Ind./Chrysler H.S.) added a service ace on the following play, as the Cardinals pulled ahead 4-0 and never looked back.

BSU built an 11-point advantage at the 20-9 mark on a kill from Parrell, before winning the game 30-21 on a block assist from Kakatolis and Shonkwiler.

Ball State freshman libero Alyssa Rio (Wayne, Ind./St. Francis H.S.) paced all players with 19 digs in the contest, while scoring three assists and two service aces.

Sophomore Julie Breivogel (Boonville, Ind./Boonville H.S.) added six kills, four digs and a block assists in the victory.

Overall, the Cardinals were able to limit the Rockets to a -.017 (28-30-116) attack percentage, marking the first time a BSU opponent has hit negative this season. BSU finished the night with a .164 rate of success.

BSU also dominated the net, logging 16 team blocks to Toledo's nine, while holding a 54 to 51 edge in digs. UT scored eight aces to the Cardinals' seven.

Margot Joniec was the Rockets' top attacker, logging nine kills. Lori Ruth paced UT with 12 digs.

The Ball State women's volleyball team returns to action Saturday night, when it travels to Akron for a 7 p.m. showdown with the Zips.

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Players Mentioned

Rachel Alcorn

Julie Breivogel

Karin Caudill

Elaina Kakatolis

Christine Kennedy

Brittany May

Angie Parrell

Alyssa Rio

Alexis Shonkwiler