Volleyball Swept At Northern Illinois

DEKALB, Ill. - - The Ball State women's volleyball team saw its bid at hosting a first-round Mid-American Conference tournament match come to an end Friday night, as the team suffered a 3-0 (30-18, 30-23, 30-19) setback at Northern Illinois.

The Cardinals, who fall to 5-23 (4-11 MAC) with the loss, will head back to Northern Illinois - - 12-17 (6-9 MAC) - - next Tuesday for a first-round MAC Tournament match.

Overall, the BSU offense continued to struggle, hitting for just a .058 (33-26-120) rate of success in the match. NIU finished the contest hitting .216 (45-18-125).

Senior Brittany May (Gaston, Ind./Wes-Del H.S.) was the Cardinals top attacker, smashing nine kills, while adding a dig.

BSU freshman libero Alyssa Rio (Wayne, Ill./St. Francis H.S.) paced the BSU defense with 17 digs.

The match started with the teams playing to a 2-2 tie in the first frame, before a 10-0 Huskies run put the hosts ahead for good. NIU went on to win the game 30-18 on a kill from Laura Baetzel.

In the second game, the Cardinals held a brief 3-2 advantage after a kill from Christine Kennedy (San Marcos, Calif./University of San Diego H.S.) and a pair of Huskies attack errors allowed BSU to rally from down 2-0.

BSU only trailed by one at the 13-12 mark, thanks to a kill from sophomore Julie Breivogel (Boonville, Ind./Boonville H.S), but NIU rallied off the next four points and never looked back, winning the game 30-23.

The third game saw Northern Illinois rally off the first three points and take a 10-6 lead. After a kill from BSU's Elaina Kakatolis (Arcanum, Ohio/Franklin Monroe H.S.) cut the NIU edge to three points (10-7), the Huskies answered with a nine-point run and cruised to a 30-19 victory in the set.

Ball State's Kakatolis finished the match ranked second on the squad with seven kills, while three Cardinals added five.

Northern Illinois' Irene Johnson paced all players with 13 kills, while Meagan Schoenrock added 11. Maddie Hughes was NIU's top defender with 18 digs.

In addition to hitting .058 in the contest, BSU finished the night with 52 digs, seven team blocks and one ace.

NIU added 54 digs, eight team blocks and seven aces to its .216 hitting percentage.

The Ball State women's volleyball team concludes the regular season Saturday night with a 7 p.m. contest at Western Michigan.

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Players Mentioned

Julie Breivogel

Elaina Kakatolis

Christine Kennedy