Ball State University Athletics
WVB Travels To Toledo & Buffalo This Week
October 24, 2012 | Women's Volleyball
►THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team returns to the road this week, starting with a 7 p.m. match Thursday at Toledo ... Saturday, BSU travels to Buffalo for a 7:30 p.m. first serve.
►FOLLOW THE ACTION: Both Toledo and Buffalo will offer live stats and live video for this week's matches ... Thursday's live video versus the Rockets will be available to Ball State All Access members at BallStateSports.com, while links for live stats and Buffalo's video coverage can be found above.
►WITH SIX TO GO: With six matches remaining before the 2012 MAC Tournament, Ball State is holding the No. 8 slot for the eight-team tournament field with a 4-6 league record ... This week's matches are pivotal for the Cardinals tournament hopes, as both Buffalo (2-8 MAC) and Toledo (2-8 MAC) are chasing BSU for the final tournament slot ... In addition, Miami (3-7 MAC) and Kent State (3-7 MAC) are also hot on BSU's heels, with the RedHawks 3-2 victory last Saturday giving them the tiebreaker over the Cardinals ... Ball State is three matches behind Western Michigan (7-3 MAC) for the divisional title, while Northern Illinois (6-4 MAC), Central Michigan (6-4 MAC) and Eastern Michigan (4-6 MAC) are also ahead of BSU in the divisional race, with all four teams owning wins over Ball State this season.
►CARDINALS ALL-TIME: Ball State enters Thursday's match with a 799-514-2 (.608) all-time record after topping Bowling Green and losing at Miami last week ... BSU boasts a 60-25 (.706) mark under third-year head coach Steve Shondell, including a 30-12 (.714) record in Mid-American Conference play.
►BALL STATE IN THE MAC: With a 3-1 victory at Ohio (Oct. 14, 2011), Ball State became just the second women's volleyball program in league history to collect 300 Mid-American Conference victories ... With a 4-6 MAC record so far this season, BSU enters Thursday's match at Toledo with a 310-155 (.665) all-time record in conference matches ... BSU's record is the second-best in league history, trailing only Western Michigan's 324-141 (.696) all-time league mark ... Toledo is 11th all-time with a 140-325 (.301) MAC mark, while Buffalo is 12th with a 35-209 (.143) all-time league record.
►FROM THE NEST: With an 8-4 home record so far this season, Ball State maintains a 216-61 (.780) all-time record in matches played in Worthen Arena, including a 160-34 (.825) mark versus Mid-American Conference teams.
►VS. TOLEDO: Ball State holds a 58-5 advantage in the all-time series versus the Rockets, including a 3-0 (27-25, 25-16, 25-21) sweep in the league opener for both teams this season (Sept. 20) ... Overall, Ball State has won seven of the last nine meetings in the series ... From Nov. 11, 1987 through Oct. 2, 2008, the Cardinals won 42 consecutive matches over the Rockets ... Toledo picked up its lone win in Worthen Arena in 20 attempts by a score of 3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 23-25, 25-20, 18-16) on Nov. 6, 2008 to snap the Cardinals 42-match winning streak ... Ball State is 24-2 all-time in matches played in Toledo and has not lost a true road match in the series since Nov. 21, 1986.
►VS. BUFFALO: The Cardinals own a 15-1 lead in the all-time series versus the Bulls, including a 3-0 (25-19, 25-19, 25-17) home victory last season (Oct. 29) ... Buffalo's lone win in the series was a hard-fought 3-2 (28-26, 20-25, 25-19, 19-25, 15-13) victory in BSU's last trip to New York on Oct. 9, 2010 ... BSU is 5-1 all-time in Buffalo.
►SCOUTING THE CARDINALS: Ball State enters the week holding the No. 8 slot in the race to the MAC tournament with an 11-12 (4-6 MAC) record ... In a pair of road matches last weekend, BSU handed Bowling Green its first league loss of the season by a score of 3-1, before dropping a 2-3 heartbreaker at Miami ... Kara Bates leads the Ball State attack and ranks fourth in the MAC with a 3.85 kills-per-set average, while Lisa Scott is second among BSU's starters at 2.52 ... Setters Jacqui Seidel and Jenna Spadafora have helped the BSU offense climb to second in the MAC with a .230 team hitting percentage ... Catie Fredrich paces the BSU backcourt and ranks second in the league with a 4.94 digs-per-set average ... As a team, Ball State is limiting its opponents to a .196 hitting mark which ranks BSU's defense fifth in the MAC.
►SCOUTING THE ROCKETS: Toledo enters the week holding the No. 11 slot in the race to the MAC tournament with an 8-15 (2-8 MAC) record ... Last week, Toledo suffered road losses at Miami (0-3) and Bowling Green (1-3) ... Lauren Rafdal paces the Toledo attack with a 3.15 kills-per-set average, while Sondra Parys is second at 2.69 ... Adria Pryor has set the Rockets offense to a .183 hitting mark this season, which ranks 11th among the 12 MAC teams ... McCall Paynter has a team-best 3.85 digs-per-set average ... Toledo is allowing its opponents to hit for a .232 rate of success ranking its defense 11th in the league.
►SCOUTING THE BULLS: Buffalo enters the week holding the No. 12 slot in the race to the MAC tournament with an 8-14 (2-8 MAC) record ... The Bulls host Akron Thursday before Ball State travels to Buffalo, N.Y., Saturday ... In a pair of home matches last week, Buffalo earned a win over Central Michigan (3-1) before falling to Eastern Michigan (1-3) ... Liz Scott paces the Bulls attack with a 2.99 kills-per-set average, while Megan Lipski is second on the squad at 2.01 ... Dani Reinert has set the Buffalo offense to a .166 hitting mark this season, which ranks 12th in the league ... Kelly Svoboda anchors the Bulls backcourt with a 4.34 digs-per-set average to rank eighth in the MAC ... The Buffalo defense has allowed opponents to connect for a .204 hitting mark which ranks seventh in the league.
►IN THE NCAA STAT RANKINGS: Ball State entered the week ranked 52nd in the nation with a 13.81 team kills-per-set average, while its .230 hitting percentage is 77th among the 330 NCAA Division I programs ... Individually, Jacqui Seidel ranks 25th in the nation with her 11.26 assists-per-set average, Catie Fredrich is 62nd with a 4.94 digs-per-set average, Lisa Scott is 74th with her .347 hitting mark and Kara Bates is 74th with her 3.85 kills-per-set average.
►DOMINATING THE MAC: Senior middle hitter Lisa Scott has found her grove in the Ball State lineup since the beginning of league play, racking up a MAC-leading .394 hitting percentage in BSU's 10 conference matches ... Northern Illinois' Sarah Angelos is second in MAC-only contests with a .356 hitting effort ... Scott, who hit .304 in BSU's 13 pre-conference matches, has hit .304-or-better in eight of BSU's 10 league contests, including .400-or-better efforts in six matches.
►LEADING THE PACK: Senior outside hitter Kara Bates has led the Ball State attack in kills 17 times this season, including 14 of the last 17 matches ... She posted a career-high 24 kills at Northern Colorado (Sept. 8), while collecting 19 kills in four other matches ... Bates had smashed double-digit kills in 20 of BSU's 23 matches this season, including each of the last 15 matches ... A 2011 First Team All-MAC selection, Bates currently ranks fourth in the MAC with a 3.85 kills-per-set average.
►WELCOME BACK LIBERO: After missing her first career match versus Ohio (Oct. 13), junior Catie Fredrich returned to the Ball State backcourt for a pair of spectacular performances last weekend ... In BSU's four-set win at Bowling Green, Fredrich racked up 21 digs to help the Cardinals hand the Falcons their first league loss of the season ... She followed with a career-high 33 digs in BSU's match at Miami, giving her a 6.00 digs-per-set average last week.
►DIGGING DEEP: With 54 digs last week, Catie Fredrich moved to seventh in program history with 1,219 career digs ... Fredrich is 32 digs shy of passing Jennifer Schilling's (1995-1998) career total of 1,250 for sixth on BSU's all-time list ... Fredrich's 63 career matches with double-figure digs ranks sixth on BSU's career charts, while her 3.93 career digs-per-set average is fourth.
►BLOCK PARTY: Led by MAC West Division Defensive Player of the Week Lisa Scott's career-high 13 total blocks, Ball State posted 21 team blocks in last Saturday's win at Bowling Green ... The effort ties as the ninth-best single match total in program history and are the most for a Ball State squad since Sept. 28, 2006 ... Senior Kara Bates added a career-high eight block assists in the contest, while Hayley Benson posted a career-best six block assists.
►MORE FROM THE BLOCK: In three sets at Miami last Saturday, redshirt freshman middle hitter Kelly Hopkins posted a career-best four total blocks, including three solo stuffs ... Hopkins also blasted five kills and ranked fourth on the squad with 8.5 total points ... In 12 sets this season, Hopkins is averaging 1.08 kills and 0.58 blocks per set.
