Ball State University
Missouri State
Missouri State Rallies Past Women?s Volleyball, 3-2
September 13, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
MADISON, Wis. - - The Ball State (3-4) women's volleyball team opened play in the HotelRED Invitational with a 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 25-27, 25-18, 15-9) loss to Missouri State (5-4) Friday evening at No. 4 Wisconsin's UW Field House.
Redshirt junior middle hitter Hayley Benson (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Bradley) led the Ball State offense for the fourth consecutive match with 14 kills, while redshirt freshman Sabrina Mangapora (Canfield, Ohio/Canfield) added a career-best 11 markers. At the net, Benson collected four total blocks (one solo and three assists), while Mangapora recorded three solo stuffs.
“Although we came up short on the scoreboard tonight, we played our finest match of the young season,” Ball State head coach Steve Shondell said. “We were a swing away from winning the first set, and then went on to take the next two. Unfortunately, after leading 8-3 in set four, we went soft offensively and Missouri State played great defense from that moment on. We simply have to learn from our experience tonight and I believe our team will do just that.”
Junior setter Jenna Spadafora (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) fell one kill shy of recording Ball State's first triple-double since the 2002 season, finishing the match with a career-high tying 42 assists, 13 digs and nine kills. She also hit a career-best .389 (9-2-18) for the night and tied for team-high honors with four total blocks.
In the backcourt, redshirt junior Alex Fuelling (Decatur, Ind./Bellmont/Morehead State) led the Ball State defense with a career-high tying 23 digs in her first appearance as the team's libero.
As a team, the Cardinals connected for a .142 (55-30-176) rate of success in the match and held a 78-to-76 edge in digs and an 11.0-to-10.0 advantage in blocks.
Lily Johnson paced all players with 26 kills in the match, while the Bears hit .220 (64-25-177) as a team. Missouri State's Maddy Hogan posted a match-best 29 digs, while Simone House collected a match-high seven total blocks.
With Ball State leading 23-22 in the opening set, a kill from Spadafora gave the Cardinals two chances to win the set. Unfortunately, the Bears rattled off the next four points to win the frame 26-24.
With the second set tied at 22, a kill from Benson and a service ace from junior defensive specialist Kati Vasalakis (Yorktown, Ind./Yorktown) gave Ball State another 24-22 lead. A kill from Johnson kept the Bears alive for one more point, only to have a service error end the frame at 25-23.
In another tight set, the teams played to a 23-23 deadlock in the third frame. Benson gave Ball State the first set point with a kill, but Missouri State tallied the next two markers. A block from Spadafora and redshirt junior middle hitter Amanda Raker (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian/Butler) tied the score at 25, while a Bears attack error and a Mangapora kill gave the Cardinals a 27-25 set victory and a 2-1 lead in the match.
Ball State surged out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set, and led by five at the 8-3 mark. However, Missouri State would come to life with an 8-3 run of their own to even the score at 11. The Bears controlled play from there, winning the set 25-18.
The Cardinals led 4-2 in the fifth set, only to see Missouri State answer with a four-point run and eventually win the frame 15-9 and the match 3-2.
The Ball State women's volleyball team concludes play in the HotelRED Invitational Saturday with matches versus the University of Miami (11 a.m. ET / 10 a.m. CT) and fourth-ranked Wisconsin (8:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. CT).
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women's volleyball, follow @BallStateSports, @BallStateWVB and @SteveShondell on Twitter.
- BallStateSports.com -
