Ball State University Athletics
Volleyball Visits IPFW Wednesday, VCU This Weekend
September 16, 2014 | Women's Volleyball
►THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team opens a busy week Wednesday, when it travels up I-69 to battle in-state rival IPFW at 7 p.m. ... The Cardinals then travel east to play in the VCU Invitational ... Ball State will take on East Tennessee State (Noon) and Virginia (5 p.m.) Friday, before closing the tournament Saturday versus host VCU (11 a.m.).
►FOLLOW THE ACTION: Live stats are available for all of this week's matches and can be found on the live stats page of BallStateSports.com ... Ball State Sports Link Radio WCRD 91.3 FM will carry Wednesday's match at IPFW live and free over the airwaves and online at BallStateSports.com and WCRD.net ... Rob Connett will handle the play-by-play duties for the student-run production, with Andy Wright serving as the color analyst ... IPFW and VCU are also offering pay-per-view video for their matches versus Ball State ... Fans can also follow the program on twitter @BallStateWVB and @BallStateSports.
►CARDINALS ALL-TIME: The Ball State women's volleyball team enters the week with an 829-533-2 (.609) all-time record ... The Cardinals boast a 90-44 (.672) mark under fifth-year head coach Steve Shondell, including a 45-19 (.703) ledger in Mid-American Conference play.
►IN THE MAC: Ball State entered the 2014 season with a 330-165 (.667) all-time record in Mid-American Conference matches, which ranks second among all league schools ... Western Michigan is first with a 345-150 (.697) league mark.
►FROM THE NEST: Ball State opened the 2014 season by posting a 2-1 mark at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge, moving its all-time record in Worthen Arena to 226-67 (.771).
►VERSUS IPFW: Ball State holds an 11-4 advantage in the all-time series versus IPFW, including a hard-fought 3-2 (25-7, 25-27, 26-28, 25-20, 15-9) victory in Muncie last season (Sept. 4) ... The Mastodons won the last meeting in Fort Wayne, claiming a 3-1 (25-15, 29-27, 18-25, 25-21) win Aug. 28, 2012 ... Ball State is 4-3 all-time in matches played in Fort Wayne.
►VERSUS VCU INVITATIONAL FIELD: Ball State will be playing both East Tennessee State and Virginia for the first time in women's volleyball ... The series with VCU is tied at 1-1 with the Cardinals claiming a 3-1 (25-21, 27-25, 20-25, 25-18) neutral court win Sept. 17, 2011 and the Rams picking up a 3-1 (21-25, 25-23, 25-22, 25-21) victory in Worthen Arena Aug. 25, 2012.
QUICK HITS
● Ball State enters the week with a 3-6 record after dropping three matches at last weekend's HotelRED Invitational hosted by No. 4 Wisconsin ... The Cardinals suffered five-set losses to Missouri State and Miami (FL), before being swept by the host Badgers.
● IPFW enters the week with a 5-5 overall record ... The Mastodons were 5-1 to open the year, before being swept at Eastern Michigan last Tuesday ... IPFW also lost all three of its matches in last weekend's Saliki Invitational, falling to host Southern Illinois (3-1), Marshall (3-2) and Kansas State (3-1).
● East Tennessee State enters the week with a 4-6 overall record and will play Tennessee State Tuesday before meeting up with Ball State at the VCU Invitational ... Last weekend, the Buccaneers went 1-2 at the Lipscomb Invitational, suffering losses to Utah (3-0) and host Lipscomb (3-1) before rebounding to defeat Georgia Tech (3-2).
● Virginia enters the week with a 6-3 overall record and will play the Cardinals in its first match of the VCU Invitational Friday ... Last weekend, the Cavaliers went 0-3 at the Wildcat Challenge, suffering losses to Loyola (3-2), Youngstown State (3-2) and host Northwestern (3-0).
● VCU enters the week with a 2-7 overall record, including losses to three teams ranked in the top 25 of the 2014 AVCA Division I Women's Volleyball Coaches Poll ... At last weekend's Carolina Classic, the Rams scored a win over Georgia Southern (3-1) before losing to No. 16 Kentucky (3-0) and No. 17 North Carolina (3-0).
● Ball State head coach Steve Shondell will be the first inductee into the Burris Laboratory School Athletics Hall of Fame on Tuesday (Sept. 16) night ... In 34 seasons as the Owls coach from 1976-2009, Shondell led the program to a 1,183-95 overall record, 21 state championships, seven undefeated seasons and four national championships ... His teams also finished as national runners-up four times and as the third-ranked team three times ... For his efforts, Shondell has also been inducted into the AVCA Hall of Fame, Ball State Athletics Hall of Fame, Indiana Volleyball Hall of Fame and the Delaware Country Athletic Hall of Fame.
● Jenna Spadafora was named to the HotelRED Invitational all-tournament team after putting together a solid all-around weekend ... In Friday's loss to Missouri State, Spadafora dished out a career-high tying 42 assists, 13 digs and nine kills to fall one kill shy of recording Ball State's first triple-double since the 2002 season ... She also hit .389 (9-2-18) and tied for team-high honors with four total blocks ... In Saturday's loss to Miami (FL), she recorded a season-high 12 kills and 38 assists to become the first Cardinal to tally a kill/assists double-double since Nov. 14, 2006 (Angie Parrell 10 kills and 55 assists versus Buffalo) ... She also logged a career-high attack percentage for the second straight match, hitting .526 (12-2-19) ... Spadafora finished the tournament averaging 1.85 kills, 7.85 assists, 1.38 digs and 0.92 blocks per set, while hitting .455 (24-4-44).
