Ball State University
5-5
Morehead State
2-8
Kitchel & Dunn Help Lead WVB Past Morehead State
September 13, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
PULLMAN, Wash. - - Led by the play of redshirt junior outside hitter Mackenzie Kitchel (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove/Cincinnati) and freshman outside hitter Ellie Dunn (Sugar Grove, Ill./Kaneland), the Ball State women's volleyball team closed play in the Cougar Challenge with a 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 28-26, 25-19) victory over Morehead State Saturday evening at Washington State's Bohler Gym.
“After a very tough match last night against a 7-1 Pac-12 team, we had to fight off a very determined Morehead State team which played its best match of the weekend,” sixth-year Ball State head coach Steve Shondell said. “Today was a great team effort and a victory we very badly needed heading into Wednesday's showdown with IPFW. The key to tonight's match was our resilience in the third set, coming back from a five-point deficit late in the frame to win a thriller in overtime.”
With the match tied at one set apiece, the Eagles (2-8) were threatening to pull head late in the third set with a 21-16 lead. However, Kitchel helped turn the momentum in the Cardinals (5-5) favor with a pair of block assists surrounding a kill to make the score 21-20. Later in the set, back-to-back kills from Dunn helped the Cardinals turn a 25-24 deficit in to a 26-25 lead, while Kitchel ended the frame at 28-26 three rallies later.
Morehead State held an early lead in the fourth set, at 12-10, but the Cardinals went on a 10-2 run, thanks in part to a pair of block assists and a kill from Dunn, to take control of the game. Ball State went on to win the frame 25-19 to close out the match and improve to 11-0 all-time versus the Eagles.
With both offenses struggling to find their rhythm all night, it was the play of Ball State's left-side duo of Kitchel and Dunn which carried the Cardinals to victory. Kitchel finished the night with a season-high 16 kills, one shy of her career-high, while Dunn matched her career-best total from last night versus Washington State with 11 kills.
Dunn would lead all offensive players with a .320 (11-3-25) attack percentage, while scoring three total blocks (one solo and two assists). Kitchel was not far behind, connecting for a .314 (16-5-35) rate of success while adding four block assists.
Senior setter Jenna Spadafora (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) dished out 40 assists to bring her career total to 2,036 which makes her the 10th player in program history to eclipse the 2,000 career assists mark. She also served up two of Ball State's six aces, while adding eight digs, five kills and three block assists.
In the backcourt, senior libero Kati Vasalakis (Yorktown, Ind./Yorktown) paced the Cardinals with 12 digs, while freshman defensive specialist Carly Cappello (Whiting, Ind./Bishop Noll Institute) collected a career-high 11 digs.
Overall, the Ball State defense limited the Morehead State attack to a .117 (44-28-137) hitting percentage and also held a 53-to-51 advantage in digs. MSU in turn held the Cardinals offense to a .148 (49-28-142) attacking mark and held a 13.0-to-11.5 edge in team blocks. Merideth Jewell led the Eagles with 17 kills, while Stacy Silver and Alli Evans tied for team-high honors with 13 digs apiece.
After playing the last seven matches on the road, the Ball State women's volleyball team returns to Worthen Arena Wednesday for its only home match in the month of September, when in-state rival IPFW travels down I-69 for a 7 p.m. first serve. Fans not able to make it to the match can watch the contest live on ESPN3.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women's volleyball, follow @BallStateSports, @BallStateWVB and @SteveShondell on Twitter.
- BallStateSports.com -
