Ball State University Athletics
Women's Volleyball Opens MAC Play Thursday at Toledo
September 23, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
Match 15
Ball State at Toledo
Thursday, Sept. 24 (7 p.m.)
Toledo, Ohio (Savage Arena)
Live Stats
Match 16
Ball State vs. South Dakota
Saturday, Sept. 26 (5 p.m.)
Akron, Ohio (Rhodes Arena)
Live Stats | Live Video
►THE WEEK AHEAD: With non-conference play behind it, the Ball State women's volleyball team opens the 2015 Mid-American Conference season Thursday, when it travels to Toledo for a 7 p.m. first serve at Savage Arena ... The Cardinals continue conference play Saturday, with a 5 p.m. first serve at Akron's Rhodes Arena.
►STARTING MAC PLAY WITH TOLEDO: This will be the third time in the Steve Shondell era the Cardinals have opened league play versus Toledo ... Ball State hosted the Rockets in its MAC opener in both 2011 (W, 3-1) and 2012 (W, 3-0) ... Thursday's match will mark the first time in the current travel partner era (2005-present) the Cardinals have started league play at Toledo.
►SERIES VS. TOLEDO: Ball State holds a 61-7 lead in the all-time series versus Toledo, including a pair of victories last season ... The Cardinals scored a 3-1 (25-12, 20-25, 25-17, 25-20) win in Worthen Arena (Oct. 9) and a 3-0 (25-17, 25-18, 25-15) win at Savage Arena (Nov. 13) ... The Rockets swept the 2013 regular season series marking just the second time in the 68-match series Toledo won back-to-back matches with the only other time coming in 1983 ... Ball State strung together a 42-match winning streak over the Rockets from Nov. 13, 1987 - Oct. 2, 2008 ... The Cardinals are 26-3 all-time in matches played in Toledo.
►SERIES VS. AKRON: Ball State holds a 31-4 lead in the all-time series versus Akron, including a 3-1 (25-15, 18-25, 25-17, 25-22) victory in Worthen Arena last season (Nov. 15) ... The last time the Cardinals played in Akron, they suffered a 3-1 (25-17, 25-19, 9-25, 26-24) setback to the Zips Nov. 9, 2013 ... Ball State is 14-3 all-time in matches played in Akron.
►BALL STATE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL ON ESPN3: Three of Ball State's eight remaining home matches will be carried live on ESPN3: Northern Illinois (Oct. 2), Miami (Oct. 23) and Toledo (Oct. 29) ... Joel Godett (play-by-play) and four-year letterwinner (2007-10) and one-year student assistant coach (2011) Alyssa Rio (analyst) were treated to quite the match in the 2015 EPSN3 debut, as the Cardinals rallied from two sets down to top New Mexico (Aug. 29) ... They called another exciting match versus in-state rival IPFW (Sept. 16) the second time out, as the Cardinals claimed another five-set victory ... ESPN3 is accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast (via the WatchESPN app), Roku, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
►CARDINALS ALL-TIME: The Ball State women's volleyball team enters Thursday's MAC opener at Toledo with an 849-548-2 (.608) all-time record ... The Cardinals boast a 110-59 (.651) mark under sixth-year head coach Steve Shondell, including a 56-24 (.700) ledger in MAC play.
►MILESTONE MATCH: Thursday's match at Toledo will mark the 1,400 match in program history ... Ball State is 2-2 in “milestone” matches since 2000, winning the program's 1,000th match (3-1 at Western Michigan on Nov. 1, 2002) and 1,100th match (3-0 at Toledo on Nov. 5, 2005) ... Ball State lost both the 1,200th match (0-3 at No. 19 Purdue on Aug. 28, 2009) and 1,300th match (0-3 versus Creighton on Sept. 7, 2013).
►IN THE MAC: Ball State enters league play with a 341-170 (.667) all-time record in MAC matches ... The total ranks second among all league schools, with Western Michigan in first at 354-157 (.693) ... Akron enters the week with the ninth-best overall MAC record at 161-224 (.418), while Toledo is 11th at 153-358 (.299).
►ON THE ROAD: Ball State enters the week with a 254-226-1 (.529) all-time record in road matches, while owning a 228-170-1 (.573) mark in neutral site contests ... Under Steve Shondell, the Cardinals are 34-29 (.540) on the road and 26-17 (.605) in neutral matches.
QUICK HITS
● Ball State head coach Steve Shondell is in his fourth season as a voting member of the AVCA Division I Coaches Top-25 Poll.
● Senior middle Kelly Hopkins was named to the Boiler Box Challenge All-Tournament team after finishing the two-day event with team-highs of 30 kills, a .433 (30-4-60) attack percentage and 10 total blocks.
● With 69 digs last week, senior libero Kati Vasalakis raised her career total to 947 to move from outside the top 20 to 16th in program history … Vasalakis needs 68 more digs to pass Kylee Baker's (2010-13) career total of 1,014 for 15th on Ball State's all-time list.
● Senior setter Jenna Spadafora enters the week ranked 10th in program history with 2,204 career assists and a 6.52 career assists-per-set average.
● Ball State's offense connected for a season-high .249 (71-28-173) rate of success versus South Dakota last Saturday, marking its best showing since a .340 (45-12-97) effort at Toledo (Nov. 14, 2014) last season.
● In last Wednesday's win over IPFW (Sept. 16), five Cardinals collected double-digit digs for the first time since Oct. 6, 2012 ... Kati Vasalakis and sophomore defensive specialist Bailey Baumer tied for team-high honors with 18 digs, while Jenna Spadafora added 14, sophomore right side Brooklyn Goodsel recorded 13 and senior defensive specialist Marissa Hine logged 12.
● Since 1972, the Ball State women's volleyball program has competed in 33 of the 50 U.S. states, and has also played a tournament in Washington, D.C. ... This season, the Cardinals checked the states of Tennessee (Lipscomb Invitational - Sept. 4-5) and Washington (Cougar Challenge - Sept. 11-12) its list of states remaining to visit.
SHONDELL QUOTABLES
● Positives From Boiler Box Challenge: “We took away a lot of positives from last weekend. We played our best match of the year against Purdue in front of a great crowd on Friday night. That was an awesome atmosphere. It was good to come out and compete like we did, and put ourselves in a position to win set number one.”
● Rebounding From Notre Dame: “Our effort versus Purdue was a good way to bounce back from a Notre Dame match where we did not play well. For whatever reason, we errored ourselves to death against Notre Dame, giving away 45 out of 75 points. To our team's credit, we did some soul searching and played really well against Purdue Friday night and that carried over somewhat into Saturday's match versus South Dakota.”
● South Dakota: “We had our best offensive match of the year against South Dakota. A lot of good things happened within our offense, but we did not dig the ball like we needed to and lost a tough five-set match to a really strong team.”
● Toledo / Akron: “Toledo is one of our rivalry matches, and as always, we expect a tough contest. It's the conference opener at Toledo, you know it's going to be a battle. Akron is another team which always seems to match up well against us and always plays us tough. It will be two good tests this weekend. Anytime you go on the road in the MAC you are going to be tested. Every win is a big win on the road in MAC play.”
