Ball State University Athletics
Ball State University
4-2
Florida Atlantic
4-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ball State | 30 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
| Florida Atlantic | 28 | 21 | 17 | 0 |
Volleyball Rebounds With Friday Evening Win Over FAU
September 05, 2015 | Women's Volleyball
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - - Ball State women's volleyball seniors Alex Fuelling (Decatur, Ind./Bellmont/Morehead State) and Kelly Hopkins (Kokomo, Ind./Kokomo) turned in a pair of solid performances to lift the Cardinals to a 3-0 (30-28, 25-21, 25-18) victory over Florida Atlantic Friday evening in the team's second match of the Lipscomb Invitational at Allen Arena.
The Cardinals (4-2), who dropped their opening match of the day to tournament host Lipscomb by a score of 3-1 (24-26, 25-15, 25-16, 25-18), held off a furious attack by the Owls (4-2) in the opening set before winning the final two frames to even their record on the day.
“After spending a ton of energy and emotion in the early bird match today against national power Lipscomb, our team dug deep to come back with only a couple hours of rest to defeat an outstanding Florida Atlantic team,” sixth-year Ball State head coach Steve Shondell said. “Playing three of the nation's finest teams in one tournament is a great challenge, but will certainly make us a better team in the future.”
The Cardinals looked poised to run away with the opening set, building a six-point lead late in the frame. However, much like the morning match, the hosts on the scoreboard battled back to even the score at 24-24. After a back-and-forth battle to a 28-28 stalemate, a kill from senior middle Amanda Raker (Indianapolis, Ind./Perry Meridian/Butler) and a FAU attack error gave Ball State the opening-set victory.
The second set was hotly contested much of the way, with the teams playing to a 20-20 tie before a pair of kills from Hopkins helped Ball State score five of the final six points to pull ahead 2-0 in the match. The Cardinals carried over the momentum into the third set, pulling ahead 9-5 before eventually winning the set 25-17 and the match 3-0 on an Owls service error.
After seeing limited success in the morning match versus a stingy Lipscomb defense, Hopkins found some room to operate against FAU, registering nine kills, a service ace and a match-best six total blocks to finish the night with 13.0 points.
Fuelling led all players on both offense and defense with 15 kills and 13 digs for her fourth kill/dig double-double of the season. She also finished the match with a .950 (19-for-20) reception percentage.
Senior setter Jenna Spadafora (Fort Wayne, Ind./Carroll) ran the Ball State offense at a .203 (43-17-128) clip by handing out 34 assists and registering three kills of her own. Senior libero Kati Vasalakis (Yorktown, Ind./Yorktown) also turned in a solid effort on defense with 12 digs and a perfect 17-for-17 reception percentage.
Overall, the Ball State defense was able to limit the Owls attack to a .069 (40-31-131) rate of success by registering 49 digs and 9.5 total blocks. FAU, however, would hold a slight advantage in both categories with 50 digs and 10.0 total blocks. Brittany Brown and Maja Ristic each tallied 10 kills to lead the Florida Atlantic offense, while Kristina Rankovic logged a team-best 10 digs.
The Ball State women's volleyball team closes play in the two-day Lipscomb Invitational Saturday with a 1:30 p.m. ET / 12:30 p.m. CT first serve versus Pepperdine.
For the most up-to-date news on Ball State women's volleyball, follow @BallStateSports, @BallStateWVB and @SteveShondell on Twitter.
- BallStateSports.com -
