Volleyball Set to Host CMU & EMU for Senior Weekend

THIS WEEK'S LINKS
Friday, Oct. 27 hosts Central Michigan (7 p.m.) | Live Stats | ESPN3
Saturday, Oct. 28 hosts Eastern Michigan (7 p.m.) | Live Stats | ESPN3

WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK
• THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team begins its second tour through the Mid-American Conference West Division this weekend with home matches versus Central Michigan (Friday) and Eastern Michigan (Saturday) ... Both contests start at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.

• SEASON TO DATE: Ball State enters the week with a 14-9 overall record, including a 6-4 mark in MAC play ... The Cardinals opened last week with a 3-1 victory over then-MAC leader Bowling Green Friday, before falling to the new league leader Miami Saturday ... With both matches being played at home, Ball State is 8-2 at Worthen Arena with three matches remaining in its final homestand of the season ... The Cardinals are also 3-6 in true road matches and 3-1 in neutral site contests this season.

• BALL STATE IN THE MAC: Ball State enters Friday's match versus Central Michigan with a 364-189 (.658) all-time record in Mid-American Conference play ... The only program with a better all-time league mark is Western Michigan at 377-176 (.682) ... Central Michigan is seventh all-time at 274-279 (.495), while Eastern Michigan is eighth at 242-311 (.438).

• ALL-TIME AGAINST CENTRAL MICHIGAN: The Cardinals hold a 46-31 lead in the all-time series versus Central Michigan, including a 3-0 (25-18, 33-31, 26-24) victory in the first meeting this season played Sept. 23 in Mt. Pleasant ... Overall, the Cardinals have won four straight matches in the series and eight of the last night meetings ... Ball State holds a 23-12 lead in matches played in Muncie, including a 19-4 record over CMU in Worthen Arena ... The Chippewas' last win on Ball State's home court came Oct. 5, 2012 by a score of 3-2 (25-19, 21-25, 22-25, 25-22, 15-12).

• ROUND 1 VS. CMU: In the first meeting this season, junior outside Brooklyn Goodsel scored a match-high 16 kills, while junior outside Ellie Dunn registered 12 to help the Cardinals hit .302 (47-12-116) in 3-0 sweep ... Goodsel added 15 digs, while sophomore libero Kate Avila led all players with 16 to help Ball State hold a 58-54 edge in team digs ... The Cardinals also scored nine blocks to limit the Chippewas to a .190 (49-23-137) attack percentage.

• ALL-TIME AGAINST EASTERN MICHIGAN: Ball State maintains a 53-26 lead in the all-time series versus Eastern Michigan, including a 3-1 (25-21, 25-19, 22-25, 29-27) win in the first meeting this season played Sept. 22 in Ypsilanti ... Overall, the Cardinals have won three straight in the series and seven of the last 10 matches ... Ball State holds a 29-10 lead in matches played in Muncie, including a 23-5 mark over EMU in Worthen Arena ... The Eagles' last win on Ball State's home court came Nov. 13, 2015 by a score of 3-1 (25-21, 25-12, 20-25, 26-24).

• ROUND 1 VS. EMU: In the first meeting this season, three Cardinals secured double digit kills led by 20 from Brooklyn Goodsel ... Ellie Dunn followed with a season-high 19 kills, while junior right side Emily Holland added 11 ... Defensively, Ball State out-dug Eastern Michigan 89-75, with junior defensive specialist Lauren Schreiner leading five Cardinals in double figures with a season-high 19 digs.

• FOLLOW THE ACTION: Ball State fans unable to attend this weekend's matches can still follow the action, as both matches will be carried live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app ... In addition, live stats will be available for both matches courtesy of BallStateSports.com ... Fans can also follow the Cardinals on twitter (@BallStateWVB) for regular updates ... Links for the ESPN3 broadcast and live stats can be found above.

BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL QUICK HITS
• Ball State enters the week with an 8-4 record on ESPN3 this season ... The Cardinals own ESPN3 wins over Bradley (Sept. 1), Evansville (Sept. 14), Duquesne (Sept. 15), at Eastern Michigan (Sept. 22), Buffalo (Sept. 30), Western Michigan (Oct. 7), at Kent State (Oct. 13) and Bowling Green (Oct. 20) ... The Cardinals have three more matches remaining on ESPN3 this season, including both of this weekend's contests and the regular season finale at Western Michigan (Nov. 11).

• With an 8-2 record at home so far this season, the Ball State women's volleyball program is 256-80 (.762) all-time in Worthen Arena ... The Cardinals are even better when it comes to battling league foes in the building, owning a 185-48 (.794) advantage in MAC matches since Worthen Arena became the program's home beginning in the 1992 season.

• Ball State boasts an 885-584-2 (.602) all-time record in women's volleyball over 45-plus seasons of play ... The Cardinals have won eight MAC Regular Season Championships, six MAC Tournament Championships and made eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament.

• Despite suffering a 3-1 setback to MAC leader Miami last Saturday (Oct. 21), the Cardinals turned in one of the best defensive performances in program history by collecting 103 digs ... The 103 digs are a program record for digs in a four-set match in the rally scoring era (2001-present) ... The previous record was 100 digs in a win over versus Northern Illinois Nov. 15, 2002.

• In all, four Cardinals tallied double digit digs in the record-setting performance versus Miami (Oct. 21), led by a season-high 33 from Kate Avila ... Brooklyn Goodsel followed with a career-high 28 digs, giving Ball State two players with 20-or-more digs in the same match for the first time since Oct. 14, 2016 versus Kent State ... Also scoring double figure digs last Saturday were Lauren Schreiner with 18 and sophomore setter Amber Seaman with 11.

• Kate Avila turned in the best statistical weekend of her career versus Bowling Green (Oct. 20) and Miami (Oct. 21), leading the Ball State defense with a 7.75 digs-per-set average and logging a perfect reception percentage in 32 attempts ... In Friday's win over then-MAC leader Bowling Green, Avila nearly doubled up NCAA digs leader Kallie Seimet, recorded 29 digs compared to 17 for Seimet ... In Saturday's match versus new MAC leader Miami, Avila took it up a notch with a season-high 33 digs, helping the Ball State defense set a program record for digs in a four-set match in the rally scoring era (2001-present) with 103 team digs.

• With her 62 digs last weekend, Kate Avila raised her career total to 938 which moves her to 18th in program history ... She is 37 digs shy of catching Alex Fuelling's (2013-15) career total of 975 to move into 17th ... In addition, Avila has tallied 20-or-more digs in each of the last five matches, raising her career total to 18 ... The 18 career matches with 20-or-more digs ranks sixth in program history and is six shy of catching Sarah Obras (2002-05) career total of 24 for fifth.

• Kate Avila enters the weekend 62 digs shy of becoming the 17th player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs ... In 54 career matches, Avila has recorded 938 digs which is 232 more than the 706 Ball State's all-time digs leader Stephanie Keller (2001-04) recorded in her first 54 matches ... It took Keller 70 career matches to reach 1,000 digs ... Amanda McCormick (2005-06) is the fastest player to reach 1,000 career digs at Ball State, doing so in 43 matches ... McCormick, who transferred to Ball State after playing two years at Nebraska, is fifth in program history with 1,579 digs ... The only other Ball State player to record her 1,000th career dig faster than Keller is Alyssa Rio (2007-10), who accomplished the task in 55 career matches and ranks second in program history with 2,089 career digs.

• Ball State continues to be one of the league's top hitting teams, entering the week ranked third in the MAC with a .211 team attack percentage ... The Cardinals have out-hit their opponents 15 times this season, owning a 13-2 edge in those matches ... Ball State is 7-1 this season when hitting at least .250, with its lone loss in such matches coming at then-No. 25 Colorado State (Sept. 8).

• Freshman outside Kia Holder picked a great night to have a breakout performance, as she smashed a career-high 17 kills in the win over MAC-leading Bowling Green (Oct. 20) ... While she finished the night hitting .200 (17-9-40), Holder mimicked the Ball State offense by hitting .000 (7-7-25) over the first two sets, before improving to .375 (5-2-8) in the third and .714 (5-0-7) in the fourth set ... She also made an impact on defense, collecting five digs.

• Sophomore middle Sydnee VanBeek turned in a career night at Kent State (Oct. 13), smashing a career-high 14 kills and collecting a career-best five digs to help guide Ball State to the 3-1 victory ... VanBeek has been a key component in Ball State's 6-4 run to open MAC play, leading the team with a .256 attack percentage ... Her 2.44 kills-per-set average in MAC play is third on the squad, while her 0.71 blocks-per-set average is second.

• With her career-high tying 21 kills versus Northern Illinois (Oct. 7), Brooklyn Goodsel became just the 17th player in program history to record 20-or-more kills in at least four career matches ... Goodsel also smashed 21 kills versus Toledo (Sept. 29, 2016) and has blasted 20 kills in two matches; versus Central Michigan (Sept. 23, 2016) and at Eastern Michigan (Sept. 22, 2017).

• Brooklyn Goodsel opened MAC play by leading the offense with a 5.14 kills-per-set average and leading the defense with a 4.57 digs-per-set average in wins at Eastern Michigan (Sept. 22) and Central Michigan (Sept. 23) ... With the effort, Goodsel became the first player in program history to average over 5.0 kills and 4.0 digs per set for a week in the 25-point rally scoring era (2008-present) ... In fact, Goodsel is just the second player in program history to average over 5.0 kills and 4.0 digs per set in a week in the rally scoring era (2001-present) ... The only other player to accomplish the task was three-time All-MAC First Team selection Sarah Obras (2002-05) who accomplished the feat eight times.

• With 22 kills last weekend, Brooklyn Goodsel raised her career total to 731 ... She needs 72 kills to catch Carin Zielinski's (1992-94) career total of 803 to break into the top 20 in program history.

• Junior outside attacker Ellie Dunn has picked up her play since MAC season began, averaging 3.28 kill-per-set in league play after posting a 2.60 average in non-conference action ... She has smashed double-digit kills in seven of Ball State's 10 MAC matches, including a season-high 19 in the league-opening win at Eastern Michigan (Sept. 22).

• Redshirt junior middle Meg Starling leads Ball State at the net and ranks fifth in the MAC with a 1.03 blocks-per-set average ... Starling entered the season with 27 blocks and an 0.58 career blocks-per-set average, having played in 46 of a possible 250 sets in her first two seasons ... So far this year, Starling has played in 71 of 87 sets and racked up 73 total blocks, including 19 solo stuffs.

• Meg Starling dominated at the net in the Cardinals' win over Idaho State (Sept. 8), finishing the match with a career-high 10 total blocks (two solo and eight assists) ... She is the first Ball State player to reach double digit blocks in a match since Haley Benson (2012-14) recorded 14 blocks (five solo and nine assists) in a 3-1 victory over SMU Sept. 21, 2013.

• Sophomore setter Amber Seaman continues her climb up the Ball State record books, becoming just the 14th player in program history to eclipse 1,000 career assists versus Indiana State (Aug. 26) ... With 872 assists so far this season, Seaman ranks 11th in program history with 1,844 career assists ... She needs 506 more to catch Susan Franssen's (1987-90) career total of 2,350 for 10th on Ball State's career charts.

• The Ball State offense was firing on all cylinders in the Sept. 30 win over Buffalo, connecting for a season-best .396 (45-7-96) attack percentage ... It was the Cardinals' best hitting mark in a match since a .419 (55-11-105) effort in a home sweep of The Citadel Aug. 31, 2013 ... In fact, it was the team's fourth-best attack percentage in a match in the rally scoring era (2001-present), with the record being a .425 (51-6-106) effort in a sweep of Northern Illinois Oct. 28, 2005.

• Ball State opened the Active Ankle Challenge with a dominating 25-7 opening set victory over Navy (Sept. 1) ... The 25-7 set victory ties as the second-largest in the 25-point rally scoring era (2008-present) in program history ... The only larger set victory was a 25-5 opening set win versus Tennessee State on Sept. 3, 2010 in another match Ball State swept at home.

• Four Cardinals finished the win over Indiana State (Aug. 26) with double digit kills; Brooklyn Goodsel (12), Ellie Dunn (10), Meg Starling (10) and Sydnee VanBeek (10) ... It was the first time Ball State had four players log double digit kills in a three-set match since Nov. 18, 2008 versus Eastern Michigan ... The players involved in that match were Alisha Green (12), Julie Breivogel (11), Elaina Kakatolis (10) and Jennifer Boyd (10).

Volleyball Set to Host CMU & EMU for Senior Weekend

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Players Mentioned

Kate Avila

Ellie Dunn

Brooklyn Goodsel

Kia Holder

Emily Holland

Lauren Schreiner

Amber Seaman

Meg Starling

Sydnee VanBeek