Volleyball Closes Regular Season at NIU & WMU

THIS WEEK'S LINKS
Friday, Nov. 10 at Northern Illinois (7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT) | Live Stats
Saturday, Nov. 11 at Western Michigan (7 p.m.) | Live Stats | ESPN3

WHAT TO WATCH FOR THIS WEEK
• THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team opens the final weekend of the regular season Friday with a 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT first serve at Northern Illinois ... The Cardinals close the 2017 regular season Saturday with another 7 p.m. start at Western Michigan.

• SEASON TO DATE: Ball State enters the week with a 17-10 overall record, including a 9-5 mark in MAC play ... The Cardinals closed the home portion of the regular season last Thursday with a 3-1 win over Toledo to improve to 10-3 at Worthen Arena this year ... Ball State closed the week with a 3-0 sweep Saturday at Akron ... With the win over the Zips, the Cardinals improved to 4-6 in true road matches and are also 3-1 in neutral site contests this season.

• QUICK LOOK AT THE MAC STANDINGS: With two matches remaining in Mid-American Conference play, the Cardinals enter the week as the third seed in the league tournament with a 9-5 MAC record ... Miami and Bowling Green are tied for the top spot in the MAC standings with 11-3 records, with the RedHawks holding the overall top spot courtesy of their win over Ball State ... Ohio and Buffalo are right behind the Cardinals at 8-6, while Central Michigan, Toledo and Western Michigan round out the eight teams currently in the tournament with 7-7 records ... Northern Illinois is the first team currently out of the tournament at 6-8.

• BALL STATE ALL-TIME IN THE MAC: Ball State enters Friday's match at Northern Illinois with a 367-190 (.659) all-time record in Mid-American Conference play ... The only program with a better all-time league mark is Saturday's opponent Western Michigan at 377-180 (.677) ... NIU is third all-time based on winning percentage at 259-147 (.637).

• ALL-TIME AGAINST NORTHERN ILLINOIS: With four straight wins, the Huskies have built a 35-30 advantage in the all-time series versus Ball State ... In the first meeting this season, NIU scored a 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-19, 15-13) win in Worthen Arena Oct. 7 ... Overall, Northern Illinois has won 10 of the last 13 matches in the series, with Ball State's last win coming Oct. 2, 2015 by virtue of a 3-0 (25-19, 25-21, 25-21) sweep at home ... The Cardinals are 9-20 all-time in matches played in DeKalb, with its last win at Victor E. Court coming Nov. 15, 2013 by a score of 3-0 (25-19, 25-17, 25-21).

• ROUND 1 VS. NIU: Junior outside Brooklyn Goodsel tied her career high with 21 kills, but it was not enough to lift the Cardinals past the Huskies in the Oct. 7 showdown ... With the match tied at two sets apiece, NIU scored the first five points in the fifth and survived a furious Ball State rally to win 15-13 ... Sophomore libero Kate Avila led the Ball State defense on the night with 21 digs, while sophomore middle Sydnee VanBeek secured a match-high seven blocks.

• ALL-TIME AGAINST WESTERN MICHIGAN: While Ball State won the first meeting this season by a score of 3-1 (25-20, 17-25, 25-15, 25-17) Oct. 6 in Worthen Arena, the Broncos hold a slim 46-45 advantage in the all-time series ... Overall, the Cardinals have won the last three regular season meetings, including a 3-1 (25-23, 23-25, 25-21, 25-23) victory in their last trip to University Arena, Oct. 8, 2016 ... Ball State is 16-23 all-time in matches played in Kalamazoo, but has won three of the last four matches on WMU's home court.

• ROUND 1 VS. WMU: After splitting the opening two sets, the Cardinals defense came to life in the Oct. 6 meeting and limited a previously undefeated MAC team in the Broncos to a -.032 (15-17-62) attack percentage over the final two frames to secure the win ... Overall, WMU's .079 (38-28-127) attack percentage on the night was a season low ... Junior outside Ellie Dunn led Ball State with 14 kills and five total blocks, while Kate Avila chipped in a team-high 15 digs.

BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL QUICK HITS
• Ball State fans unable to attend this weekend's matches can still follow the action with live stats for both matches courtesy of the host institutions ... In addition, Saturday's regular season finale at Western Michigan will be broadcast live on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app ... Fans can also follow the Cardinals on twitter (@BallStateWVB) for regular updates.

• Ball State enters the week with a 9-5 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), Bowling Green (Oct. 20) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 28).

• With a 10-3 record at home this season, the Ball State women's volleyball program is 258-81 (.761) all-time in Worthen Arena ... The Cardinals are even better when it comes to battling league foes in the building, owning a 187-49 (.792) advantage in MAC matches since Worthen Arena became the program's home beginning in the 1992 season.

• Ball State boasts an 888-585-2 (.603) 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.

• With her fourth dig in last Thursday's opening set versus Toledo, Kate Avila became the third-fastest player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs, doing so in 57 matches ... 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 Avila is Alyssa Rio (2007-10), who accomplished the task in 55 career matches and ranks second in program history with 2,089 career digs.

• After averaging 6.14 digs per set in wins over Toledo (Nov. 2) and at Akron (Nov. 4), Kate Avila was named the Mid-American Conference West Division Defensive Player of the Week ... It's the second time in her career Avila has earned the honor ... Avila led all players with 26 digs in the four-set win over Toledo, while adding a match-best 17 digs in the Cardinals' sweep at Akron.

• With her 43 digs last weekend, Kate Avila raised her career total to 1,039 which moves her to 16th in program history ... She is 28 digs shy of catching Lindsay Follin's (1995-98) career total of 1,067 to move into 15th ... In addition, Avila has tallied 20-or-more digs in eight of the last nine matches, raising her career total to 21 ... The 21 career matches with 20-or-more digs ranks sixth in program history and is three shy of catching Sarah Obras' (2002-05) career total of 24 for fifth.

• Over the last four weeks, Kate Avila is averaging an impressive 6.59 digs per set, having collected 211 digs over 32 sets ... With her performance over the last eight matches, Avila has raised her digs-per-set average in MAC play from 4.55 to 5.76 to climb from eighth to fifth among league defenders.

• Senior outside Jessica Lindsey celebrated her senior weekend by putting together the best two-match performance of her collegiate career, leading the Ball State offense with 26 kills and a .344 attack percentage in matches versus Central Michigan (Oct. 27) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 28) ... In the loss to CMU, Lindsey tied her career high entering the weekend with 12 kills, while connecting for a .367 (12-1-30) attack percentage ... In the win over EMU, Lindsey smashed a new career high of 14 kills and hit .324 (14-3-34) to help ensure her senior night ended with a victory.

• Prior to her 26-kill weekend versus CMU (Oct. 27) and EMU (Oct. 28), Jessica Lindsey had not scored double digit kills in back-to-back matches in her collegiate career ... Her previous best kill total in consecutive matches was 18 when she scored six kills at Ohio (Oct. 16, 2015) and 12 kills at Kent State (Oct. 17, 2015).

• Despite suffering a 3-1 setback to Miami (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 Northern Illinois Nov. 15, 2002.

• In all, four Cardinals tallied double digit digs in the record-setting performance versus Miami (Oct. 21), led by 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 were junior defensive specialist Lauren Schreiner with 18 and sophomore setter Amber Seaman with 11.

• 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.

• 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 19 kills last weekend, Brooklyn Goodsel raised her career total to 774 ... She needs 29 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 a team-best 3.25 kill-per-set in league play after posting a 2.60 average in non-conference action ... She has smashed double-digit kills in 10 of Ball State's 14 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 sixth in the MAC with a 1.01 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 72 of 104 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.

• Amber Seaman continues her climb up the Ball State record books, becoming just the 11th player in program history to eclipse 2,000 career assists last Saturday at Akron (Nov. 4) ... With 1064 assists so far this season, Seaman ranks 11th in program history with 2,036 career assists ... She needs 314 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 sophomore middle 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).

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Players Mentioned

Kate Avila

Ellie Dunn

Brooklyn Goodsel

Jessica Lindsey

Lauren Schreiner

Amber Seaman

Meg Starling

Sydnee VanBeek