Busy Week For WVB Starts Tuesday vs. IUPUI

THIS WEEK'S LINKS
Tuesday, Sept. 11
7 p.m. - hosts IUPUI - LIVE STATS  | ESPN+  |  SL DIGITAL
Friday, Sept. 14
3:30 p.m. - vs. UMBC - LIVE STATS  | LIVE VIDEO
Saturday, Sept. 15
1 p.m. - at Towson - LIVE STATS  | LIVE VIDEO
4:30 p.m. - vs. La Salle - LIVE STATS  |  LIVE VIDEO

• THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team closes the non-conference portion of the season with four matches this week ... The first, a Tuesday home match versus in-state rival IUPUI at 7 p.m. ... The Cardinals then head to Towson, Maryland, for the Tiger Invitational ... BSU will play UMBC (3:30 p.m.) Friday and the host Tigers (1 p.m.) and La Salle (4:30 p.m.) Saturday.

• FOLLOW THE ACTION: Live stats and live video will be available for all four matches this week ... Tuesday's contest versus IUPUI will be broadcast live on ESPN+, while all three matches in the Tiger Invitational will be covered by the Towson Sports Network ... In addition, Tuesday's match versus the Jaguars can be heard live on SL Digital Radio (http://mixlr.com/bsusportslink).

• FOLLOW THE ACTION PART 2: Another great way to follow the Cardinals this season is on social media ... For in-match updates, pre-match features, post-match stories, videos and photos fans can follow the team on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat @BallStateWVB.

• ALL-TIME: Ball State boasts an 895-590-2 (.603) all-time record in women's volleyball over 46-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.

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
• IUPUI enters Tuesday's match with a 2-8 overall record ... Last week, the Jaguars suffered losses to Virginia Tech (3-1), Samford (3-2) and Ohio (3-1) at the Ohio University Tournament ... Maggie Gibson leads IUPUI with a 3.24 kills-per-set average and has also combined with Rebecca Schlechte to set the team to a .154 attack percentage ... Schlechte averages 6.08 assists-per-set, while Gibson is at 3.35 ... Rachel Hickey leads the Jaguars defense with a 4.41 digs-per-set average.

• UMBC enters the week with a 3-6 overall record ... Last week, the Retrievers lost to Robert Morris (3-2) and James Madison (3-1) before ending their own Charm City Challenge with a victory over Loyola (Md.) (3-1) ... Carmen Freeman leads UMBC with a 3.35 kills-per-set average ... Krytsia Negrón has set the Retrievers offense to a .160 rate of success by averaging 9.59 assists per set ... Kristin Watson leads the defense with a 4.29 digs-per-set average.

• Towson enters its second home tournament in as many weeks with a 3-7 overall record ... Last week, the Tigers suffered losses to Princeton (3-2), Long Beach State (3-0), Missouri (3-2) and Ohio State (3-0) at a very tough and competitive Towson Invitational ... Towson has a very balanced offensive attack with four players averaging over 2.0 kills-per-set led by Emily Jarome at 2.89 ... Four different setters have combined to help the Tigers hit .215 on the year, with Kristin Spengler (4.83 assists per set) and Marrisa Wonders (4.70 aps) seeing a majority of the action ... Anna Holehouse leads the defense with a 5.19 digs-per-set average.

• La Salle enters the week 5-4 overall record ... Last week, the Explorers won their own La Salle Invitational with victories over NJIT (3-0), Kent State (3-0) and Rider (3-2) ... Devin Corah leads the La Salle attack with a 4.22 kills-per-set average ... Kathryn Wood has set the team to a .217 attack percentage, averaging 11.75 assists per set ... Jensen Sharrits leads the Explorers defense with a 5.66 digs-per-set average.

BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL QUICK HITS
• Ball State is 15-6 all-time versus this week's opponents, with all but one of those matches being played versus IUPUI ... While the Cardinals hold a 14-6 edge in the all-time series versus the Jaguars, IUPUI has won three straight ... Last season, Ball State won the first two sets in The Jungle, only to see the host Jaguars rally to win the final three to take the Sept. 5, 2017 meeting by a score of 3-2 (18-25, 23-25, 25-17, 25-20, 15-8) ... The Cardinals won the only previous meeting with Towson by a score of 3-0 (25-17, 25-11, 25-18) at the Towson Center on Sept. 19, 2009 ... Ball State will be playing both UMBC and La Salle for the first time in women's volleyball ... A complete series history for each opponent can be found on page four of this release.

• Redshirt senior middle Meg Starling turned in one of the most dominating offensive performances in program history in last season's showdown at IUPUI (Sept. 5, 2017), finishing the match with a .700 (15-1-20) attack percentage ... This season, Starling hit a career-best .727 (8-0-11) in the win over Marshall (Aug. 25) and followed with a .714 (11-1-14) mark versus Grambling to become just the second player in program history to record a .700-or-better attacking mark in back-to-back matches with at least 10 attempts in each one ... The first was Julie Zylka (1998-2001) who hit .727 (8-0-11) versus Tennessee Tech (Sept. 3, 1999) and .724 (22-1-29) versus Austin Peay (Sept. 4, 1999).

• Senior outside attacker Ellie Dunn was named to the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge All-Tournament Team after leading the Ball State offense with 53 kills for a 4.42 kills-per-set average over the two-day tournament ... Dunn turned in a brilliant performance in the team's win over North Dakota State (Sept. 7), collecting 18 kills over three sets and hitting .368 (18-4-38) ... She followed with a season-high 21 kills to lead all players in the five-set loss to Indiana (Sept. 8).

• After her impressive performance at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge, Ellie Dunn ranks fourth in the MAC with a 3.57 kills-per-set average ... She has registered double-digit kills in eight of the Cardinals' nine matches this season, with her 21 kills versus Indiana (Sept. 8) being the seventh-highest individual total in the MAC this season.

• Ball State enters the week ranked third in the MAC with a .236 attack percentage ... Junior middle Sydnee VanBeek paces the Cardinals offense and ranks fourth in the league at .362.

• Ball State's offense connected for a .469 (44-6-81) attack percentage in the win over Grambling State (Aug. 31) which stands as the third-best single match performance in program history ... The only two matches that were better, a .512 mark versus Southeast Missouri (Sept. 9, 2000) and a .506 effort at Indiana State (Oct. 11, 1988).

• Ball State finished the win over Oral Roberts (Sept. 1) with a .306 (62-17-147) attack percentage, marking the third straight match the Cardinals hit .300-or-better following a .385 (48-11-96) mark versus Marshall (Aug. 25) and the .469 (44-6-81) effort against Grambling State (Aug. 31) ... It marks the first time in the rally scoring era (2001-present) Ball State has finished three consecutive matching hitting above .300.

• In addition to a solid attacking performance versus Grambling State (Sept. 1), the Ball State defense limited the Tigers attack to a season-low -.061 (18-23-82) rate of success ... It's Ball State's best all-around effort on defense since holding Tennessee State to a -.084 (14-21-83) rate of success on Sept. 3, 2010.

• The Cardinals defense turned in another gem in the win over North Dakota State (Sept. 7), limiting the Bison to a season-low -.018 (23-25-114) attack percentage ... It's the first time Ball State has limited a pair of opponents to a negative attack percentage in the same season since 2009 ... That year, the Cardinals limited Chicago State (Sept. 21) to a -.055 (13-17-73) rate of success and Central Michigan (Nov. 8) to a -.133 (21-36-113) mark.

• Speaking of big defensive performances, junior libero Kate Avila earned double-digit digs in all three matches of the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge ... She finished the tournament with 54 digs for a 4.50 digs-per-set average ... In addition, she only committed three reception errors over the two-day event to record a .943 (50-for-43) reception percentage.

• With her 54 digs last weekend, Kate Avila climbed two spots from ninth to seventh in program history with 1,271 career digs ... She is the third-fastest player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs, doing so in 57 matches ... Avila is also fourth on Ball State's career charts with a 4.56 digs-per-set average, while her 27 matches with 20-or-more digs and 67 matches with double-figure digs are both fifth.

• With her 117 assists at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge, junior setter Amber Seaman climbed from 11th to 10th in program history with 2,419 career assists ... A 2017 All-MAC Honorable Mention, Seaman dished out 1,111 assists last season to become just the 11th Ball State setter to record over 1,000 assists in a season ... In addition, her 10.00 career assists-per-set average ranks sixth in program history and she is on pace to become only the fifth Cardinal to hand out over 4,000 career assists.

• Amber Seaman led the Cardinals with four service aces at last weekend's Ball State Active Ankle Challenge to raise her career total to 73 ... Seaman, who served up 37 aces last season, is looking to become just the 19th player in program history to reach 100 career aces.

• Freshman opposite Reece Kral had a breakout night Saturday versus Indiana (Sept. 8), recording a career-high 14 kills and hitting .310 (14-5-29) ... She also registered a career-high five block assists and tied her career-high with two digs ... Prior to the match versus the Hoosiers, Kral's career high was six kills versus South Alabama (Aug. 24) and Oral Roberts (Sept. 1).

• Meg Starling led all players with a 1.58 blocks-per-set average at the Ball State Active Ankle Challenge ... Starling registered six blocks versus both Northern Iowa (Sept. 7) and North Dakota State (Sept. 7), while notching season-high seven total blocks against Indiana (Sept. 8) ... With the effort, Starling climbed to third in the MAC with a 1.09 blocks-per-set average.

• A pair of defensive specialist turned in career-best efforts in Ball State's first home weekend of the season, as freshman Cathryn Starck tallied 12 digs in the win over North Dakota State (Sept. 7) and junior Anna Jensen collected 17 digs versus Indiana (Sept. 8) ... Jensen is second among Ball State's backcourt only players with a 2.40 digs-per-set average this season, while Starck is third at 2.00.

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Players Mentioned

Kate Avila

Ellie Dunn

Anna Jensen

Reece Kral

Amber Seaman

Cathryn Starck

Meg Starling

Sydnee VanBeek