Volleyball Opens MAC Play Friday at Western Michigan

THIS WEEK'S LINKS
Friday, Sept. 21
7 p.m. - at Western Michigan - LIVE STATS | ESPN3 VIDEO
Saturday, Sept. 22
8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT - at Northern Illinois - LIVE STATS

• THE WEEK AHEAD: The Ball State women's volleyball team opens Mid-American Conference play with a pair of road matches this weekend ... The Cardinals start with a Friday stop in Kalamazoo, Michigan for a 7 p.m. first serve versus Western Michigan ... Ball State visits DeKalb, Illinois Saturday for an 8 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. CT match up versus Northern Illinois.

• FOLLOW THE ACTION: Live stats will be available for both matches this weekend courtesy of the home institutions ... In addition, Friday's match at Western Michigan will be broadcast live on ESPN3.

• 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 899-590-2 (.604) 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.

• IN THE MAC: Ball State enters Friday's match at Western Michigan with a 369-190 (.660) all-time record in Mid-American Conference play ... The only program with a better all-time league mark is the Broncos at 378-181 (.676) ... Saturday's opponent Northern Illinois is third all-time based on winning percentage at 260-148 (.637).

SCOUTING THE OPPOSITION
• The only team in the MAC to earn more non-conference wins than the Cardinals this season is Friday's opponent Western Michigan at 10-4 ... Last weekend, the Broncos went 2-1 at the Michigan State Tournament with wins over UAB (3-1) and Albany (3-0) before losing to the host Spartans (3-1) ... Rachel Bontrager leads the WMU offense, and the MAC, with a 4.08 kills-per-set average ... Mary Murphy has set the team to a .237 attack percentage, averaging a league-best 10.00 assists per set ... In the backcourt, Kathleen Reilly averaged a team-high 4.94 digs per set.

• Northern Illinois enters the week with a 2-13 overall record ... The Huskies closed non-conference play with five matches last week, losing to Chicago State (3-1) and Southeast Missouri State (3-2) at home, before dropping three matches at the WKU Tournament to No. 22 Washington State (3-0), East Tennessee State (3-0) and the host Lady Toppers (3-2) ... Meg Wolowicz leads the NIU offense, and ranks second in the MAC, with a 4.07 kills-per-set average ... Grace Balensiefer has done a majority of the setting for the Huskies, helping lead the team to a .172 attack percentage by handing out 7.09 assists per set ... Miranda Karlen leads the NIU defense at 4.62 digs per set.

BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL QUICK HITS
• While Ball State has won the last four regular season meetings with Western Michigan, the Broncos have battled back to pick up MAC Tournament victories each year to maintain a slim 47-46 advantage in the all-time series ... In fact, Ball State has swept the regular season series in four of the last five seasons (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), only to fall to WMU in tournament play each year ... The Broncs swept the 2015 regular season series, with the teams failing to meet in the postseason ... Ball State is 17-23 all-time in matches played in Kalamazoo, including two straight wins ... In its last trip to University Arena, the Cardinals earned a hard-fought 3-2 (22-25, 25-21, 16-25, 25-21, 15-10) win on Nov. 11, 2017.

• Ball State snapped a four-match losing streak to Northern Illinois with a 3-1 (13-25, 25-18, 25-17, 25-13) win at Victor E. Court on Nov. 10, 2017 ... With the win, the Cardinals cut NIU's lead in the all-time series to 35-31 ... Overall, Ball State is 10-20 all-time in matches played in DeKalb, Illinois.

• Redshirt senior middle Meg Starling earned MAC West Division Defensive Player of the Week honors for the first time in her career after collecting 23 total blocks (seven solo and 16 assists) and averaging 1.64 blocks per set to help lead Ball State to a perfect 4-0 record last week ... She opened the week with seven total blocks (two solo and five assists) in the sweep of IUPUI (Sept. 11) and followed with seven more (two solo and five assists) in the five-set victory over UMBC (Sept. 14) ... After collecting three blocks (one solo and two assists) in the sweep at Towson (Sept. 15), including the block that ended the match, Starling added six more (two solo and four assists) in the victory over La Salle (Sept. 15) to help the Cardinals clinch the Tiger Invitational championship.

• Thanks to her solid play at the net last week, Meg Starling climbed to second in the MAC with a 1.26 blocks-per-set average ... The average also ranks 52nd nationally as of matches through Sept. 17... In addition, Starling's 58 total blocks are the most in the MAC and rank 29th among all NCAA Division I players.

• On offense, Meg 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 (Aug. 31) 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 enters the start of MAC play ranked fifth in the league with a 3.57 kills-per-set average ... She has registered double-digit kills in 11 of the Cardinals' 13 matches this season, with her 21 kills versus Indiana (Sept. 8) being the 11th-highest individual total in the MAC this season ... She also registered 20 kills in last Friday's five-set victory over UMBC (Sept. 14).

• With her 20 total kills in last Saturday's wins over Towson (Sept. 15) and La Salle (Sept. 15), Ellie Dunn raised her career kill total to 848 which continues to rank 16th in program history ... Dunn, who is tied for 13th on Ball State's career charts with double-figure kills in 47 career matches, also raised her career kills-per-set average to 2.71 which is just outside the top 20.

• Ball State enters the week leading the MAC with a .238 team attack percentage ... Junior middle Sydnee VanBeek paces the Cardinals offense and ranks fourth in the league at .361, while Meg Starling is second on the team and ninth in the league at .295.

• With 74 digs last weekend, Kate Avila climbed one spot to sixth in program history with 1,345 career digs ... Avila needs 234 more digs to pass Amanda McCormick's (2005-06) career total of 1,579 for fifth on Ball State's all-time digs list ... Avila is also fourth on Ball State's career charts with a 4.59 digs-per-set average, while her 28 matches with 20-or-more digs and 71 matches with double-figure digs are both fifth.

• Kate Avila was the is the third-fastest player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs, doing so in 57 matches ... Amanda McCormick (2005-06), who transferred to Ball State after playing two years at Nebraska, is the fastest player to reach 1,000 career digs at Ball State, doing so in 43 matches ... The only other Ball State player to record 1,000 career digs 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 ... Stephanie Keller (2001-04), the program's all-time digs leader at 2,273 and Avila's high school coach at Yorktown, reached 1,000 career digs in 70 matches.

• With her 128 assists last week, junior setter Amber Seaman remains 10th in program history with 2,547 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 9.95 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 served up five more aces last week to raise her career total to 78 ... Seaman, who leads Ball State with 15 aces this season, is looking to become just the 19th player in program history to reach 100 career aces.

• The Tiger Invitational was fill of big runs for the Cardinals, starting with a 12-point run in the fourth set of Friday's win over UMBC (Sept. 14) ... Ball State opened Saturday's match versus Towson (Sept. 15) with a nine-point run and added a seven-point run early in the third set ... In the tournament finale versus La Salle (Sept. 15), the Cardinals went on an eight-point run midway through the second set to help secure the tournament championship.

• 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.

Volleyball Opens MAC Play Friday at Western Michigan

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Players Mentioned

Ellie Dunn