12 Straight; Volleyball Sweeps Kent State In Thursday #MACtion

MUNCIE, Ind. - - Senior libero Maggie Huber set the tone for the Ball State women's volleyball team Thursday night, collecting a match-high 24 digs in a dominating 3-0 (25-15, 25-19, 25-17) sweep of Kent State in Worthen Arena.

In picking up its 12th consecutive win, the Cardinals (20-6; 12-2 Mid-American Conference) also became the first league program to reach 20 total wins this season. It is the fourth 20-win season for seventh-year head coach Kelli Miller Phillips and the 29th in program history.

"Coming in, we knew Kent State was going to throw a couple different looks at us," Phillips said. "They've had a couple injuries and haven't had the same lineup in several weeks. Since we didn't know what they were going to do, we came out with the mindset of controlling our side of the net. Early on, we had to weather a couple big moments from them, but we stayed the course, focused on our side, and took care of business."

Key to that control was the play of Huber who made some spectacular digs early on and helped limit the Golden Flashes (13-12; 4-10 MAC) to a .156 (35-18-109) rate of success for the match. Huber's 24 digs, including nine alone in the opening set, were the most in a three-set match for Ball State player this season.

The Cardinals also made their presence felt at the net early on with five blocks in the opening frame, including a pair of solo stuffs from senior outside Natalie Risi. Overall, Ball State finished the match with a 53-to-46 edge in total digs and a 9.0-to-2.0 advantage in blocks.

On the offensive end, junior outside Cait Snyder led the way with 14 kills, giving her double figures in each of the last six matches, and nine times in the last 10. Senior opposite Natalie Mitchem was not far behind, blasting 10 kills and hitting .409 (10-1-22).

With the 10 kills, Mitchem needs just three more to become only the 12th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills. She will enter her senior night with 997.

Senior middle Marie Plitt also continued to shine, smashing eight kills and hitting .500 (8-1-14). The effort raised her MAC-leading attack percentage to .405 on the year.

Setting it all up was sophomore Megan Wielonski who recorded her 16th double-double of the season with 35 assists and 10 digs. She also served up one of BSU's four aces, while guiding the offense to a .340 (45-9-106) attack percentage. It was the seventh match BSU has hit .320-or-better this season, all wins.

Risi would finish the night with five kills, three digs, two solo blocks, two aces, and two assists in another all-round solid effort.

Mia Soerensen led the Kent State attack with 11 kills, while Erin Gardner collected a team-best 12 digs. Gardner also put together a strong service run in the third set, helping KSU rally from down 9-5 to take a 10-9 advantage.

"In the last set, when they made their run on the short serve, I talked to the team about responding faster," Phillips said. "We can't let them do the same thing over and over, causing us problems. It's a good learning point for us, making sure we make those adjustments faster."

The Cardinals and Golden Flashes will reset and do it again Friday evening for senior night and Take Flight Movie Night in Worthen. First serve is set for 6 p.m.

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Team Stats

Cait Snyder

Natalie Mitchem

Marie Plitt

Lauren Gilliland