Women's Volleyball Travels To Miami & Bowling Green This Weekend

Ball State (7-8; 4-0 MAC) at Miami / Bowling Green
Match 16 - at Miami (4-12; 0-4 MAC)	Friday, Oct. 6 at 7 p.m. ET ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Match 17 - at Bowling Green (7-8; 1-3 MAC)	Saturday, Oct. 7 at 4 p.m. ET ESPN+ \| Live Stats
Notes	Ball State \| Miami \| Bowling Green
Social Media	X (Twitter) \| Instagram

THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL: The Ball State women's volleyball team wraps up a four-match road swing this weekend with a Friday contest at Miami and a Saturday showdown at Bowling Green ... Match times are set for 7 p.m. at Millett Hall Friday and 4 p.m. at the Stroh Center Saturday.

FOLLOW THE ACTION: Fans unable to make their way to either Millett Hall Friday or the Stroh Center Saturday can follow the action with live stats for both matches courtesy of the host institutions ... In addition, both matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ ... Updates from the matches will also be provided on the team's X feed: @BallStateWVB.

BALL STATE ALL-TIME: After running its winning streak to five matches with back-to-back sweeps at Eastern Michigan last weekend, Ball State enters Friday's match at Miami with a 1,002-641-2 (.610) all-time record in women's volleyball ... Thanks to its 3-0 sweep of Central Michigan on Sept. 22, Ball State became just the 44th program in NCAA Division I Women's Volleyball history to reach 1,000 wins ... All-time, the Cardinals have captured 12 MAC West Division Championships, 10 MAC Regular Season Championships and eight MAC Volleyball Championship titles ... Ball State has made 11 appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including three of the last four seasons ... BSU has also earned one bid into the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC).

IN #MACTION: With a 4-0 MAC record so far this season, Ball State maintains its status as the winningest program in league play with a 437-215 (.670) all-time Mid-American Conference mark ... Western Michigan is second on the list, seven matches behind the Cardinals at 430-222 (.660) ... Miami enters the week ranked fourth based on winning percentage at 395-257 (.606), while Bowling Green is right behind in fifth at 377-275 (.578).

THE WORTHEN FACTOR: The Cardinals own an even better record when playing at home, boasting a 311-96 (.764) mark inside Worthen Arena after the Central Michigan series ... Looking at just opponents from the MAC, Ball State is 228-58 (.797) when battling in Worthen Arena ... Overall, no MAC opponent owns a winning record inside Worthen Arena, as the Cardinals have at least a .632 winning percentage against all league schools on its current home floor.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES VS MIAMI: Ball State holds a 47-39 advantage in the all-time series versus the RedHawks, including back-to-back wins ... Last season, the Cardinals earned a 3-0 (25-15, 25-18, 25-20) victory in Millett Hall ... BSU is 18-18 all-time in true road matches in the series, with Miami's last win in the series coming by a score of 3-2 (25-13, 23-25, 23-25, 25-22, 15-11) on its home court March 23, 2021, in the COVID spring season.

THE ALL-TIME SERIES VS BOWLING GREEN: Ball State is 46-21-1 all-time versus the Falcons, with BGSU earning a hard-fought 3-2 (23-25, 25-23, 25-23, 23-25, 15-9) victory in last season's MAC Volleyball Championship Match played Nov. 22 in Worthen Arena ... The Cardinals swept the regular season meeting by a score of 3-0 (25-21, 25-23, 25-22) at Bowling Green's Stroh Center played Oct. 28 ... In fact, Ball State has won the last seven matches on BGSU's home court and is 20-7 all-time in matches played at Bowling Green ... BGSU's last home win in the series was a 3-2 (16-25, 25-20, 25-14, 20-25, 17-15) victory Oct. 24, 2008.

SCOUTING BALL STATE:
• Ball State has opened league play with four consecutive sweeps, raising its overall record to 7-8 (4-0 MAC) ... The Cardinals started the year with a tough pre-conference slate which ended with a 3-0 sweep of East Tennessee State (Sept. 16) ... The win over the Bucs snapped a seven-match losing streak in which the Cardinals battled some of the nation's top teams, including two programs (No. 15 Creighton and No. 20 Dayton) currently inside the Top 25 of the AVCA/Taraflex Coaches Poll.
• Ball State enters the weekend as one of the nation's top blocking programs, ranking first in the MAC and 64th nationally with a 2.38 blocks-per-set average ... Freshman middle Camryn Wise has played a large role in those numbers over the last three weeks, averaging 1.59 blocks per set ... Sophomore opposite Madison Buckley has also helped, climbing to fourth in the MAC with a 0.96 blocks-per-set average.
• On the attacking front, redshirt freshman outside Aniya Kennedy leads the squad and is eighth in the league with a 3.37 kills-per-set average ... Fifth-year middle Marie Plitt is BSU's top attacker by percentage, boasting a .367 hitting percentage which is third in the league.

SCOUTING MIAMI:
• The RedHawks enter a Thursday match versus Toledo with a 4-12 (0-4 MAC) record, having lost five straight ... Miami traveled to NIU last weekend, suffering a 3-2 setback Friday before being swept Saturday.
• Miami enters Friday's match ranked sixth in the conference with a .211 team hitting percentage ... Maggie McCrary paces the squad with a .337 hitting percentage and averages 1.43 kills per set ... Chelsea Williams leads the team at 3.02 kills per set, while Ellie Hanson is right behind at 2.96
• The RedHawks have struggled on the defensive side, ranking last in the league in both opponent hitting percentage (.258) and blocks (1.42), while ranking 11th in digs (13.02).

SCOUTING BOWLING GREEN:
• The Falcons enter a Friday match versus Toledo with a 7-8 (1-3 MAC) record, having lost three straight ... After opening league play with a 3-1 win over Northern Illinois, BGSU suffered a 3-2 setback to NIU the next night before being swept twice at Western Michigan last week.
• Bowling Green, which also played a challenging non-conference schedule, enters the week ranked third in the conference with a .222 hitting percentage ... Lauryn Hovey leads the team's regular attackers with a .252 hitting mark and is 10th in the MAC with a 3.03 kills-per-set average.
• The Falcons own the league's second-best blocking team at 2.16 blocks per set, led by Alexis Mettille at 0.98 and Jessica Andrews at 0.95 ... In the backcourt, BGSU ranks last in the league with an 11.85 digs-per-set average.

BALL STATE QUICK HITS:
• Ball State made a brief stop at home versus Central Michigan Sept. 21-22, improving to 30-3 in Worthen Arena over the past three seasons (Fall 2021-2023) ... BSU has won its last 20 MAC regular season home matches, with its last regular season MAC home loss coming to Central Michigan on March 20, 2021.

• Marie Plitt has picked up right where she left off last season, leading the squad and ranking 71st nationally with a .367 (124-18-289) attack percentage this season ... Her best effort came in the win over Purdue Fort Wayne (Aug. 26) when she smashed 10 kills on 12 swings with one error for a .750 attacking mark ... Plitt also hit .688 in the Sept. 21 win over Central Michigan and has hit .500-or-better in 32 career matches ... In BSU's first four MAC matches this season, Plitt is hitting .506 (41-2-77) and averaging 3.42 kills per set.

• Marie Plitt enters Friday's match at Miami ranked third on Ball State's all-time list with a .354 career hitting percentage ... Plitt has steadily improved each year, hitting .295 as a freshman, .316 as a sophomore, .360 as a junior and a Ball State single season record .404 last year ... She is the first player in program history to hit .400-or-above in a single season ... Ball State's career record for attack percentage is .360 set by Julie Zilka from 1998-2001.

• Marie Plitt, who became Ball State's all-time leader in sets played last Saturday at Eastern Michigan, became the 13th player in program history to reach 1,000 career kills with her first of 10 markers in last season's NCAA Tournament opening round match at No. 16 Marquette ... With 1133 career kills, Plitt needs two more to break into the top 10 in BSU history, with Mindy Stanley (1993-96) currently ranking 10th at 1,135.

• Marie Plitt has also made her presence felt at the net over her career ranking fifth in program history with 381 career blocks ... She is seventh on Ball State's all-time charts with 308 career block assists, while ranking 10th all-time with 73 solo blocks ... Plitt is averaging 0.88 blocks-per-set so far this season, her best mark since averaging 1.05 during the 2021 spring COVID season.

• Fifth-year defensive specialist Havyn Gates has served as starting libero in 14 of Ball State's 15 matches this season, and has now started in the off-colored jersey 19 times in her Ball State career ... She was credited with a season-high 26 digs in the near upset at No. 20 Creighton (Sept. 1) and followed with 22 versus UNI (Sept. 2), giving her 26 career matches with 20-or-more digs ... Gates' Ball State career-high is 33 digs in the five-set thriller at Central Michigan (Sept. 24, 2022) ... Gates, who registered 42 digs in a match as a freshman at Indiana Wesleyan in 2019, has 1,964 career digs including 840 in her three seasons at BSU and 1,124 over her two-year career at IWU.

• Megan Wielonski, who currently ranks seventh in program history with 3,261 career assists, has proven to be one of the nation's elite setters ... In fact, her 3,261 career assists currently rank 18th among all active NCAA Division I players ... As a freshman, she finished the 2021 season ranked second nationally with 1,394 total assists ... Her sophomore campaign saw her ranked fourth nationally with 1,358 total assists in 2022 ... 15 matches into the 2023 season and Wielonski is 88th nationally with 508 total assists.

• In addition to being one of the nation's top setters, Megan Wielonski is one of the country's top servers with 122 career aces ... The total currently ranks 10th in program history ... As a freshman, she ranked eighth among all NCAA Division I players with 58 aces, including a career-high seven vs. Ohio (Sept. 30, 2021) ... Her 58 aces in 2021 tied as the sixth most in a single season in Ball State history and were a single season record for a BSU setter, topping Amber Seaman's total of 51 in 2018 ... Last season, she ranked 55th nationally with 46 service aces, while she has a team-leading 18 aces so far this season.

• Madison Buckley has made a big impact so far this season, ranking second on the squad with a 2.52 kills-per-set average ... Her biggest match so far came at No. 20 Creighton (Sept. 1) when she smashed a career-high 14 kills, a mark she later tied versus UIC (Sept. 9) ... Buckley has also made her presence felt at the net, ranking fourth in the MAC with a 0.96 blocks-per-set average ... She has a team-best 50 total blocks this season, including two solo blocks and 48 block assists.

• Aniya Kennedy enters Friday's match at Miami as one of the league's top attackers, ranking eighth in the MAC with her team-leading 3.37 kills-per-set average ... She has smashed double-digit kills in nine matches, while leading the team in kills in eight outings ... Kennedy's best match came versus UNI (Sept. 2) when she smashed a career-high 16 kills, the most for a Ball State student-athlete in a match so far this season, and a mark she tied versus ETSU (Sept. 16).

• After not seeing action in the first nine matches of the season, freshman Camryn Wise has found a home in the middle of the court over the last three weeks, boasting a team-leading 1.59 blocks-per-set average ... She has registered at least two blocks in all six matches she has played, while tallying a career-high eight total blocks in the Sept. 22 sweep of Central Michigan ... Wise has also aided from the attack line, with 19 kills and a .333 hitting percentage.

• Ball State has won its last 15 sets which ties No. 3 Stanford and Wofford as the fifth-longest active streak in the nation ... Only Southeastern Louisiana (24), No. 7 Pitt (21), Grand Canyon (21) and No. 1 Wisconsin (18) have longer active streaks.

Women's Volleyball Travels To Miami & Bowling Green This Weekend

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Madison Buckley

Havyn Gates

Aniya Kennedy

Marie Plitt

Megan Wielonski

Camryn Wise