Ball State University
Bowling Green - MAC Quarterfinals
Volleyball Travels To Kalamazoo For MAC Championship
November 17, 2023 | Women's Volleyball
| No. 3 Ball State (16-13) at 2023 MAC Women's Volleyball Championship | |
| Match 30 - vs. No. 6 Bowling Green | Saturday, Nov. 18 at 6:30 p.m. ET ESPN+Â Â | Â Live Stats |
| Match 31 - vs. No. 2 Buffalo | Sunday, Nov. 19 at 6:30 p.m. ET ESPN+Â Â | Â Live Stats |
| Match 32 - vs. MAC Championship | Monday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. ET ESPN+Â Â | Â Live Stats |
| Notes | Ball State | Bowling Green | MAC Volleyball Championship Central |
| Social Media | X (Twitter)Â | Â Instagram |
THIS WEEK IN BALL STATE VOLLEYBALL: The postseason begins Saturday, when the No. 3 seed Ball State women's volleyball team opens MAC Women's Volleyball Championship play with a 6:30 p.m. first serve versus No. 6 seed Bowling Green ... It is the second quarterfinal of the day, with the winner advancing to face No. 2 seed Buffalo Saturday at 6:30 p.m. ... The entire tournament will be hosted by No. 1 seed Western Michigan and will be played at University Arena in Kalamazoo.
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FOLLOW THE ACTION: All five MAC Women's Volleyball Championship matches will be broadcast live on ESPN+ ... In addition, live stats will be provided by Western Michigan Athletics ... Links to follow the #MACtion can be found on the league's tournament central page linked above.
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IN THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS: Ball State will be making its 34th all-time appearance in the MAC Volleyball Championships in 2023, owning a 37-25 (.597) overall record and eight tournament titles (1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1999, 2002, 2019, and 2021) ... The Cardinals' 37 tournament wins are the most in MAC Championship history, while its eight titles are second, trailing only Ohio's nine ... Overall, the Cardinals own a 5-2 (.714) record in first round matches, a 12-9 (.650) mark in quarterfinal play, an 12-10 (.545) ledger in semifinal action, and an 8-4 (.667) record in the championship match ... Ball State has advanced to the championship match in three of the last four tournaments.
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ON THE ALL-TOURNAMENT SQUAD: With a pair of MAC All-Tournament selections last season, Ball State moved into a tie for first in conference history with 34 MAC All-Tournament selections ... The Cardinals are also second all-time with eight MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player award winners ... Only Ohio has more MVPs at nine ... For their part in guiding the Cardinals to last season's championship match, Marie Plitt and Maggie Huber earned all-tournament honors ... It was the second straight season Plitt was named to the squad.
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BALL STATE ALL-TIME: The Ball State enters the MAC Championship with a 1,011-646-2 (.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).
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IN #MACTION: Ball State finished the 2023 regular season with a 13-5 MAC record to maintains its status as the winningest program in league play with a 446-220 (.670) all-time Mid-American Conference mark ... Western Michigan is second on the list, two matches behind the Cardinals at 444-222 (.667).
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THE WORTHEN FACTOR: The Cardinals own an even better record when playing at home, boasting a 318-96 (.768) all-time mark inside Worthen Arena ... Looking at just opponents from the MAC, Ball State is 235-58 (.802) when battling in Worthen Arena ... Overall, no MAC opponent owns a winning record inside Worthen Arena, as the Cardinals have at least a .650 winning percentage against all league schools on its current home floor.
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MORE FROM THE HOME FRONT: After picking up a pair of home wins over Northern Illinois last weekend, Ball State improved to 37-3 in Worthen Arena over the past three seasons (Fall 2021-2023) ... BSU has won its last 27 MAC regular season home matches, with its last regular season MAC home loss coming to Central Michigan on March 20, 2021.
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THE ALL-TIME VS. THE TOURNAMENT FIELD: Ball State enters the MAC Volleyball Championship with a 3-5 record versus the tournament field this season ... In MAC Championship play, the Cardinals are 16-13 versus the field, while they are 247-107-1 all-time against opponents it could face, staring with a 47-21-1 mark against Saturday's quarterfinal opponent No. 6 seed Bowling Green.
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Ball State vs. 2023 MAC Championship Field
| Opponent | 2023 | Tournament | All-Time |
| No. 1 Western Michigan | 0-2 | 3-5 | 55-50 (L2) |
| No. 2 Buffalo | 0-2 | 2-0 | 28-3 (L2) |
| No. 4 Ohio | 1-0 | 2-5 | 43-21 (W2) |
| No. 5 Toledo | 1-1 | 1-1 | 74-12 (L1) |
| No. 6 Bowling Green | 1-0 | 8-2 | 47-21-1 (W1) |
| Overall | 3-5 | 16-13 | 247-107-1 |
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SCOUTING BALL STATE:
• Ball State enters the 2023 MAC Championships with a 16-13 (13-5 MAC) record after closing the regular season with a 3-0 loss at Toledo Wednesday ... BSU's only five MAC losses have come to top seed WMU, second seed Buffalo and the fifth-seeded Rockets ... Prior to league play, the Cardinals faced one of the MAC's toughest non-conference slates, including three programs (No. 15 Creighton, No. 19 Dayton and No. 22 Western Kentucky) currently ranked inside the Top 25 of the AVCA/Taraflex Coaches Poll.
• Ball State is one of the nation's top blocking programs, ranking second in the MAC and 119th nationally with a 2.20 blocks-per-set average ... Freshman middle Camryn Wise has played a large role in those numbers over the last 10 weeks, averaging a league-best 1.11 blocks per set which ranks 103rd among all NCAA Division I players.
• On the attacking front, redshirt freshman outside Aniya Kennedy leads the league and ranks 31st nationally with a 4.09 kills-per-set average ... Fifth-year middle Marie Plitt is BSU's top attacker by percentage, boasting a .402 rate of success which is second in the league and 20th nationally.
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BALL STATE QUICK HITS:
• Marie Plitt currently leads the squad and ranks 20th nationally with a .402 (278-37-600) attack percentage ... 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 .722 (13-0-18) in the win over Kent State (Oct. 27) and .688 (11-0-16) in the victory over Central Michigan (Sept. 21) ... Overall, she has hit .500-or-better in 36 career matches ... In BSU's 18 MAC matches this season, Plitt is hitting a league-best .448 (195-21-388) and averaging 2.95 kills per set.
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• Marie Plitt enters the MAC Championship atop Ball State's all-time list with a .363 career hitting percentage, just ahead Julie Zilka's (1998-2001) .360 mark ... 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.
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• Marie Plitt, who became Ball State's all-time leader in sets played at Eastern Michigan (Sept. 30), 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 1287 career kills, Plitt currently ranks sixth in program history and needs 76 more to pass Katie Butts' (1999-2002) total of 1,362 for sixth.
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• Marie Plitt has also made her presence felt at the net over her career, ranking fifth in program history with 418 career blocks ... She is fifth on Ball State's all-time charts with 335 career block assists, while ranking ninth with 83 solo blocks.
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• Fifth-year defensive specialist Havyn Gates has served as starting libero in 28 of Ball State's 29 matches this season, and has now started in the off-colored jersey 33 times in her Ball State career ... She became the 20th player in program history to reach 1,000 career digs at Ball State with her second of a match-high 21 digs versus Northern Illinois (Nov. 10) ... She enters the MAC Championship with 1,050 digs as a Cardinal ... Throw in her 1,124 digs over her two-year career at Indiana Wesleyan (2019-2020) and she owns 2,174 collegiate digs.
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• Havyn Gates was collected a season-high 26 digs in the near upset at then-No. 20 Creighton (Sept. 1) and followed with 22 versus UNI (Sept. 2) ... Add 20 digs at Buffalo (Oct. 21), 20 at Western Michigan (Nov. 3), 21 in the first win over NIU (Nov. 10) and 20 more in the second victory over the Huskies (Nov. 11) and Gates has 30 career matches with 20-or-more digs ... Gates earned a Ball State career-high 33 digs in the five-set thriller at Central Michigan (Sept. 24, 2022), while registering 42 digs in a match as a freshman at Indiana Wesleyan in 2019.
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• Megan Wielonski, who currently ranks sixth in program history with 3,861 career assists, has proven to be one of the nation's elite setters ... In fact, her 3,861 career assists currently rank 14th 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 ended with her ranked fourth nationally with 1,358 total assists in 2022 ... 28 matches into the 2023 season and Wielonski is 15th nationally with 1,108 total assists.
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• In addition to being one of the nation's top setters, Megan Wielonski is one of the country's top servers with 137 career aces ... The total currently ranks sixth 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 33 aces so far this season.
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• Aniya Kennedy enters the MAC Championship leading the league and ranked 31st nationally with a 4.09 kills-per-set average ... She's even better in league play, with a 4.56 kills-per-set average ... She has smashed double-digit kills in 23 matches, while leading the team in kills in 20 outings ... In BSU's four-set win over Akron (Oct. 13), Kennedy was credited with a career-high 25 kills, a mark she later tied at Western Michigan (Nov. 3).
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 • In fact, Aniya Kennedy's 25 kills versus Akron (Oct. 13) and at WMU (Nov. 3) are the most for a Ball State player in a match since Kia Holder (2017-20) logged 27 at Eastern Michigan on March 27, 2021 ... In addition, the 25 kills tie as the eighth-most by a MAC player in a match this season and are the fourth-best total by a league attacker in a four-set match ... Kennedy is the first Ball State player to register multiple 20+ kill matches in the same season since Natalie Risi (2019-22) had two as a freshman in 2019 ... In fact, her six matches with 20-or-more kills this season tie as the 10th-most in a single season in program history.
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• Madison Buckley has also made a big impact from the attack line, ranking third on the squad at 2.41 kills per set ... Her biggest match came when she blasted a career-high 16 kills versus NIU (Nov. 11) ... She also added 14 kills at then-No. 20 Creighton (Sept. 1), versus UIC (Sept. 9) and at Buffalo (Oct. 20) ... Buckley has also made her presence felt at the net, ranking second on the team with an 0.85 blocks-per-set average ... She has a team-best 90 total blocks this season, including five solo blocks and 85 block assists.
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• Freshman Camryn Wise has found a home in the middle of the court over the last 10 weeks, boasting a team and MAC-leading 1.11 blocks-per-set average ... She has earned at least two blocks in 18 of the 20 matches she has played, including a career-high nine in four-set wins over Akron (Oct. 14) and Ohio (Oct. 28) ... Wise has also aided from the attack line, with 80 kills and a .351 hitting percentage, including a career-high 11 kills at Buffalo (Oct. 21).
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• Freshman outside attacker Kendall Barnes has been heating up as of late, including a career-high 14 kills versus NIU (Nov. 10) ... That followed a 10-kill effort at Western Michigan (Nov. 4), which was the first double-dig kill match of her collegiate career.
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• Ball State ranks fourth in the MAC and 76th nationally with a 15.35 digs-per-set average ... Havyn Gates leads the squad and is sixth in the MAC with her 4.05 average ... Megan Wielonski is not far behind, ranking second on the team at 2.51 digs per set ... Wielonski is also nine digs shy of 1,000 for her career.
