Last season, the Ball State women's volleyball team (18-16) weredismissed from the NCAA tournament by Louisville (23-5) in theBSU's final match of the year. This year, Ball State turned thetables by taking down No. 17 Louisville in BSU's season finale.
The match was part of the Conference-USA/Mid-American ConferenceChallenge. The weekend event featured teams from Ball State, No. 20Cincinnati, Louisville and Western Michigan. The conferences splitthe event with the MAC claiming victories by way of Ball State's3-2 win against Louisville and WMU's 3-1 upset of Cincinnati, bothof which came on Saturday, the second day of the Challenge.
Ball State opened the Challenge on Friday with a 3-0 loss toCincinnati. The Bearcats dominated the Cardinals in the match, andhead coach Randy Litchfield said the team's spirit was all butshot.
"After Friday night, we could not have been lower," he said.
The following day though, Ball State returned to the floor totake on Louisville in the Battle of the Cardinals. Early in thematch, Louisville looked to be in control as Ball State struggledwith the fundamentals.
"Serving was the big story," Litchfield said. "We could notserve a ball inbounds in games one and two."
After that though, Ball State began to storm back. Trailing 2-0,BSU's Cardinals were able to take the next two games of the matchto force a fifth and deciding game.
In the final set, Louisville got out early with a 7-3 lead. BallState clawed back to tie the game at eight all, but then fellbehind again when Louisville went on a 3-0 run. BSU then rallied togo up 13-11. Louisville would not go easily though and tied thematch again at 13 all. The two teams of Cardinals battled fromthere with Ball State having to go to its third match point beforesecuring the victory with a 18-16 game five win.
While the final score sheet showed Louisville with the upperhand in many statistical stories, Litchfield said that the numberswere skewed because of how dominate Louisville was in the firstgame.
"Outside of game one, I felt like we played them either deadeven or totally out played them," he said. "To rebound to beat agreat team on their home court on senior night was justamazing."
According to Litchfield, one of the key elements in the matchwas the play of Ball State freshman Kirby Gibson, who scored acareer-high 17 kills and .536 hitting percentage in the match..
"Kirby is on this team to give us match ups against these bigteams," he said. "For a freshman who had to play out of positionall year to put up those numbers was the difference maker in thematch."
Also putting up big numbers for Ball State were sophomoreoutside attacker Sarah Obras (match-high 26 kills, 16 digs), juniorsetter Stacie Baldwin (match-high 55 assists, team-high five aces)and junior libero Stephanie Keller (match-high 34 digs).
The win, Ball State's first against a ranked opponent since Oct.1, 1996 when it downed No. 12 Notre Dame, will always have aspecial place in the book of his career said Litchfield.
"It is definitely one of the strangest," he said. "It has asurreal feel to it. Time will tell, but I feel like it may be oneof our most important wins. This team needed to find out that itcould win against a big powerhouse like that."
With the Cardinals returning all but one on their currentroster, Litchfield feels the upset of Louisville bodes well for thefuture of the program.
"It is a sign of great things to come."
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