FAIRBORN, Ohio -- The women's volleyball team was not only ableto win its first season opener in four years, but they did ithandily, downing Wright State in straight sets.
"I thought we were really dominant," head coach Randy Litchfieldsaid. "[We were] way too sloppy at times, and that sloppiness couldcost us down the road somewhere."
The sloppiness was most evident in game two, when Ball State wasunable to build an advantage of more than three points until latein the game. Wright State took two one-point leads in the middle ofthe game, but BSU outscored the Raiders 7-1 to close the game andwin 30-23.
Ball State won the first set 30-22 and closed out the match30-19 in the third.
"It was good to have that test in game two and see how we'drespond," Litchfield said. "Our sloppiness made it real tight untilpoint 20, then we got really good after that."
Junior Sarah Obras got her seventh kill of the game and 1,200thof her career when she gave the Cards a 20-19 advantage in thesecond set. She is the sixth player in Ball State history to reachthe game, and finished with a team-high 11 kills and 10 digs.
Two junior middle attackers, Rachel Refenes and Kristin Westhof,each contributed nine kills. Westhof also led in blocks, gettingtwo solos and four block assists.
"Kristin's off to a great start for us," Litchfield said."Kristin really deserves to play well. That's how hard sheworks."
Refenes, who transferred from Mississippi, said the sets she hadwere all great, which helped her hitting.
"It went really good, everything really connected and it justshowed that all our practice paid off," she said.
Senior Stephanie Keller led the Cards with 17 digs, while seniorStacie Baldwin dished out 26 assists.
Three members besides Refenes played their first collegiatematch. Redshirt freshman Angie Parrell had 13 assists and a pair ofkills. Freshman Lauren Robbins recorded three kills and two digs inthe third game, and freshman Brittany May also saw time.
The two previous seasons, the Cardinals have lost their openingmatch to the eventual national champion USC Trojans, but this yearObras said the win was needed.
"I think it was great to finally finish a team in three thefirst game of the year," Obras said. "I think we really needed todominate a team after we came back from Brazil, and we did justthat."
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