A weekend that began with the Ball State women's volleyball teamgetting stranded in Atlanta due to Hurricane Ivan, ended with twowins.
After losing to No. 9 Illinois on Friday the Cardinals defeatedArkansas (3-0) and Houston (3-2) in the C&C ServicesInvitational on Saturday, giving them a 5-5 record on the year.
Prior to this weekend head coach Randy Litchfield said the teamhad been falling short of competing on a consistent basis, but itturned that around at the invitational held in Arkansas.
"This weekend we reversed that and we constantly pushedourselves," Litchfield said.
The team left early Thursday morning with plans of arriving inFayetteville, Ark. that afternoon and getting a practice in.Instead it was stranded in Atlanta due to the storm and didn'tarrive in Arkansas until a few hours before its first match againstIllinois.
Even though the team lost 3-1 (30-23, 33-35, 30-23, 30-23)Litchfield said the players did their job to get focused but justcame up a little short.
"I was really proud of the way we competed," he said. "We losttwo critical practices that I think you need when you're going toplay a team of that caliber."
Junior Sarah Obras led the Cardinals against Illinois with aseason-high 29 kills and would continue to pace the team the restof the weekend.
The next day, the Cardinals broke their five-game losing streakwith a 3-0 (30-25, 30-25, 30-28) win over Arkansas.
"To beat an upper level SEC team on their home court, as we didon Saturday morning, was a very big confidence boost," Litchfieldsaid.
The team used that boost to help get an impressive 3-2 (28-30,30-19, 30-20, 28-30, 16-14) victory over Houston in the final matchof the weekend. Ball State recorded 23 total team blocks, 10 morethan Houston in the contest, which tied for the third most inschool history.
"That blocking performance came entirely after game one,"Litchfield said. "Rachel Refenes really got us going with nineblocks alone in game two."
Refenes and sophomore Kirby Gibson both had career high blocktotals of 12 and 10, respectively.
"You get two players on the court blocking at that level it willusually lead you to a win."
Over the weekend Litchfield said the play of Refenes, Obras andsenior Stephanie Keller was very solid, but the whole teamcontributed on Saturday.
One of those players was sophomore Kelly Cochran who had 22kills during the day. Litchfield said it is important for the teamto have her perform well on the left side.
"What we got on Saturday was an entire roster that played well,"Litchfield said.
The team has one more non-conference matchup against IUPUI onTuesday before the start the Mid-American Conference schedule thisweekend.
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