The women's volleyball team returns to Worthen Arena thisweekend for the start of four straight home matches.
Ball State (13-6, 6-1) will look to win its eighth straightmatch against Marshall (14-6, 5-1) on Friday and continue thestreak again on Saturday against Northern Illinois (8-12, 3-4).Both matches are at 7 p.m.
"It's always nice to be home," senior Stephanie Keller said."When it's your home court, everything is comfortable and it's justyour niche and you like playing here."
While it's nice for the players, so far this season theCardinals have not had a great home-court advantage.
During their seven home games this season, the Cardinals haveaveraged 469 fans. Head coach Randy Litchfield said that during2002, when the team won its last Mid-American Conferencechampionship, he remembered over 1,000 fans and would like to getback to that this season.
"We've got a championship caliber volleyball team here and we'replaying very good volleyball, very exciting volleyball," Litchfieldsaid. "I would sure love to start seeing our crowds start comingback into the arena."
A strong crowd may help the Cardinals in their matchup againstMarshall on Saturday. Marshall is on a six-match winning streak andis led by the MAC's kills-per-game leader, Kelly-Anne Billingy, whoaverages 5.75 kills per game. Litchfield said the match will be theteam's biggest since they handed Eastern Michigan its firstconference loss on October 9.
"The championship hunt is on and the challenge is to approachevery match with it's proper respect," Litchfield said. "A team asgood as Marshall is really should allow us no difficulties ingetting very well prepared."
Since Ball State will only get one chance to play Marshall,Keller said it is a good opportunity for the team to make astatement, especially since Marshall had a good season last yearand almost won the MAC.
"I'm sure that they're coming out with something to prove, andthen again, we're coming out saying, 'We're not going to let youthink that you're going to win the MAC this year,'" Kellersaid.
Northern Illinois is also led by a strong hitter, Tera Lobdell,who ranks second in the MAC in kills per game with 5.52. Litchfieldsaid the team will use some new blocking schemes to help stop theleaders for both teams.
"Both of the matches this weekend will call for some creativitybecause both teams are really led by one specific player,"Litchfield said.
The Cardinals expect junior defensive specialist Stephanie Bacanback who has been sick and missed two straight matches, howeverLitchfield said he is not sure if she will have her full strengthback.
Ball State will still be able to rely on Keller in thebackcourt. With 49 kills last week, she now has the seventh bestcareer digs total in NCAA history with 2,035. Keller can move upmore this weekend, possibly ending with the fourth best total.
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