OXFORD, Ohio -- The women's volleyball team suffered more thanone loss on Wednesday. In addition to falling to Miami 3-1, juniorSarah Obras was forced to come out of the game with a left kneeinjury.
Obras went down towards the end of game one after she attempteda kill, but had it blocked, and then landed in a way that stressedher knee. After she fell to the floor, the play was stopped.
She was carried off the court, and went to the locker room aftergame one, and returned to the bench on crutches with her legimmobilized.
Obras will visit the doctor today to figure out what the extentof the injury is.
The loss of Obras affected the team's offense. The Cardinals hadno one finish with double figure kill totals and were led by juniorRachel Refenes and sophomore Kelly Cochran with eight kills apiece.Ball State had a negative hitting percentage in the final threegames after hitting .184 in game one.
While the loss of Obras affected the team, head coach RandyLitchfield said that was not a good excuse.
"We played like crap," he said. "Everybody is going to look tothat as an excuse, but the reality is that after she went down webuckled down and won game one."
After Obras went out of the game, Ball State went on a 4-0 runwhich gave them a big enough advantage to hold on to get the 30-26win.
Refenes opened game two to give the Cardinals an advantage, butit was their only of the game. Ball State had several netviolations throughout the match and also saw several balls go out,causing them to lose 30-18.
Ball State was able to command the middle half of game three,but fell behind 21-16 after the RedHawks went on a seven point run.The Cardinals mounted a mini-comeback to draw within two, but Miamiwent on a 7-3 run, winning 30-24.
Once again, the Cardinals failed to perform offensively in gamefour and ended up loosing 30-17.
"It's pretty hard to play volleyball when you hope the worldwill throw a pity party for you," Litchfield said. "Felling sorryfor yourself is no way to go through life."
Ball State can lock up the No. 2 seed in the MAC tournament witha win against Eastern Michigan on Friday. Litchfield said it is theplayers who must get the team ready for this weekend's twomatchups, not him.
"Right now it's going to be the players who are going to make adecision, and right now their decision is to roll over and playdead," he said.
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