Last season at Miami, Sarah Obras fell down in the first game of the Ball State women's volleyball match and tore her ACL. On Friday she played Miami, in the Mid-American Conference opener, for the first time since the match, and had her best game in almost a year.
Obras racked up 23 kills and a .298 hitting percentage over the Cardinals 3-2 victory to lead the team in both categories.
"I'd be lying to say that I didn't have a little bit of help from that," she said. "I had a lot going for me."
"You always got to get ready for MAC, and I get so excited when MAC starts. Cause this is what matters."
Obras' 23 kills were the best since she put up 26 against Western Michigan on Oct. 1, 2004.
Obras also added four block assists, her most of the season and tied her season high in digs with 18. It was her second best hitting percentage performance of the season. Her 23 kills moved within 100 of the all-time kill mark at Ball State.
After dropping the first game 30-35 with 12 attack errors, the Cardinals came back to win game two 30-24, with only two attack errors in the game.
In game three Ball State again had 12 errors, and an 11-0 run showed shades of the IPFW match where the Cardinals dropped 17 straight points.
Coach Randy Litchfield said he didn't say anything to his team before game four.
"I just took my time filling out the lineup card, got into the huddle and said 'lets get after it'," he said. "In the words of George W. Bush, there was no 'stratgery' involved."
The Cardinals rebounded, however, and won game four 30-26, forcing a deciding game five. After some back and forth Obras knocked home a kill, then teamed up with senior Rachel Refenes for a block. Refenes added a kill of her own to bring the advantage to 11-7. That gave the Cardinals all they would need, and they took the final set 15-10.
"Tonight we really did come back together as a team," sophomore setter Angie Parrell said. "And focused on each other, not just ourselves. We dug in deep to find our inspiration in each other to work hard."
Parrell added 58 assists and 15 digs, both career highs. Amanda McCormick added 34 digs and six assists in her first Mid-American Conference match.
"Sometimes I wonder how I dig so many balls," she said. "Cause it doesn't feel like I'm getting that many up."
Kelly Cochran tied her season high of 17 kills and Refenes added 15 kills and eight blocks for the Cardinals.
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