Following a 30-25 loss in game two to Buffalo, the first game Ball State University had lost to the Bulls in nine meetings, coach Randy Litchfield didn't talk to his players about their performance thus far. He began to layout Monday's practice.The Cardinals came out of the break and played their best game of the year, starting with a 8-1 run, smashing 15 kills, and had no attack errors to take the game 30-11 en route to a 3-1 match victory.
"We discussed the format of Monday's practice, and I told them they had to get out an impact the way that current format was reading," Litchfield said. "And they did. Game three was almost flawless, and quite frankly I didn't say anything the rest of the match."
Litchfield said, at that point, he was going to leave it up to his team to see if they were going to win or lose and rarely spoke to the team for the remainder of the contest.
"I just didn't have any more words for them," Litchfield said. "They were going to either exhibit the will to get it done, or they weren't."
The Cardinals then took a come from behind game four 30-24 on the heals of a 10-1 game ending run to take the win over the Bulls.
After the Cardinals (9-5, 3-1 Mid-American Conference) escaped the first game with a 30-27 win over the Bulls (7-8, 0-4 MAC), Ball State dropped the second game. After the first two games, the Cardinals had 18 attack errors, six service errors and a blocking error.
"I've won a lot of matches," Litchfield said. "And I don't care to win when I don't deserve to win and when we don't deserve to win. And for a while tonight, we didn't deserve to win. And I was fine.
"An ugly win it was, it was still a win."
Junior Kelly Cochran tallied a season-high 19 kills to lead the Cardinals and added two blocks.
"It's definitely one of those games - you have to bring it all and dominate," Cochran said.
Litchfield said that Cochran has also been doing several little things that have made a difference for her.
"Some of her defense, her poise," Litchfield said. "She's just playing really well, like we thought she was going."
Senior Rachel Refenes added 12 kills and seven blocks while Sarah Obras had 11 kills, three aces and a season high three blocks.
"Rachel almost quietly had a big, big match," Litchfield said. "I think during the first half, she wasn't very visible. She was playing fine, but she wasn't very visible. And I think that, as a team, we need to figure out how to exert ourselves more early in matches."
Lanee Mikesell made her first career appearance for the Cardinals, registering six assists on 10 attempts and a dig during game three.
Game three was the Cardinals' second-largest margin of victory in a game since they defeated Wright State 30-10 in the final game of their 3-0 victory on Aug. 27. It was the first time this season they had gone through a full game without an error.
"I think game three is just a glimpse of how good we can be, and we need to meet that potential," sophomore setter Angie Parrell said. "If you just keep beating them down and beating them down like we were, you can be unstoppable."
Heather Burleson has quickly recovered from her ankle injury and will likely return to the lineup against Ohio.
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