It had been almost 22 years and 43 matches since the Ball State University women's volleyball team lost to the University of Toledo.
Determined to end its 42-match winning streak to the Cardinals on Thursday, Toledo defeated Ball State 3-2 (25-21, 18-25, 23-25, 25-20, 18-16) - the program's first win against the Cardinals since Nov. 21, 1986.
With the win, Toledo moves to 4-49 all-time against the Cardinals, and 1-17 in Worthen Arena.
"Streaks are meant to be broken," Ball State coach Dave Boos said. "Our kids are very disappointed, and they know the historic tradition of Ball State volleyball and they don't like to be the team that ended that streak."
Sophomore libero Alyssa Rio said she was impressed with Toledo's fight.
"Toledo played great, and they had that 'We've got to beat them' attitude," Rio said. "I think they went out and played fearless with nothing to lose."
Toledo coach Kent Miller also got his first career win in 23 tries against the Cardinals.
"Obviously, that's a monkey off our backs," Miller said. "The nice thing is we've played a lot of really good, close matches against Ball State over the years - and it's just nice to come out on top of one of those matches."
The Rockets (12-15, 4-9 Mid-American Conference) took control of the match from the start by winning the first set.
Ball State (11-17, 6-7 MAC) was then unable to use the momentum of winning the next two sets by a combined 50-41 score.
Toledo won two consecutive sets of its own to take the match in five sets.
"We just can't find ways right now to put [five-set matches] away, despite our experience in them," Boos said. "Give Toledo credit - they came out fighting, and in game five anything can happen."
Leading the way for the Cardinals was a team and career-high 17 kills (.389 attack percentage) from freshman middle blocker Jennifer Boyd.
"[Setter] Brittany [McGinnis} and I were really connecting well tonight," Boyd said. "Earlier today in practices, we actually weren't connecting very well, so I was worried about that, but we just went after it in the match."
McGinnis collected her team-best 15th double-double of the season with 52 assists and 14 digs, while sophomore outside hitter Hannah Sullivan earned her fourth double-double in the past five matches with 12 kills and 14 digs.
Rio had a match-high 24 digs in the match, and junior outside hitter Alisha Green had 14 kills.
Two Toledo players - Shannon Strachan and Stephanie Kersting - had a match-high 18 kills in the match, and setter Kassie Kadera had a match-high 53 assists for the Rockets.
Ball State returns to play at 1 p.m. Sunday at home against the University of Akron (9-14, 3-9 MAC).
HistoryThe last time Ball State lost to Toledo was Nov. 21, 1986. Also, on that date...
Campus: The Burkhardt Building was about to reopen after almost two years of renovations
Women's volleyball: 14 of the 16 players on the current team were not born.
Movies: "An American Tail" was premiering in movie theaters
Gas prices: $0.93 per gallon
Music: The No. 1 song was Boston's "Amanda"
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