A bull was no match for a three-headed monster. The three-headed monster of Kelsey Brandl, Alisha Green, and Jennifer Boyd powered the Ball State University women's volleyball team by the University at Buffalo in four sets on Saturday night at Worthen Arena.
"For us to have 17 kills in the first set despite struggling with ball handling is quite the accomplishment," coach Dave Boos said. "Kelsey really sparked us early with those six kills."
A slow start in the first set put the Cardinals behind the eight ball against the Bulls, but rallied after falling behind 11-6. Three Brandl kills, two Christie Waters aces, and a Hannah Sullivan ace later, and Ball State held its first lead of the match.
"It's really nice to see that there's finally a connection with Brittany," Brandl said. "It's taken a while, but it's finally there."
Ball State dropped the second set 25-17. The Cardinals had problems handling the ball and transitioning from defense back to offense and trailed big most of the set.
A controversial call kicked the third set off and delayed play for a couple minutes as the officials discussed a net violation call against the Cardinals that was not a violation. After an objection from Boos, the officials decided to replay the first point and that was all Ball State needed.
"We've had some goofy officiating lately," Brandl said. "In this case the official wasn't sure what he saw so that was really frustrating for both teams."
Hitting at a .423 clip, Ball State notched a pair of set wins 25-16 and 25-15 to secure the 3-1 win.
"We showed what we can do [Saturday] when we play low error volleyball," Boos said. "We played low error volleyball in the final two sets and showed how difficult we are to beat when we do that."
Ball State is 10-9 and 3-3 in Mid-American Conference play. The win was also the Cardinals' fourth win at Worthen Arena, most in the three years Boos has coached at Ball State.
"This was a confidence booster," Jennifer Boyd said. "This should help carry us into next week and we'll need it with seeing Kent State and Ohio again."
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