For the second straight season Bowling Green State University (9-15, 2-7) upended Ball State University (10-12, 3-6) in five sets. This time Ball State suffered the defeat Friday night at Worthen Arena, falling 25-27, 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-9.
"We're a good team. We just failed to execute. Unfortunately we've done this in the past," sophomore setter Brittany McGinnis said. "It's very hard to see us do it again. This isn't fun. Losing like that isn't fun."
Ball State got off to a rocky start, but middle attacker Kelsey Brandl tallied seven kills in the first frame while hitting at a .700 clip.
"It's bittersweet," Brandl said. "It's great I had a big night and helped the team, but it's frustrating to lose after winning the first two sets."
Trailing 17-6, Ball State rallied behind Brandl and a flurry of Charde' Phillips kills down the stretch in the first set to tie it up at 24. Senior Julie Breivogel put the match away with back-to-back kills in extra time for the 27-25 win.
"Our middles carried us [Friday]. We had high level performances from out outsides tonight," coach Dave Boos said. "Kelsey and Charde' are the best middle tandem in the MAC. The credit goes to them and Brittany."
A second set win, 25-18, sent the Cardinals into the locker room looking for a sweep. Instead, they got hit repeatedly by Corey Domek who finished with 17 kills.
"Corey Domek came out and decided she wanted to win this match," Boos said. "She wanted it more than we did."
Domek led the Falcons to a 25-22 third set win and a 25-23 fourth set win.
"It's hard to take. We're still growing, but we need to learn to fix our game in the moment and not get caught in our heads like we were tonight," McGinnis said. "It's a step back, but tomorrow is a new day. We have to change. We must change. The good thing is we have a game [Saturday] so we can't and won't dwell."
The fifth set saw disaster. After claiming the first point on a Jennifer Boyd block, the Cardinals witnessed a massive run that put the Falcons ahead for good. In the end, Bowling Green took the final set 15-9.
"I've had this feeling before. I lost a state championship like this, winning the first two and then losing three straight," Brandl said. "It never leaves your mind. Never."
Brandl led all players with a career-high 20 kills while hitting a spectacular .516 clip. Phillips chipped in 14 kills while Breivogel added 10 of her own.
"We took a big shot to our confidence tonight. There's two responses to this, either step up and bounce back or not at all," Boos said. "It's going to take a collective effort to regroup. We need to leave it all out on the floor and not hold back. For some reason we're holding back and when we hold back we lose."
Ball State will have little time to regroup as Miami University is next up at 7 p.m. Saturday night.
"We can just go home, think about it and think about what each of us can do better," McGinnis said. "Once we find what we can do better we will win again. Needless to say, there will be changes."
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