In the wake of an ankle injury to senior middle blocker Jennifer Boyd, Ball State needed a player to assume her role versus Buffalo on Saturday.
Even though she's primarily played off the bench in 2011, sophomore middle blocker Mindy Marx had to start with Boyd sitting on the bench. She didn't shy away from the spotlight, filling in admirably as a starter.
Marx finished Saturday's match with 12 kills, a .625 attack percentage and two blocks. It was her highest number of kills in a match this season since she hit 12 against IPFW on Aug. 28.
"We just had to plug in a young lady who's been waiting very patiently for her opportunity, and she went out and had one of the best matches of her career in Mindy Marx," coach Steve Shondell said, "We're very fortunate that we have a player of her caliber to come in and take Jennifer's place."
Marx's play spearheaded a 3-0 sweep of Buffalo by Ball State on Saturday, improving the Cardinals' record to a historic 22-3 overall mark as well as 11-1 in the Mid-American Conference. It's the best 25-match start in the program's history.
Brandl finished with 7 kills and two blocks of her own playing next to Marx. She said Marx has proved all season how well she's capable of playing.
"Mindy's been playing great all year," Brandl said. "She doesn't get enough credit for what she's doing. She's been working really hard, and she's up there with all of us."
Kylee Baker was Ball State's leader in kills for the match with 13.
Ball State also extended its home winning streak to 23 matches, with no losses in Worthen Arena in Shondell's tenure as head coach.
The win over Buffalo came two days after Ball State narrowly defeated Toledo, which ranks sixth in the MAC West, 3-2 on the road.
While Toledo has pushed Ball State to five games in at least one match the last two seasons, it was an uncharacteristically mediocre performance by the Cardinals.
Shondell cited a lack of energy for Ball State's play against Toledo, but said he was impressed by how Ball State rebounded against Buffalo.
"We had good energy in practice [Saturday], but at Toledo we did not have good energy before the match and really dodged a bullet there," he said. "I thought we came out focused and determined. We did a good job of keeping [Buffalo] from doing what they wanted to do."
Fortunately for Ball State, the team is expected to be fully healthy again as it prepares to play Western Michigan and Northern Illinois next weekend.
Shondell said he was ‘optimistic' Boyd would return for those matches. She was seen in a walking boot on the sidelines Saturday.
Whether or not the team is healthy doesn't matter much to Brandl. She said she expects better results than the team produced this week.
"Tonight, we're excited about the sweep, but we still didn't play very well," she said following the win over Buffalo. "But today was about coming back out and playing our hardest for as long as we can, and I'm happy we did it in three."
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