MUNCIE, Ind. — Last week, the Ball State Women's Volleyball team broke its own attendance record, which had stood for 15 years. They achieved this in back-to-back matches; the first one took place on Thursday, with 2,117 fans in attendance when they faced Cincinnati, surpassing the previous record of 1,744 set on September 3, 2010.
They turned around the very next day and broke the record again as they took on in-state rival Purdue; the number of fans in attendance for that match was 2,310.
Head coach Keli Phillips said, “That’s been a goal of mine this season from a program standpoint, to continue to grow our fanbase to continue to put our team in these like awesome championship environments…”
While yes, it’s a big deal for the whole team to play in front of these big crowds, it meant a little extra to junior middle hitter Camryn Wise.
“You know, it really just fuels our fire. It's cool to play in front of the home crowd. It’s awesome for me personally. I had a lot of fans here because I am from this area, it's just a comforting thing,” said Wise.
With the conclusion of their game on Saturday vs Eastern Kentucky, which concludes their non-conference season, now with MAC play in the front view, coach Phillips knows precisely what they need to work on
“Our non-conference has been huge,” said Phillips. “We played a tough non-conference schedule, all great volleyball teams, so that now come conference play, you know we already kind of have this list of things we need to keep improving on that we have been able to over the last three weeks…”
Ball State Women's Volleyball will travel up to Buffalo, New York, to open MAC Play as they take on the Buffalo Bulls on September 25. That match starts at 6 p.m. and you can catch that game on ESPN+.
Contact Michael Baugh with comments at michael.baugh@bsu.edu.
