MUNCIE, Ind. – The Northern Illinois University volleyball team dropped a 3-0 match (20-25, 13-25, 18-25) to Mid-American Conference west division leader Ball State Friday night at Worthen Arena.
 
"Credit to Ball State tonight," said head coach Ray Gooden. "They were just really good in all phases."
 
Meg Wolowicz (Manitowoc, Wis./Manitowoc Lincoln) led the Huskies with 12 kills. Kennedy Wallace (Kansas City, Kan./Piper) had seven kills, hit .636 for the match, and led NIU with a .636 hitting percentage. Miranda Karlen (Evansville, Wis./Evansville) led the match with 16 digs.
 
Ball State (18-6, 9-2 MAC) opened the match on a 4-1 run, getting kills from Sydney Vanbeek, Meg Starling, and Reece Kral. NIU closed the gap to one at 6-5 following two Wallace kills. The Huskies tied the set at 10 on a kill by Chrystal McAlpin (Calumet Park, Ill./Shepard) and a Karlen ace. After an Ellie Dunn kill put the Cardinals ahead 11-10, the Huskies got a kill from Wolowicz and a block as part of a 3-0 run that put NIU ahead 13-11. Ball State responded with a 4-1 run as a Kral kill gave the Cardinals a 15-14 lead. The Cardinals led by as much as five at 21-16, and won the set 25-20 on a Kral kill to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
 
"I thought we played well and did some good things in that set," Gooden said. "Ball State did a good job of taking advantage of some situations."
 
The home team kept the momentum going to start the second set, as kills by Dunn and Vanbeek capped a 4-0 run to open the frame. The Huskies closed the gap to two when a pair of Wolowicz kills made the score 9-7. Ball State then pulled away, winning the next 12 points to take a 21-7 lead. NIU came back with a 5-1 run as kills by Jori Radtke (Buffalo Grove, Ill./Stevenson) and Amanda Rullan Vilanova (Bayamon, Puerto Rico/Savannah State) made the score 22-12. Ball State won the set 25-13 on back-to-back kills by Dunn. The Cardinals hit .484 in the set with no errors to go up 2-0 in the match.
 
NIU (8-18, 6-5 MAC) and Ball State traded point to open the set, but a three-point Cardinals run put Ball State ahead 5-2. The Huskies trailed 10-5 when kills by Radtke and Rullan Vilanova sparked a 7-2 run that tied the set at 12. NIU took its first lead of the set at 15-14 on a Wolowicz kill and Ball State error. The Cardinals came back with a 9-1 run, taking seven straight points to go ahead 23-16. The Huskies got within five at 23-18 after a service error and a Brinley Milbrath (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/John F. Kennedy), but Ball State took the final two points to win the set 25-18 and the match 3-0.
 
"There's just those stretches of big-point runs that are our nemesis right now," said Gooden. "We have to continue to work on keeping those negative runs to a minimum and keep finding ways to push our positive runs."
 
The Huskies are back in action on Saturday, Oct. 27 at Toledo. First serve is at 6 p.m., with the match being televised on ESPN+.
 
--NIU--