MUNCIE, IN – Senior setter
Grace Balensiefer (Lafayette, Ind./McCutcheon) of the Northern Illinois University volleyball team became the fifth setter in program history to eclipse 3,500 career assists Friday night as the Huskies dropped their series opener at Ball State 3-0 (21-25, 17-25, 17-25).
"Grace has worked really hard to get to this point," said head coach
Ray Gooden. "She's done some great and amazing things in her career and still continues to learn and get better. She does a good job leading on the floor and has put our team in positive situations to score points. I'm happy for her to reach that milestone."
Balensiefer recorded her 3,500
th career assist midway through the first set, with
Charli Atiemo (Milford, Mich./Farmington Hills Mercy) putting it down to get NIU within three points of Ball State at 15-12. A Marie Plitt kill then sparked a 5-2 run for the Cardinals that put them ahead 20-14, leading to an NIU timeout. The Huskies rallied back behind kills from
Katie Jablonski (Elburn, Ill./New Hampshire) and
Ella Mihacevich (Brunswick, Ohio/Padua Franciscan), as well as a
Francesca Bertucci (Chicago, Ill./De La Salle), to get within one at 22-21. Ball State then took advantage of an NIU error to win the last three points and take the set 25-21.
Ball State (16-3, 6-1 MAC) hit .412 in the second set to run away with a 25-17 win. NIU fell behind 8-5 early in the third, but kills from Atiemo and
Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) got the Huskies within one 8-7. The two sides traded points until a Natalie Mitchem kill started a 4-1 Ball State run that put the Cardinals ahead 15-10. Ball State grew the lead to seven at 19-12 on a Plitt kill that led to an NIU timeout. NIU only got as close as six the rest of the way as the Cardinals won the set 25-17 to win the match 3-0.
"We had a bunch of long and intense rallies in this match tonight," Gooden said. "I thought we were doing some really good things, but Ball State did a good job containing our hitters and winning the tough points. It was good to see some fight from our side, but we just needed to win some of those important points to get over the top."
NIU (9-9, 3-5 MAC) was led in kills on the night by freshman
Nikolette Nedic (Willowbrook, Ill./Hinsdale Central) with 11. Atiemo added nine and a team-high three blocks. Bertucci had a team-high 16 digs. Ball State's Jaclyn Bulmahn led all players with 12 kills.
The two teams wrap up their weekend series on Saturday at 2 p.m. CT. The match will be broadcast on ESPN3.
--NIU--
