'0-0 record': Ball State women's volleyball resets for MAC play after slow start

MUNCIE, Ind. — Ball State women's volleyball, on paper, is off to its worst start since 2016, the first season under head coach Kelli Miller Phillips.

A seven-match losing streak pushed the Cardinals to 3-8 by the conclusion of their non-conference schedule, a stark contrast to last season's 24-9 squad that earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Even with several graduations, BSU was still predicted to finish atop the Mid-American Conference West Division standings in the preseason poll, yet it currently ranks behind Western Michigan (10-2) and Central Michigan (6-6) in overall record.

A closer look, however, reveals that a lack of talent has not caused Ball State's shortcomings. Injuries to key players, constantly shifting lineups and a purposely-tough schedule led to a small margin of error.

"We knew going in that it's not gonna be that you just step on the floor and be able to roll through people. We purposely scheduled a very, very challenging non-conference (schedule) to, one, help put us in a position to get a good RPI, and now to prepare us for MAC play," Miller Phillips said. "We've had a different lineup almost every single time due to various health issues. And so trying to get some consistency in what our lineup is going to be, who's going to be available each night, that has not made anybody's job any easier, but that's part of the game."

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Ball State started off well enough, winning two of three contests in its season-opening home invitational tournament, which included impressive sweeps over Gonzaga and Purdue Fort Wayne.

That was on Aug. 26, and the Cardinals have yet to play another match in Worthen Arena since. They took No. 11 Creighton to five sets at its home invitational, the first of eight consecutive road outings, all in condensed weekend timeframes.

Then senior middle blocker Lauren Gilliland, one of BSU's top players who totaled nearly 500 kills and over 200 blocks between 2021 and 2022, suffered a knee injury. She last appeared in the team's 3-1 loss to Wright State on Sept. 8, and while Miller Phillips is hopeful she'll return to the court, she's unsure when.

Sophomore outside hitter Katie Egenolf also missed a week, and Miller Phillips said several other Cardinals have battled through "day-to-day" injuries as well.

The circumstances forced the coaching staff to get creative with an already less experienced roster. Although not ideal, Miller Phillips would rather have those setbacks come before MAC play and viewed it as an opportunity to get more players battle-tested.

"I think it's actually going to be to our benefit in the long run because we've got a lot of players that have a lot of versatility, so it's allowed some of our young players to get a lot of minutes early," Miller Phillips said. "The goal is to be playing your best volleyball at the end of the MAC season, and so early on this gives me a chance to kind of experiment, see what's going to possibly be our best lineup and give some of those young guys a chance to show what they've got."

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One of the emerging stars is redshirt freshman Aniya Kennedy. After coming off the bench to open the season, the 6-foot La Porte native moved into a more prominent role and has thrived.

She leads the team in kills (108) and ranks fourth in blocks (24), and enters her first MAC season as the West Division's reigning Offensive Player of the Week after notching 3.71 kills per set over two weekend matches.

"I feel like having my redshirt year helped me a lot get accustomed to Ball State and all the fundamentals that they have," Kennedy said. "I feel like without having a redshirt year, I probably wouldn't do as good as I'm doing now."

"One of the things I've loved about her is she's just willing to do whatever I need her to do. So she's playing middle, she's playing left side, she hits on the right side, she's now passing," Miller Phillips said. "She's an ultimate competitor. She loves to be the person that gets the ball on game point. She's willing to do whatever it takes in order to be on the court."

Miller Phillips also cited freshman middle blocker Camryn Wise as another youngster who's made an impression. The Wapahani alumna earned her first on-court action of the season in BSU's last non-conference weekend, and Wise shined in the two outings by totaling eight blocks and seven kills.

Kennedy and Wise helped lead the Cardinals to a sweep (25-17, 26-24, 25-13) over East Tennessee State on Sept. 16, snapping their seven-match skid. Although BSU fell 3-1 to Western Kentucky the day before, Kennedy also felt that performance was much improved from the weeks prior, further boosting the Cardinals' confidence.

"Things actually started to click. We were starting to get a groove," Kennedy said. "Even though we lost it, I think we had the outcome that we wanted because it showed that what we were doing practice last week translated into the game even though we lost."

With more momentum heading into Ball State's first MAC meetings with CMU at home on Sept. 21-22, Miller Phillips continues to stress the importance of attention to detail.

Whereas her previous few teams featured many upperclassmen with years of chemistry, this BSU group is still figuring out how to play together. As a result, Miller Phillips has spent more time combing over nuances — body language, focus, fundamentals — to try and build winning habits for both now and the future.

Still, it's a work in progress.

"Just changing our communication toward each other, our communication style," fifth-year middle blocker Marie Plitt said. "I feel like that is something that we need to work on, along with just cleaning up a lot of pieces: blocking at the net, scouting, serve-receive. Just kind of fine tuning every little part of the team."

For as unrecognizable as this BSU team's record currently is compared to recent seasons, the good news is that conference play offers a reset, perhaps at the perfect time.

No Cardinal is discouraged heading into the most important part of the schedule. If anything, it's a relief to start fresh, hoping to get healthy and hit their stride.

They're excited for a new beginning.

"It absolutely is a 0-0 record because all that really matters now is you've gotta be one of the top-6 to make the tournament, and then you gotta win the tournament to get an NCAA (bid). That's absolutely our goal. I absolutely think we're capable of doing that," Miller Phillips said. "We did a little reflection, 'What did we learn from the last four weeks and what do we want to use moving forward?' I'm very serious about that and how important that is to make sure you're moving forward and learning from it and not just moving and forgetting. And I think we've learned a lot. I've learned a lot. They've learned a lot and that's going to pay off tremendously all year."

Gus Martin is a sports reporter at The Star Press. Follow him on X (platform formerly known as Twitter) @GusMartin_SP, and contact him at gmartin@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: Ball State women's volleyball resets for MAC play after slow start