WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: Ball State loses in fifth set OT to last-place Eastern Michigan

The story of the night Friday at Worthen Arena wasn't necessarily how Ball State University (11-15, 4-9 Mid-American Conference) played, but how Eastern Michigan University (5-24, 4-9 MAC) played.

Those in attendance saw a five-set thriller with two extra time sets, more momentum shifts than anyone could count and phenomenal play by the Eastern Michigan libero Haley Stein.

"The whole gym is Haley's," Eastern Michigan coach Kim Berrington said. "It's players like that who make a difference."

In the end, Ball State fell 25-13, 20-25, 21-25, 27-25, 17-19.

"We're consistently inconsistent," Ball State coach Dave Boos said. "If I had an answer on how to fix this, it would have been fixed by now."

Ball State dominated the first set, at one point going on a 13-1 run and playing inspired volleyball after a road win at Northern Illinois University during the weekend.

Things went wrong in the second set. A reappearance of the Jekyll and Hyde syndrome that has plagued the team all year in the second set may have sealed the Cardinals fate with a 20-25 loss.

"We play so up and down," junior outside hitter Hannah Sullivan said. "We just shouldn't have dug a hole against this team."

After taking the set, Eastern Michigan came out of the locker room fired up. The result was a new and scrappy team. Stein, the Eagles' libero, made play after play to keep the ball alive. A diving dig here, a tap to pop the ball up to keep it alive, a perfect pass to the setter for a kill made all the difference and doomed the Cardinals to a 21-25 third set loss.

"We came out really flat, but we were determined to go all out. We knew we could beat this team. We beat them at our place earlier this year," the Eastern Michigan libero said. "We really wanted it and really played for it [Friday]."

The fourth set was an epic thriller for any volleyball fan. After taking the lead early behind several Hannah Sullivan kills, Ball State fell behind. Trailing 15-10, the Cardinals rallied back within 19-18, but Stein made not one, but two impressive and momentum changing saves to help the Eagles score points.

"Their libero played fantastic, especially in the fifth set," Boos said. "Especially the dig off Kelsey's attack."

The fourth set ended up slipping away from Eastern Michigan as it recorded 10 errors, mostly down the stretch. The result, Ball State came from behind, riding Sullivan and senior Julie Breivogel to a 27-25 set victory.

"This team just refused to lose [Friday]. They were so resilient. They're really young and make a lot of errors, but they fought hard," Berrington said. "This wins feels really good. It's our first five set win of the year and our second road win."

A fifth set showdown started with a thud for Ball State. Eastern Michigan gained control early with a 4-1 lead. However, Sullivan and Breivogel came to the rescue, picking up kills to bring the Cardinals back. Tied at 11, Alisha Green tallied a kill before the two squads traded multiple errors.

The unlikely then happened. A free-ball from Eastern Michigan landed and stunned Ball State. A few points later, Green saved the Cardinals from defeat with a kill down the line in a very close call. The rally came up short though as Eastern Michigan over came youth and found a way to score the final two points, taking the fifth set 17-15.

"It was so satisfying. I can't even describe it. This is a good team win. We played as a team," Stein said. "We've had a bunch of close matches that we lost and now we're winning close matched. We know we're a good team and we can be dangerous in the MAC Tournament."

In the loss Sullivan posted 20 kills on 52 swings. The 20 kills comes up one shy of her career high set at the University of Houston as a freshmen in 2007. Middle blocker Kelsey Brandl overcame a slow start to post 12 kills and Breivogel notched 15 kills following an 18 kill effort last weekend.

Defensively, Alyssa Rio led the Cardinals with 34 digs. While recording so many digs was an impressive performance, the real story of the night was Stein for the Eagles who had 23 digs and too many big plays to count.

"Haley leaves it all out there," Berrington said. "She does it all the time for us and you see what she can do for us."