As outside attacker Hannah Sullivan signed autographs for fans following the Friday home match she was not aware of the near career night she had.
The only thing she was still concerned about was the five-set overtime loss to a last-place team.
Sullivan had a conference match career-high 20 kills as the Ball State University women's volleyball team lost to Eastern Michigan University 25-13, 20-25, 21-25, 27-25, 19-17.
"Even though I did good it's still not enough," she said. "We didn't win."
Having limited playing time this season because of a back injury, Sullivan had seven more kills than her previous season high. In addition, she was one kill away from tying her career-high for kills.
Coach Dave Boos said he was impressed with Sullivan's performance, especially because of injuries she had to overcome this year.
In Ball State opening match this season against Purdue University, Sullivan injured her back on a play in the second set. Following that injury, Sullivan missed the rest of the Ball State's non-conference season and return to the court in early October.
"Hannah has been injured all year and has just been fighting back the past month," Boos said. "This is the Hannah Sullivan I know."
In the previous five matches Sullivan had a combined 15 kills and had a zero or negative attack percentage in two of the matches
A big reason for her offensive success Friday, Sullivan said, was because during this week in practice the coaches and her worked on getting her kills to above the blockers instead of hitting it into the blockers.
Despite the high amount of kills against Eastern Michigan, coach Dave Boos said the best thing about Sullivan's performance was her kill efficiency.
Sullivan finished with a match-high 52 attack attempts and five attack errors — the fewest amount of errors for any player in the match with at least 40 attack attempts.
"She is very low error, very efficient. Nothing flashy but she keeps getting the job done," Boos said. "Her offensive performance was a really impressive thing."
Ball State finished the match with a .196 attack percentage and 30 attack errors, including eight attack errors in the fifth set. The loss was also the second time this season the Cardinals have lost to the last-place Eagles.
Boos said Ball State has struggled against Eastern Michigan because most of the Cardinals, unlike Sullivan, have a high error style of volleyball.
"[Eastern Michigan] is a low error [team]. The reason they are difficult for us is because we play high error," he said. "So when you play a low error team you tend to have difficulties against these teams."
This was the second consecutive match Sullivan started in place off outside attacker Alisha Green. Green, who is leading the Cardinals with 245 kills and a 2.99 kills per set average, came off the bench midway through the fourth set and finished the match with five kills and zero attack percentage.
Boos said he decide to start Sullivan instead of Green after the same starting lineup used against Eastern Michigan had sweep third-place Northern Illinois University on Saturday.
"I think we have a lot of people who could help us out," Boos said. "We have these situations and we've had a lot of good people step up in these situations."
With this loss, Ball State secured its third consecutive losing season in conference play and are tied for last-place with Eastern Michigan.
Even knowing she had a good offensive performance, Sullivan said the entire team and her were frustrated with how the match ended.
"We know that we can play better than we did [Friday]. We know that we weren't horrible but we know we weren't 100 percent," she said. "I don't think it should have been as close as it was."
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