BOX SCORE
MUNCIE, Ind. -- Michelle Moore had a match-high 13 kills and Katie Eberling had 11 kills and 10 digs to lead Western Michigan past Ball State 25-21, 26-24, 25-17 for at least a share of the 2008 Mid-American Conference championship. The win also secures a first round bye in the upcoming MAC Tournament.
The Broncos' (22-4, 13-2 MAC) 22 wins are the most since 2000 (26-5), which was also the last time WMU won the MAC championship. WMU can clinch the outright conference title with a victory over Toledo on Saturday at 3 p.m. at St. Ursula Academy. Central Michigan and Ohio are both in position to stake a claim to the MAC title if WMU does not beat Toledo.
"Overall, it was a solid match and we played well," head coach Colleen Munson said. "We picked up our play in set three and that was good to see. It feels good to get a win on the road, because those are never easy, but we still have one step to go to attain our goal."
Caitlin Strimel and Allyson Doyle added 15 and 13 digs, respectively, while Jillian Mitchell had 39 assists, eight digs, three kills, two aces and one solo block.
WMU scored three of the first four points to open the match, but Ball State regrouped and built a three-point edge, 15-12, that forced Western Michigan to call timeout. That sparked a 13-6 run by the Brown & Gold to end the set, 25-21.
Defense was the focus in set one as WMU hit .159 with 12 kills and Ball State hit .143 with 13 kills. The Broncos had 27 digs and the Cardinals had 26 in the opening stanza.
While the defenses stood out in set one, set two was an offensive display as each team hit over .370 in the set. A kill by Eberling gave WMU an early four-point lead, 9-5. Ball State came back and behind a trio of kills from Elaina Kakatolis turned a one-point deficit into a three-point lead, 20-17, that caused WMU to call timeout and regroup. The Broncos went to the middle and received two kills from Kate Corbett and one from Jaime Gotham during a 5-1 run that gave the lead back to WMU, 22-21. Back-to-back kills by Moore and Gotham turned a 23-22 deficit into set point, 24-23, but Ball State held it off. Moore gave WMU another set point and Doyle finished it off, 26-24, to give WMU a 2-0 match advantage.
WMU was on fire with 17 kills in 43 attempts with only one error to hit .372, but Ball State was even better with 22 kills and three errors in 48 attempts to hit .396. The difference came at the service line. Mitchell had her two aces and Eberling added one and the Broncos had no service errors, while BSU had no aces and two service errors.
Kills by Mitchell, Moore and Ashley Turnage capped a 4-0 run to start the set that forced Ball State to call timeout. That didn't slow the Brown & Gold as another ace by Eberling made it 14-8 and Ball State burned its final timeout. That didn't work either as WMU ran away with the third set, 25-17.
Eberling had five kills and hit .455 to lead WMU to a .308 attack percentage in the set with 16 kills and four errors in 39 attempts. The Broncos held Ball State to .147 hitting with only nine kills and four errors.
Overall, WMU narrowly led with one more kill (45-44), but did hit .278 to .250 for Ball State. The Broncos also finished five aces and only five errors to one ace and six errors for the Cardinals.
The Broncos conclude the regular season against Toledo (13-15, 5-10 MAC) at 3 p.m. at St. Ursula Academy. A win would clinch an outright MAC championship and secure the No. 1 seed at next weekend's MAC Tournament at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo, Ohio.
