MUNCIE, Ind. — Bowling Green’s unique bid to win two Mid-American Conference women’s volleyball tournament championships in the same calendar year came to an end in Wednesday’s championship match, with the Falcons falling in five sets to No. 1 seed Ball State, 25-23, 29-31, 25-16, 21-25, 15-7 at Worthen Arena.
The Falcons (21-9) faced adversity on more than one occasion Wednesday but took the Cardinals, who entered with an 18-match winning streak, to a decisive fifth set before Ball State (29-3), which won its second MAC tournament title in three years, took control for good.
After dropping the first set, Bowling Green found itself in danger of going down 2-0 when it trailed 24-22 and facing set point. The Falcons’ Kat Mandly, however, came up with a kill and a block, joined on the block by Katie Kidwell, to tie things at 24. Bowling Green wound up winning the set on its fourth set point, with Katelyn Meyer coming up with a kill.
Ball State controlled the third set, holding BG to a .186 attack percentage while owning a 4-0 edge in aces, to go up 2-1 in the best-of-5 match. The Falcons responded with a strong fourth set, never trailing while recording a strong .475 attack percentage (21 kills, 2 attack errors).
Bowling Green opened the fifth set with a 2-1 lead, but Ball State went on a 7-1 run to take control of things.
Petra Indrova led the Falcons’ offense with 22 kills, with Meyer, an Eastwood High School graduate, adding 21 and Mandly, a Perrysburg High School graduate, 19. Julia Walz had 33 digs, Kidwell had six blocks, and Hannah Laube had 67 assists.
Indrova surpassed the 1,000-kill milestone for her career during Wednesday’s match.
Natalie Risi had 19 kills for Ball State, with Jaclyn Bulmahn recording 17 and Marie Plitt 16. Maggie Huber had 26 digs for the Cardinals, Plitt had seven blocks, and Megan Wielonski had 64 assists.
The Falcons, who won the East Division and were the No. 2 seed for the 2021-22 tournament, was the 2020-21 regular-season and tournament champion for a season that was delayed to the spring semester because of the coronavirus pandemic, claiming that season’s tournament championship April 3.
Ball State volleyball coaching legend dies
Don Shondell, who brought men’s volleyball to Ball State in the 1960s and helped broaden the sport’s popularity in the Midwest in the years since, died Tuesday evening.
Shondell, 92, formed a club volleyball team for men at Ball State in 1960. Ball State elevated the team to varsity status four years later, and Shondell, who went 769-280-6 in 34 seasons as the men’s head coach, led the Cardinals to 13 NCAA tournament appearances. He was inducted into the International Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1996.
During the 2020-21 women’s NCAA volleyball tournament, three of the final eight teams alive in the tournament, including national champion Kentucky, were coached by former Ball State men’s players from the Shondell era.
"Don Shondell was a friend to Ball State, an icon in our Muncie community, and a pioneer in the sport of volleyball," Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns said in a release from the university. "Through his extraordinary contributions to our university and the sport, his unmatched legacy lives on in so many of our current and past student athletes. We are deeply indebted to Dr. Shondell for the impact he made on so many lives — as a coach, teacher, and friend to us all.”
First Published November 25, 2021, 1:28 a.m.
