Previews courtesy of Athletic Communications Departments

Ball State Cardinals (17-9, 13-1 MAC)
The Ball State women's volleyball team closes the road portion of its 2025 regular season schedule with two matches at Eastern Michigan ... The Cardinals and Eagles will battle at 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday at the Gervin GameAbove Center.
  
CURRENTLY IN THE MAC: With its 13-1 league mark, Ball State owns a three-match lead in the MAC standings, with Western Michigan currently second at 10-4 ... The Cardinals can clinch at least a share of the MAC regular season title with one win, or one Broncos loss over the remaining four matches ... Toledo and Ohio are tied for third at 9-5, with the Rockets holding the head-to-head tiebreaker ... Akron, Bowling Green and Miami are in a three-way tie for the final two spots at 7-7 ... The top six teams in the final league standings advance to the 2025 MAC Volleyball Championship held Nov. 21-23 at Bowling Green's Stroh Center.
  
BALL STATE IN THE MAC: With a 13-1 record in MAC play this season, Ball State maintains its status as the winningest program in league play with a 472-226 (.676) all-time MAC mark ... Western Michigan is second on the list, five matches behind the Cardinals at 467-231 (.676), while this weekend's opponent Eastern Michigan is eighth at 291-406 (.418).
 
ABOUT THE 10-0 START TO #MACtion: While it's season-long 10-match winning streak came to an end vs. Ohio (Oct. 25), Ball State's 10-0 start to MAC play tied as the third-best league start in program history ... The Cardinals also won its first 10 conference matches of the 1997 campaign ... Ball State has also gone undefeated in league play twice, boasting an 18-0 mark in 1993, followed by a 17-0 record in 1994.
 
SCOUTING BALL STATE:
• The Cardinals enter the week with a 17-9 overall record, including an 13-1 record in Mid-American Conference play ... Ball State went 3-0 last week, with a Tuesday win over Miami and a two-match weekend sweep at Kent State.
• Ball State remains the top-ranked MAC squad in the latest NCAA RPI Rankings, coming in at 53 this week, three spots better than last week ... The Cardinals were 77th in the initial RPI rankings on Oct. 5 and climbed to as high as 45th in the Oct. 19 release.
• Ball State enters the EMU series as one of the nation's top terminating teams, ranking second nationally with 1,381 total kills ... Only Towson (1,401) has more kills than the Cardinals ... 430 of Ball State's kills, which is fifth nationally, have come from the arm of sophomore outside Carson Tyler who also ranks first in the MAC and 40th nationally with a 4.17 kills-per-set average.
• In addition, the Cardinals lead the MAC and rank 38th nationally with a .258 team attack percentage ... Junior middle Camryn Wise is first in the league and 35th nationally with a .390 rate of success, while junior setter Lindsey Green ranks 100th nationally with 746 total assists and owns a 7.31 assists-per-set average.
 

Western Michigan Broncos (13-13, 10-4 MAC)
Preview coming soon...


Toledo Rockets (18-8, 9-5 MAC)
Friday, Nov. 7 / vs. Buffalo / Toledo, Ohio / 6:00 p.m. / Watch (ESPN+) / Live Stats
Saturday, Nov. 8 / vs. Buffalo / Toledo, Ohio / 5:00 p.m. / Watch (ESPN+) / Live Stats

Women's volleyball hosts its final home matches of the 2025 regular season this weekend, welcoming Buffalo to Savage Arena. The Rockets enter the week sitting third in the MAC standings with a 9-5 mark in league play. Sophomore libero Grace Freiberger leads the conference in digs (4.58 digs/set) and ranks third in service aces (0.40 aces/set) while Olivia Heitkamp leads the offense with 3.03 kills/set.


Ohio Bobcats (11-15, 905 MAC)
Nov. 7 / at Northern Illinois / DeKalb, Ill. / Victor E. Court / 7 p.m. ET  / Live Stats 
Nov. 8 / at Northern Illinois / DeKalb, Ill. / Victor E. Court / 5 p.m. ET / ESPN+ / Watch / Live Stats 

The Ohio volleyball team (11-15, 9-5 MAC) looks to continue its hot streak this week when it heads to DeKalb, Ill., for its final road trip of the 2025 regular season. 

Ohio is coming off a 3-0 week that saw sweeps of Kent State and Central Michigan and a four-set victory against CMU on Saturday. Ohio has currently won 10 of its last 11 and sits in fourth place in the MAC standings with two weekends remaining.

On Saturday at CMU, Ohio finished with a .287 attack percentage, 54 kills, six aces, nine blocks, 48 assists, and 42 digs. Central Michigan finished with a .193 attack percentage, 44
kills, four aces, eight blocks, 38 assists, and 43 digs. During the game, Bryn Janke reached the 1,000 career assist milestone after recording her 13^th assist of the game. Janke led the team in assists with 22 total, while Lexi Grissett added 15 assists. Grissett also recorded her first career double-double with a team-high 11 digs. Junior Torre Kildow led the team in kills with 13 total in addition to tallying 14.0 points and two blocks. Junior Gentry Brown recorded a team-high 15.5 points in addition to 12 kills, two aces, three blocks, and seven digs. 


Miami RedHawks (13-13, 7-7 MAC)
Fri., Nov. 7 at Central Michigan, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)
Sat., Nov. 8 at Central Michigan, 4 p.m. (ESPN+)

Coming off a weekend sweep of Bowling Green with a five-set win Friday and three-set win Saturday, Miami Volleyball hits the road for a pair of matches at Central Michigan this Friday and Saturday. The RedHawks return home for their final matches at Coach Carolyn Condit Court, Nov. 14-15, for Senior Weekend and Alumni Weekend. The RedHawks dropped a match at Ball State in their other contest last week.


Akron Zips (13-11, 7-7 MAC)
Preview coming soon...


Bowling Green Falcons (13-13, 7-7 MAC)
Preview coming soon...


Central Michigan Chippewas (9-17, 6-8 MAC)
Preview coming soon...


Buffalo Bulls (8-15, 5-9 MAC)
Preview coming soon...


Northern Illinois Huskies (11-12, 4-10 MAC)
Friday, November 7: Ohio, 6 p.m. – Live Stats 
Saturday, November 8: Ohio, 4 p.m. – ESPN+ | Live Stats 

The NIU volleyball team wraps up action at home as they host the Bobcats of Ohio University on November 7-8. 
 
The Huskies went 1-2 in action last week, with their lone win coming in a reverse sweep against Buffalo. In the Huskies' victory, Ava Grevengoed her tenth double-double of the season as she led the Huskies with 15 kills. Emma McCartney collected her fourth double-double of the season with 13 kills and 12 digs. McCartney set a new career-best in blocks with five in tonight's contest. Savannah Gogel got her first collegiate start this evening as she recorded 13 kills, two aces, and five block assists in the match.


Eastern Michigan Eagles (12-15, 4-10 MAC)
The Eastern Michigan University volleyball team welcomes Ball State University to the George Gervin GameAbove Center Thursday-Friday, Nov. 6-7, for a pivotal pair of matches as just four contests remain in the 2025 regular season. 

NOTABLES LAST TIME AGAINST BALL STATE
Hatteras Welker set the rally-scoring era single-season freshman blocks record as she totaled 110 after the first match between EMU and BSU last season, Nov. 1. She would finish the season with 135 TB, tying for second in the single-season program leaderboards. EMU also increased its team block total to 264.5 after the matches as the squad concluded the year with 305.5, slotting third the rally-scoring era in program annals.

LAST TIME OUT
Eastern is coming off a 1-2 week, beginning with a rivalry sweep of Central Michigan, Oct. 28, snapping a 10-match losing streak to the Chippewas and marking the first home win over CMU since 2015. The Eagles then traveled to Akron for a pair of matches, Oct. 31-Nov. 1, falling in both as the Green and White threatened a reverse sweep Friday, winning the third and fourth set, before falling in the fifth. The Eagles were swept in Saturday's match. 

HONORING SENIORS
Eastern is set to honor six seniors - Ashlynn Belcher, Kendal Bonney, Ella Grasson, Abby Stanford, Bri Struck, and Ella Voorhees in a post-game ceremony Friday.

Ashlynn Belcher joined the squad this season as a transfer from Old Dominion and total 1,894 assists in her career, averaging 5.38 per set. She currently ranks inside the MAC top 10 in assists per set (8.11). Named to the Academic All-MAC team and CSC Academic All-District teams in 2024, Kendal Bonney came over with Head Coach Kevin Foeman in the 2023 season. She has the best single-game hitting percentage on the team this season, hitting .688 with 12 kills and just one error against Marshall, Aug. 29, a figure that ranks fifth in the MAC. Ella Grasson arrived via the transfer portal from High Point prior to the 2024 season, she has set a career-best 1.58 digs per set with 20 aces, including a five ace performance against Kent State, Oct. 9, the second-most in the conference this season. Abby Stanford also joined Foeman when he took the EMU gig prior to the 2023 campaign. Stanford is averaging a career-best 1.78 kills per set this season and was named to the Academic All-MAC and CSC Academic All-District teams in 2024. Bri Struck came to Ypsilanti in 2024. She is a former junior college All-American, conference player of the year, and region player of the year in two seasons at Parkland College. She set NCAA Division I career highs with 16 kills and five total blocks against Buffalo, Oct. 24. Her 16-kill showing featured just three errors off 37 attacks, totaling a .351 hitting percentage. Ella Voorhees first donned the Block E in 2024 as she came to EMU after two seasons with Southern Miss. She is averaging a career-best 2.34 digs per set and she recently posted the 11th double-double of her career with 20 assists and 14 digs at Akron, Oct. 31.

HIGH IN MAC/NAT'L RANKINGS
Eastern ranks 45th in the country in attacks per set (36.48). By volume, it ranks fifth in the county in total attacks (3,757), 10th in the nation in team digs (1,587), 20th in team total blocks (234.0), 25th in team kills (1,261), 33rd in team assists (1,160), and 41st in team service aces (161). In the national standings, Hatteras Welker slots eighth in total blocks (124). Ava Siefke slots 14th in total attacks (1,052), 28th in total points (407.5), and 44th in total kills (345). In the national standings by volume, Welker's 11 blocks in a four-set match slot fifth, while Belcher's 41 dimes in a three-set match are the 11th most. Grasson's five aces tie for fifth in three-set matches.

MILESTONES
Ashlynn Belcher is 157 assists away from 2,000 in her career as she totals 1,843. Ella Voorhees sits 16 digs from 500, and 166 assists from 1,000. Ava Siefke is 21 aces away from the century mark.

UP NEXT
Eastern travels to Oxford, Ohio, where it will close out the 2025 regular season against the Miami RedHawks, Friday-Saturday, Nov. 14-15. Friday's match starts at 6:30 p.m., while Saturday's first serve will take place at 4 p.m.


Kent State Golden Eagles (8-17, 3-11 MAC)
Preview coming soon...