Sept. 14, 2012

Box Score

MUNCIE, Ind. - The University of Pittsburgh volleyball team was swept on Friday evening by Ball State University (17-25, 14-25, 16-25) at Worthen Arena in its opening match of the Ball State Tournament.

The loss snaps Pitt's seven match winning streak and drops the Panthers to 8-3 on the season, while Ball State improves to 5-6. Kate Yeazel led the Panthers with nine kills on 22 attempts (.318 hitting percentage), while Margy Acton had a game-high 16 digs. BSU's Kara Bates had a match-best 11 kills.

After Pitt took its first lead of the match at 4-3, the Cardinals scored eight of the next 11 points which forced Pitt into its first timeout of the frame, down 11-7. The Cardinals extended their lead to 17-11, making Pitt use its second timeout, and eventually capitalized on their third set point opportunity with a kill by Kylee Baker for the 25-17 victory.

The Cardinals tallied the first point of the second set and never trailed in the frame. After a Pitt timeout (down 17-10), BSU recorded the next two points and eventually stretched its largest lead to 11 at 24-13 on a Pitt hitting error. Lisa Scott wrapped up the set with a kill (25-14) to give BSU a 2-0 advantage at intermission.

The Panthers opened the third set by scoring the first three points, but a 5-0 BSU run put the Cardinals up 11-8 as Pitt burned a timeout. The Panthers narrowed the gap with two quick points, but BSU scored the next six points to pull away from Pitt. Lauren Grant's kills gave BSU a nine point third set victory and concluded the sweep.

The Panthers are back in action tomorrow afternoon with two contests starting with Wyoming at 1:30 p.m. and concluding with Wright State at 4:30 p.m. Fans can follow live stats by logging onto www.pittsburghpanthers.com and can receive twitter updates by following @PittVolleyball.