Muncie, Ind.— The Toledo women's volleyball team fell to Ball State on Thursday night by a score of 3-1 (15-25, 25-22, 29-31, 21-25). The Rockets (11-14, 6-7 MAC) won the second set and nearly came away victorious in a marathon third frame, but in the end could not come away from Muncie with a win.
 
Statistically, Saige Thomas had a match-high 15 kills and was one of three Rockets with double-digit termination totals. Annie Beasley and Chloee Kleespies each had 10 kills, and Beasley had a match-high five blocks as well. UT had three players with double-digit dig totals too: Maurissa Leonard (25), Lauren Bakaitis (15), and Carly Townsend (14), who also had 39 assists.
 
Next up for Toledo is a match at Buffalo on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 6:00 p.m.
 
First Set: Toledo took the match's first lead on a kill from Thomas and led 2-1 at one point, but Ball State controlled the rest of the set. UT held on and trailed by just two as late as 10-8, but eventually the Cardinals were able to pull away and put some distance between themselves and the Rockets. The final score would end up being 25-15, the largest margin of the night.
 
Second Set: The lone set the Rockets won was also the best of the night hitting-wise. UT hit .353 in the second stanza and ended up winning 25-22. Kleespies was successful on five of her seven attacks and Thomas added four kills as well. Toledo again scored the set's first point, this time coming from Townsend, but again fell behind Ball State and trailed 13-9. UT battled and never fell behind by too much, trailing by three or four points for much of the set. With the Cardinals seemingly in the driver's seat up 21-17, that's when the Rockets struck. They scored eight of the next nine points to storm all the way back and win 25-22, the final point an emphatic kill from Emma Swope.
 
Third Set: These two squads needed extra points to decide the third set. The beginning of the third frame followed a similar script as the two that preceded it: Toledo scored first (it was Beasley this time), but held onto that lead for a bit longer. UT led 8-5 at one point before BSU came back and tied things at 10-10. From there the Cardinals stayed a couple steps ahead of the Rockets, holding a slim advantage all until the Midnight Blue and Gold tied the score at 20-20. From there, the two teams traded leads and tie scores and combined for six set points before Ball State finally closed things out and won 31-29. Toledo led 27-26 and 28-27 but was not able to seal the deal.
 
Fourth Set: The Rockets and Cardinals were tied at 2-2, then 5-5, 6-6, and 7-7, but after that point Ball State never trailed. A service ace made the score 8-7 and BSU never looked back; despite the early tussling the Rockets never led after falling behind at that juncture. Thomas stuffed the box score with seven kills in the final frame and Townsend added 11 assists, but ultimately UT fell short to the tune of 25-21 and dropped the match 3-1.