TOLEDO, Ohio – Toledo visits first-place Ball State on Tuesday evening in Mid-American Conference volleyball action, the first of three road matches this week.

The Rockets (8-11, 6-2 MAC) and Cardinals (11-8, 8-0 MAC) will face off in Muncie at 6:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

This will be the first meeting between Toledo and Ball State this season, with the other coming on the last day of the regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 15 at Savage Arena. The Cardinals are tied for first place in the MAC with Western Michigan, while Toledo is two games behind in  three-way tie for third.

Last Time Out
Toledo split its weekend series with Buffalo, playing two matches that followed nearly identical scripts.

The Rockets won the first two sets in both matches, but saw the Bulls win sets three and four to force fifth sets in each contest. Buffalo prevailed on Friday, but Toledo pulled through and won the fifth set Saturday to end the weekend on a high note.

Taylor Alt hit .300 and accumulated 22 kills on Friday, and Abby Erickson added nine kills and tied a career-high with eight blocks, leading a Rocket squad that collected 13.0 total blocks. Ryann Jaqua paced Toledo with 21 digs, one of four Rockets to reach double-digits in digs. Izzy Granger (16 digs), Alt (13 digs), and Macy Hatkevich (12 digs) all reached that benchmark, with Hatkevich also supplying a career-high 49 assists.

On Saturday, Alt provided the match-clinching kill, one of 20 her terminations. Hatkevich turned in a career-high 49 assists and added 11 digs, her third straight double-double and sixth of the season. Jaqua tied her season-high with 28 digs, while Granger (12 kills) and Erickson (11 kills) both reached double figures in terminations.

Alt and Jaqua Approaching Important Milestones
Taylor Alt and Ryann Jaqua both have opportunities to etch their names in Toledo Volleyball lore in the coming weeks.

Alt enters play on Tuesday with 1,528 career kills, putting her 19 kills away from passing L.G. Bass (1984-87) for most career kills in school history. A three-time First-Team All-MAC honoree, Alt is averaging 4.00 kills/set for her career, which ranks first in Toledo annals.
Jaqua, who recently became the second Rocket ever to reach 2,000 career digs, sits 179 digs away from surpassing Maurissa Leonard's (2015-18) school record of 2,260 career digs. The fifth-year senior ranks 18^th in the nation this year in digs/set (5.03).

Rocket Notes

• Alt is averaging a MAC-best 4.61 kills/set in conference play and Jaqua is averaging a MAC-best 5.64 digs/set in conference play.
• Alt has tallied at least 20 kills in each of her last three matches, one shy of her career-long stretch of four straight matches from the 2021 spring season.
• Bouyer and Erickson have both upped their level of play against MAC competition. Bouyer is averaging 2.39 kills/set and hitting .307, while Erickson is averaging 1.72 kills/set, 0.94 blocks/set, and attacking at a .303 clip.
• The Rockets have played three straight five-set matches, the first time they've done that since ending the 2021 spring season with three straight five-setters.
• Hatkevich has six double-doubles in her last eight matches. She tallied 49 assists apiece in both matches against Buffalo this past weekend, representing a career-high total.
• Toledo is in a three-way tie for third place in the MAC with Buffalo and Northern Illinois. 

About Ball State
Ball State has won nine straight matches and has dropped just three total sets in eight MAC contests this year. Aniya Kennedy leads the Cardinals, who are tied for first place in the MAC with Western Michigan, and ranks third in the MAC in kills (3.79/set) and Megan Wielonski is second in the league in assists (9.97/set).

Next Up
Toledo visits Akron for a pair of matches this weekend.