The volleyball team closed out its season Friday in a tough five game loss to Ball State in the Mid-American Conference Semifinals.

“I’m just so excited for our seniors,” said head coach Denise Van De Walle. “That’s really what this is all about. We have six seniors who fell short as juniors last year and had that terrible taste in their mouth of losing in the first round.”

The Falcons advanced to the semifinal round after defeating seventh seed Western Michigan Tuesday in five games.

“The seniors came through for us,” Van De Walle said. “Amber Vorst had a great match for us. Caty Rommeck and Natalie Becker. You can’t ask for three better seniors out on the floor.”

The Falcons lost the first game against the Broncos, won the next two games, lost the fourth game and came back to win the fifth game. The scores were 23-30, 30-29, 30-21, 28-30, and 15-13.

“We pushed it to five games and we were hoping to win in four, but we played solidly all the way through game five,” Van De Walle said. “We were up 12-7. At that point our passing usually breaks down, but at that point our passing was still solid and as long as we were still passing I knew we would get that final point.”

However, it took the Falcons a while to get that last point. They were up 14-8 and the Broncos came back to put the game within one point (14-13). Then junior middle Kristin Gamby had an impressive kill that ended the game for the Falcons.

“To win on a big swing was great,” Van De Walle said. “We said no tipping, we wanted to go down swinging.”

Gamby said, “I knew as soon as I hit the ball I knew I hit it hard enough that even if they got a touch on it, it was going to be the end of the game. I wanted Becker to set me.”

With that kill the Falcons advanced to the semifinals Friday to face third seed Ball State in another hard fought battle.

“Our goal was to get in the final four of the MAC Tournament and we did that,” Van De Walle said.

However, that was all the further the Falcons would make it as they lost their most difficult match of the season in five games (30-28, 22-30, 30-25, 35-37, 15-17).

This was the sixth time the Cardinals have defeated the Falcons in the MAC Tournament.

NOTES:

Rommeck was named to the All-MAC first team for the second year in a row, while Gamby earned honorable mention for the first time in her career.

Rommeck leads the league in kills per game (4.61) and solo blocks (37). She is second in the league in blocks (1.36) and sixth in hitting percentage (.307).

Gamby is sixth in the league in kills per game (3.79) and 11th in hitting percentage (.282).

“I am very proud of Caty and Kristin,” Van De Walle said.”They have been instrumental in our success this season.”