The volleyball team will take on two Mid-American Conference teams in road games this weekend, Buffalo Friday and Akron Saturday.
The Bulls are coming off two conference losses last weekend. They lost to both Toledo and Northern Illinois 3-0. Buffalo is 2-9 overall and 0-4 in the MAC.
“Hopefully when we play Buffalo we’ll be 2-1 (in the MAC),” head coach Denise Van De Walle said. “I think Buffalo will play us very well. They are looking for their first (conference) win.”
The Falcons lead the series against the Bulls 5-0 as they swept Buffalo in three games last year.
Akron is 8-3 overall and 2-2 in the MAC. The Zips are coming off tough losses to Toledo and Ball State last weekend. They lost to the Rockets 13-15 in the fifth set.
“I think the match against Akron will be really important to us because they’re in the East Division (of the MAC),” Van De Walle said. “For us to strive for that East Division Championship we need to take care of the teams on our side. Akron is looking to win the East Division.”
The Falcons also lead the series against the Zips 15-8, and are 7-3 when playing in Akron. Last year the teams split, with each winning on the road. The visiting team has won 10 of the last 11 meetings.
“The MAC is completely different than the non-conference part of the schedule,” Van De Walle said. “Teams come alive when it’s MAC time. There is a different level of competition in each one of the teams pre-conference schedule. In the pre-conference you can never judge (a team). You can be 8-0 in pre-conference and all of the sudden be 0-5 in your first five MAC matches.”
The Falcons are 7-2 overall and 1-1 in the MAC. They are coming off a conference loss to Northern Illinois last weekend.
“I think we have a great conference and I think half the schools in it really feel they can win the league,” Van De Walle said. “Northern Illinois, Ball State, Western Michigan, Bowling Green, Akron, Kent – they all think they can win.”
Since every team thinks it can win, it makes the conference matches that more difficult, Van De Walle said. In order to come out on top this weekend the Falcons have been practicing blocking, hitting and passing.
“We’re really focusing on our side of the net,” Van De Walle said. “We’re doing a lot more blocking and defense drills.”
Van De Walle hopes these drills will help the team put the Northern Illinois loss behind it and get ready for the weekend.
“We play very well when we play fast,” Van De Walle said. “If you can stay fast in your transition game, fast to the net, fast off the net we can be very effective. We try to play faster than our opponents.”
Currently, the faster the Falcons play the harder it is for their opponents to keep up. It also gives BG a better chance at winning.
“We’re going into the weekend thinking that we’re going to play back to the level that we?re used to playing, like we did the first two weeks of competition,” Van De Walle said. “We want to be back on track. We want to be sharp. We want to be fast. We want to be aggressive at the net.”
