The volleyball team started the weekend off right with a win against Buffalo Friday and ended with a tough loss to Akron Saturday.
The Falcons move to 8-3 overall and 2-2 in the Mid-American Conference.
BG rallied to beat the Bulls in five games (30-27, 30-21, 28-30, 27-30, 15-6).
“We played ok,” said head coach Deniese Van De Walle. “We didn’t do anything outstanding. It was a dull match for us. It’s hard to get excited to play them when they haven’t won a MAC match all year.”
Van De Walle said that since the team drove down that day that could have effected the team’s performance.
“It was a long ride and we played like we were still on the bus,” Van De Walle said.
The Falcons might not have played as good as they wanted to, but senior blocker Caty Rommeck still had a great night. She recorded 22 kills with a .286 hitting percentage. However, she got injured early on in the match. Rommeck twisted her ankle when she landed on sophomore Laura Twyman’s ankle.
“I put in Bridget Protas [in place of Rommeck],” Van De Walle said. “She did a really good job.”
The Falcons won the first two games (30-27, 30-21) to gain control of the match.
“After we won games one and two there was no concern about winning,” said Van De Walle. “In games three and four we let up and Buffalo started playing great volleyball.”
BG lost the third and forth games in close decisions (28-30, 27-30).
“Buffalo was never in game five,” Van De Walle said. “There was no concern about dropping game five.”
According to Van De Walle the Falcons overpowered the Bulls in the fifth game to win by an impressive 15-6 victory.
“I was disappointed we didn’t win in three,” Van De Walle said. “I thought we could have played better.”
Senior Shyann Robinson had her best match of the season with 14 kills, a .321 hitting percentage, three service aces, seven digs and a block assist. Her three aces were a career high for Robinson.
Senior setter Natalie Becker led the Falcons with 49 assists, while junior Kristin Gamby posted 13 kills, hit .290, had two solo blocks and six block assists. She set a new career high in both block assists and total blocks.
The Falcons had a team total of 70 kills, blocked 18 balls and hit .241 as a team, while Buffalo had only 58 kills, blocked five and hit .123 as a team.
After beating the Bulls the Falcons hopped on the bus and headed for Akron.
“We didn’t get to Akron until 4 a.m.,” Van De Walle said. “We slept in and then practiced at 2.”
The Falcons lost to the Zips in three games (25-30, 27-30, 30-32). “Of the three losses I am the most disappointed in the Akron loss,” Van De Walle said. “We had a 4-6 lead in every single game. We managed to give up the lead and get beat.”
Van De Walle said, “In the third game we had a six point lead at one point. We were up 28-24 and ended up losing 32-30. We probably made seven errors in that eight point stretch to lose the game.”
Rommeck led the Falcons with 17 kills and hit .273 on the evening. She also had 10 digs, five solo blocks and two block assists. Protas came in for Rommeck in the last game.
“Bridget [Protas] played in the third game and did very well coming off the bench,” Van De Walle said. “She was in for five rotations and got two blocks.”
The Falcons had 43 kills, nine blocks and hit .096 as a team, while the Zips had 46 kills, seven blocks and hit .127 as a team.
Senior Natalie Becker had 31 assists and 13 digs to lead the team. She also had three kills and a block assist.
