This weekend was filled with joy and sorrow for the volleyball team as they lost their first home game of the season Friday and head coach Denise Wan De Walle got her 350th career win Saturday.

“I’m glad that is didn’t take any longer than (Saturday),” Van De Walle said. “We were counting on beating Miami, but it just must not have been meant to be. I really felt we could have beat Miami, but we just didn’t have it in us.”

The Falcons won the first game against Miami 30-22 Friday and lost the next two 26-30 and 21-30. Game four was a battle to stay in the match and the Falcons refused to lose forcing the RedHawks to pull out all the stops.

“We had a great comeback in game four when we were down 29-26 and we came back to 30-29,” Van De Walle said. “We didn’t have it in us to get one more point.”

The Red Hawks defeated the Falcons 37-35 in the fourth game. Junior Kristin Gamby led the Falcons with 18 kills and hit .286, while senior Natalie Becker led the team with 52 assists and 13 digs. She also posted seven kills and two block assists.

“Our middles carried a lot of weight,” Van De Walle said. “I felt like we were one-dimensional. Kristin Gamby and Caty Rommeck did extremely well.”

Rommeck had 17 kills, hit .235, posted 10 digs and had five blocks total.

The Falcons had 73 kills, hit .146 as a team and posted seven blocks, while the RedHawks had 67 kills, hit .199 as a team and posted 15 blocks.

Errors proved to be the difference for the Falcons as they recorded 42 errors opposed to Miami’s 28.

Saturday the Falcons faced Marshall and defeated them in three games (30-22, 30-23, 30-26) for Van De Walle’s 350th career win.

“It’s a great feeling and I’m glad I’ve gotten (the wins) all here,” Van De Walle said. “(Saturday) night was really special having alumni from years past come back to be here and celebrate the 350th career win with them because all those players on the floor have helped with those wins. That’s a great feeling.”

Van De Walle is the first Mid-American Conference volleyball coach to win 350 games. This win improves the Falcons record to 12-5 overall and 5-4 in the MAC.

“I’m very happy that we won in three and I was glad to see us end on a dynamic play like a stuffed block to the floor,” Van De Walle said.

Rommeck led the Falcons with a record high 23 kills. She hit .488 and recorded 10 total blocks, including six solo blocks, which was a career high for her.

“Caty already had 16 kills going into the third game,” Van De Walle said. “She really carried us offensively. It was nice to see Bridget [Protas] come in off the bench.”

Becker led the team with 37 assists and hit a season high .556. She also had five kills, six digs and three block assists.

Senior Karen Amstutz had 12 defensive digs, a team and season high.

The Falcons recorded 50 kills, hit .260 as a team and had 12 total blocks, while the Thundering Herd had 36 kills, hit .061 as a team and posted five blocks.

“I think this team has a lot of potential right now,” Van De Walle said. “We’ve just been struggling with consistency. In the MAC we win, lose, win, lose … because we’re five and four. I think we have a very good team, but we’re struggling to put the ball away once we get up around 24 or 25 points.”