The Bowling Green volleyball team beat Western Michigan Friday for the first time since 1997. They improved to 6-1 overall after their home opening win.
“We played great volleyball,” head coach Denise Van De Walle said. “It was a great win and a great home opener. Our ball control was very good. This was the best we had served in a long time. We accomplished our goals.”
Heading into this match Van De Walle had hoped to control the ball, serve well and block well. The Falcons did just that.
“The goals we set down before the match were to have them [Western] be out of system so that they had trouble running their middles,” said Van De Walle. “Zakiya Pope is very hard to stop. She runs middle very well. Our goal was to put enough pressure on them so that was not an option.”
The Falcons did exactly that by holding Pope to only nine kills and four errors (.278).
“We played really together,” senior Natalie Becker said. “We stayed aggressive. We knew we had to serve tough. We weren’t sure what to expect [from Western].”
The Falcons came out strong with six unanswered points and continued to dominate throughout both the first and second game beating the Broncos 30-23 in the first game and 30-26 in the second.
It wasn’t until the third game that the Falcons fell behind. The Broncos pulled ahead 5-4 and were at one point ahead by five points. Finally, the Brown and Orange regained the lead 18-17 and held on to defeat the Broncos 32-30.
“Game three showed so much character,” said Van De Walle. “We played with confidence and very securely.”
Van De Walle said, “[Senior] Caty Rommeck blocked well, attacked the ball well and she had an overall great game.”
Rommeck led the team with 15 kills, six blocks and four digs.
“Caty did a great job mixing up her shots,” said Becker. “Everyone played really well.”
Van De Walle said, “Natalie Becker set the ball very well [even though] she jammed her thumbs.”
Becker jammed one of her thumbs during the game and the other one earlier in practice. She had a team-high 40 assists along with six digs and one block.
“I think I played well,” said Becker. “I had to not focus on the pain and focus on playing.”
Senior Amber Vorst had a team high 11 digs along with five kills, while senior Kate Yeo lead the Falcons with two service aces and seven digs.
“I felt we handled their setter, Ashley Ritter, very well,” said Van De Walle. “[She] is usually very effective at attacking the second ball.” BG only allowed Ritter to have five kills and forced her to commit five errors.
“We’ve seen her [Ritter] take control of the match before,” said Van De Walle. ” To see us keep Western Michigan hitting a .094 tells us that we accomplished our goals by putting pressure on them to not run their offense.”
Overall, BG hit .194 as a team, recorded 45 kills and had eight blocks. The Broncos had 46 kills and blocked nine.
“I thought the crowd was great,” said Van De Walle. “This was tremendous atmosphere to play in. When you think about the ideal situation this was it. To come in here and have a gym full of fans and have a team out on the floor that you know is very talented play to their potential.”
The Falcons look forward to traveling to Rochester, Mich to face Oakland on Tuesday.
“We still have some things to work on,” said Van De Walle. “I still want to continue to work on passing and I think we have to be a little more versatile at the net.”
Becker said, “It will be a good midweek match.”