Denise Van De Walle and Carolyn Condit are really good friends.
Right behind Van De Walle, Condit is the second-longest tenured coach in the Mid-American Conference, with a record of 470-344 at Miami and 569-424 overall.
That’s 970 MAC wins between them both – and a combined 53 years of coaching.
‘We have shared a lot together in this conference,’ Van De Walle said. ‘We’ve seen a lot of changes, that’s for sure.’
Though Van De Walle has known Condit for years, her 11th seeded Falcons are ready to take on her squad, the third seeded Miami RedHawks at 1:30 today at the SeaGate Centre in the second round of the MAC Tournament.
The RedHawks are a good team offensively as they entered the tournament hitting a solid .222, which was the third best in the conference. They are not in the top three in any other category, but they also haven’t struggled much with anything.
Miami’s Michelle Metzler is a key player on their team. She ranks sixth in the conference in attack percentage at .306 and seventh in blocks at .089 per set.
After BG lost to them twice in the regular season, 3-0 (26-24, 28-26, 25-13) and 3-1 (17-25, 25-18, 25-21, 25-19), Van De Walle knows what to expect.
‘They serve tough and we need to be in system to run our offense,’ she said. ‘Paying attention to who’s hitting where will be important. And as always, we must serve tough. We served really well at Toledo and that helped us in the win.
‘They are very balanced offensively. They hit hard and smart; plus, they have four seniors that have played very well this year and have had a lot of success. We will want to attack them just as aggressively.’
All-time, Miami holds a 38-24 lead in the series and is 6-3 in neutral site matches. The last time the two teams met in the MAC Tournament was in 1999 and the Falcons beat them in five sets.
Though BG trails Miami all-time, they lead them 2-1 in the three meetings in the MAC Tournament.
All numbers aside, Van De Walle and her team are ready to go for it, despite the short week of practice.
‘We’re going to play hard,’ she said. We’re the underdog this whole tournament, so we’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. I’d like our seniors to take control in this match. We’re playing to win.’
