Bowling Green volleyball will start their quest for a MAC tournament championship on Friday. With a MAC championship, they will gain an automatic bid in the NCAA tournament. The last time they played in the NCAA tournament was in 2012.
BGSU is the top seed in the tournament and will face fourth seeded Miami. The game will start at 4:30 p.m. EST and will be streamed on ESPN+.
The other matchup in the tournament will be second seeded Western Michigan taking on third seeded Ohio. That game is currently scheduled for a start time of 7 p.m. EST and will also be streamed on ESPN +.
The team is ready to accomplish another goal they have set for themselves.
“It’s been a great and exciting season. The journey we’ve been on and the story we’ve been writing has been great and I’m glad it’s not over yet. We are excited,” BGSU head coach Danijela Tomic said.
Along with the top seed, BGSU earned the right to host the MAC tournament at the Stroh. This will be the second straight time the tournament is held at BGSU. The Falcons made it to the championship game last time as the third seed. They fell to fourth seeded Ball State.
Tomic has left the last tournament in the past and is focused on this year.
“We moved on. In 2019, after we had individual meetings with our players, we closed that book. That’s over. That’s in the past,” Tomic said.
The Falcons exceeded all expectations in the regular season. They finished with a 20-1 record and broke numerous records, including winning 18 straight games to start the season. BGSU is also the MAC regular season champions.
Tomic will approach this weekend just like any other week.
“It’s almost the next week or weekend, like we have been doing all season long. We play Friday and we play Saturday, it’s two matches. We’ve prepared like we’ve prepared all season long,” Tomic said.
BGSU has dominated opponents this season. Out of their 20 wins, 11 of them have been sweeps.
One of the teams BGSU swept was Miami. These teams last played each other on Feb. 4 and 5. Both games were at the Stroh.
The Falcons swept the RedHawks in the first game. In the second game, BGSU came back from a 2-0 match deficit to win it in five sets.
Miami is entering this matchup with a record of 13-8. They are on a winning streak, having won their last five games.
A lot has changed since the last time these two teams met.
“A lot of teams figure out their most optimal lineup later on in the season. We will be looking at their (Miami) more recent matches,” Tomic said.
If BGSU can get past Miami, they will have to face another team on a hot streak.
WMU has won their last four games. Their last three games have been a sweep against Northern Illinois and back-to-back sweeps against Kent State.
Ohio has won their last three games. In their last weekend series, they swept Northern Illinois in back-to-back games.
While other teams in the tournament field are playing great volleyball, Tomic believes BGSU’s style of play will be hard for teams to beat.
“We don’t have many weaknesses. It’s hard for opponents to play teams like that. There is no one obvious weakness you can attack. If you stop one person, we still have more weapons and power to come at you from other positions,” Tomic said.
The expectations for this team are as high as they ever have been. While they were picked to win the MAC tournament in the preseason, they weren’t expected to have this kind of success.
With a near perfect regular season, BGSU will be expected to take home a MAC tournament title and make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
