BGSU volleyball refused to let Western Michigan get their revenge. The Falcons swept the Broncos in three sets at the Stroh Center.
Both teams came into this game undefeated in MAC play. WMU was 6-0 in conference play while BGSU was 5-0. Now, the Falcons are 6-0 in conference play and 10-6 overall.
It was just months ago these teams played at the Stroh for a MAC championship title.
With both teams atop the MAC and the history between the teams, this game had a different feel to it going in. Head Coach Danijela Tomic made sure her players were ready to handle the playoff feel to this match.
“I would probably be lying if I say it didn’t, as much as we want to prepare our team to take one match at a time. Every player knows we are meeting another undefeated team, the team we played in the MAC championship this spring,” Tomic said.
Two Falcons had double-digit kills in the match. Senior Katelyn Meyer had 13 kills to lead the team. Just behind her was redshirt freshman Kat Mandly with 11 kills.
For Mandly, she had a career high in hitting percentage with .417. Her court vision with her teammates’ communication helped her achieve her most efficient match yet.
“There were a lot of holes in the block that allowed me to hit deep seams or sometimes the sharp cross. But my defense was calling those out for me. Shoutout to them for allowing me to see that,” Mandly said.
Per usual, junior Petra Indrova filled up the stat sheet. In the match, Indrova finished with nine kills, one assist, five service aces, eight digs and five block assists. She led the team in total points with 16.5.
WMU struggled on offense for the first two sets. They hit for .073 and -.086 respectively. In the second set, they had eight kills and 11 attacking errors. BGSU was ready to combat the tough Broncos’ offense.
“The game plan is as good as the team executes it. Our players did a great job with what we said we wanted to do,” Tomic said.
The Broncos kept it somewhat close in the first set, losing only 25-19. However, the Falcons had six total blocks to help top the Broncos.
In the first set, junior Madelynn Luebcke had four block assists to lead the team. She finished the match tied for the team lead in block assists with five alongside Indrova.
The team had 11 total blocks in the match, all coming in the first two sets. BGSU cruised past WMU in the second set winning 25-14.
The offense came alive for the Falcons in the third and final set. They hit a match high .475 in the last set. As a team, they had 20 kills and one attacking error. Meyer led in the set with nine kills. She did not register a kill in the second set.
Senior Hanna Laube was in charge of leading the humming offense. In the three sets, she had 36 assists.
It was a close third set to start, but a 5-1 BGSU run helped the Falcons take control of the set.
BGSU ended the match with a 25-17 set win and completed the sweep.
There was only one glaring weakness to the Falcons this match. The team had a total of 10 service errors in the match. WMU only had three of their own. Overall, Tomic is alright with some of the errors committed.
“We are aggressive, we are not afraid of making mistakes. Mistakes happen. When I get upset with serving errors it’s when we are not being aggressive,” Tomic said.
The Falcons will try to extend their seven game winning streak with a road trip to Mount Pleasant to take on Central Michigan. They will play on Oct. 14 at 6 P.M. EST and on Oct. 16 at 11 A.M. EST.
