After a hard-fought weekend, the Falcons volleyball season came to an end in the MAC Championship Tournament Semifinals. After defeating the Western Michigan Broncos in the second round of the tournament, the Falcons advanced to the semifinals to take on the top-seeded team in the tournament, the Miami University RedHawks. In the matchup with the RedHawks, the Falcons suffered their third defeat of the season by the hand of the team. The Falcons finished the season with an overall record of 21-10.
On Friday, the Bowling Green Falcons faced the Western Michigan Broncos, in which the Falcons won in four sets. With scores of 22-25, 25-21, 25-18 and 25-18, the Falcons were able to beat the Broncos for the second time this season, after sweeping them in an earlier regular-season matchup in October. In the matchup, Madeline Garda the Bowling Green record for single-season digs, as she recorded her 664th dig. Jelena Sunjic had a very impressive matchup as well, as she posted 22 kills in the match.
After the win, Coach Danijela Tomic was anticipating the matchup with Miami, stating, “I’m very happy with getting a win in the MAC Tournament. It’s always really nice. The last time we were here in 2013, we lost in the first round. So this is a big success, and we are really proud with our performance today. We will see what happens tomorrow. We have nothing to lose. We are playing the No. 1 seed, and everyone is expecting Miami to advance. We are going to go for it, and compete, and play the best that we can. We will play with pride, and we will play together. Whatever happens in the end – that’s what happens. That has been my message to the team – just no regrets.”
In the matchup on Saturday with Miami, the falcons fell in four sets with scores of 26-24, 14-25, 22-25, and 20-25. In the matchup, seniors, Sunjic and Alyssa Maloney both had very good matchups to close out their careers. Sunjic had 23 kills while Maloney had 12. Garda posted 36 digs to end her career with 1700 career digs at BGSU, while posting 726 in this season alone. It was the last game for those three players along with Delany Arkeilpane.
Coach Tomic stated after the game, “Our team left everything out on the floor. We didn’t have any regrets leaving after this match, and I am so proud of them. The defensive effort that we had tonight led by Madeline Garda – she is the best libero in the country in my mind. It’s just unbelievable. We fought until the end. This team made all BGSU fans and alumni proud with the effort that they displayed against a very good Miami team. They should hold their heads high. I’m sad for the seniors, but I’m also so proud of the legacy that they left. They showed our young players what it takes to develop a championship culture. There is a lot of responsibility now on our returning players to continue what our seniors started.”
It was a great season for the Falcons, as they exceeded expectations and made the Bowling Green community proud all season.
