The Mid-American Conference (MAC) volleyball landscape continues to be exciting and entertaining, with upsets and sweeps and reverse sweeps, oh my!
BGSU wins back-to-back games in reverse sweep fashion
On Tuesday, the Falcons traveled to Toledo to take on the Rockets in another epic installment of the Battle of I-75.
The Rockets jumped in front early, narrowly taking the first two sets against the Orange and Brown, with final scores of 25-22 and 26-24, respectively.
Sophomore Toledo setter Macy Hatkevich played phenomenally through two sets, utilizing her two outside hitters, fifth-year Taylor Alt and junior Izzy Granger, putting Bowling Green on their heels.
However, the Falcons made some changes and adapted in the third set, taking it 25-18 to avoid Toledo bringing out the brooms.
Bowling Green’s head coach, Danijela Tomic, put in freshman defensive specialist Avery Anders and redshirt freshman outside hitter Edyta Waclawczyk to shake things up for the Falcons, which seemed to work. Another change in the third set was that sophomore setter Amanda Otten started to set the middle more, throwing off the Toledo blockers. She ended the game with 53 assists.
These changes allowed the Falcons to fight back, as they won the fourth and the fifth sets, completing the reverse sweep and improving to 3-0 in the MAC.
The Falcons then faced Western Michigan on their home court Friday at the Stroh Center, getting a shot at revenge after the Broncos defeated them in the MAC Tournament Championship last season.
The start of the game did not go well for the Falcons. However, one positive early in the match was Lauren Hovey getting a service ace, the 115th of her career. That ace achieved the record in service aces for Bowling Green in the rally-scoring era (since 2001).
Tomic talked to her team after they went down 0-2, and whatever she said must have resonated with them because they looked like a whole new team to begin the third set.
Otten looked much more confident, senior outside hitter Mia Tyler found holes in the Bronco’s defense, and the whole BG frontcourt was throwing a block party for Western Michigan.
At the end of the second set, the Falcons had four total blocks. By the end of the game, they had 16.
Bowling Green went on to win sets three, four and five with scores of 25-19, 25-17 and 15-7, completing their second reverse sweep of the week.
In addition to breaking the service ace record, Hovey had 17 kills, four blocking assists and eight digs.
Tyler led all scorers with a season-high 19 kills on the other side of the frontcourt.
The Falcon’s fifth-year middle blocker, Alexis Mettille, had eight total blocks and 10 kills on an impressive .450 hitting percentage.
Bowling Green’s blocking continued to be great on Saturday, completely shutting down Western Michigan attacks or getting solid one-touches. This game was not as close as the previous two for the Falcons, as they swept the Broncos with scores of 25-20, 25-19 and 25-23.
Along with ranking second in the MAC with 2.58 blocks per set, their defense has also been incredible during conference play.
Graduate student defensive specialist/libero Lindsey LaPinta and freshman defensive specialist Sydnie Hernandez combined for 51 digs in the past two games, playing great defense in the backcourt and earning four service aces combined.
The Falcons are red hot right now, 5-0, and the number one team in the MAC. Meanwhile, Western Michigan falls to 1-3 in MAC play.
Eastern Michigan loses to Central Michigan, handles Miami
The Eastern Michigan Eagles struggled in their matchup at Central Michigan on Tuesday, getting swept by CMU by final scores of 25-19, 25-20 and 25-15.
The Chippewas beat the Eagles in almost every major statistical category, including blocks, which the Eagles lead the MAC in.
The Eagles bounced back on Friday against Miami (OH) on their home floor.
EMU brought back their impressive blocking, snagging 11 against the Redhawks.
Miami could not get anything going against the Eagle’s defense, and Eastern Michigan quickly turned denfense into offense.
EMU brought out the brooms against Miami, tallying scores of 25-20, 25-19 and 25-21.
Miami took the loss personally, coming out looking ready and confident the next day against EMU.
Eastern Michigan blocks were getting tooled, and the attacks thrown back at the Redhawks were being picked up well by the defense.
Miami jumped out to a 2-0 set lead against the Eagles; however, EMU didn’t give up easily, fighting back.
The six-two offense of Eastern Michigan began to click again like it had the day before, with freshman middle blocker Anna Guard ending the game with 12 kills.
Eastern Michigan completed a reverse sweep, winning sets three, four, and five in quick succession. With that victory, the Eagles ended the series with a 4-1 MAC record, while the Redhawks are still searching for their first MAC win of the season.
Ball State and Central Michigan battle back and forth
Ball State and Central Michigan seemed very evenly matched on Friday and Saturday, with both games in this series going to a fifth set.
The game at Central Michigan was extremely close, with the two teams trading sets.
Ball State won the first 25-23. The Chippewas then won the next set 25-17. The third set was won by the Cardinals 25-22.
Then, to force a fifth set, Central Michigan won the fourth set 25-18.
But in the end, Ball State won the match, winning the fifth set by a very close margin of 16-14.
Freshman outside hitter Carson Tyler was key in the win for Ball State, with 23 kills on the match.
The story looked like it would repeat itself on Saturday, with Ball State and CMU again finding themselves tied at two sets a piece.
This time, however, the Chippewas cruised to the win in the final set, with a final score of 15-9; after four hard-fought battles on the day, the Cardinals seemed tired and fell to Central Michigan’s strong attacks, despite having 18 blocks on the game before the fifth set.
The Chippewas setter, junior Korba Allie, had 53 assists on the day and was spreading the love to all her hitters, two of which had 18 kills, plus an additional 13 from junior outside hitter Natalia Rejment. At the end of this series, Ball State finds themselves at 1-3 in the conference, while CMU is 3-1 in MAC play.
Northern Illinois falls to Akron in two close games
The Akron Zips, like Eastern Michigan, run a six-two offense. They have a great connection between their setters and hitters, running quicks, three balls and slides to confuse opposing defenses.
On the other side, the Huskies run a simpler five-one, and closely contended with the Zips in both the Thursday and the Friday matchups at NIU.
The two teams battled it out in both of the games in the series, but Akron’s play in both final sets was simply too much for the Huskies to handle.
Akron’s Emanouela Christodoulou had 34 kills in the two games for the Zips.
Northern Illinois freshman setter Ella Strausberger played well in both games for the Huskies, with 50 assists in Thursday’s loss.
These games propel Akron to a 3-1 MAC start while the NIU Huskies fall to 0-4.
Toledo and OU split games
Toledo engaged in another close game on Friday, this time against Ohio in Athens.
The Bobcats fell behind the Rockets two sets to one but managed to claw their way back with a commanding fourth set victory of 25-14.
With the help of a powerful 26-kill performance by sophomore outside hitter Kam Hunt, OU went on to win the fifth set, too, coming from behind to take the match.
On Saturday, it was a game of blowouts between these two teams.
OU won the first set 25-7, dominating the Rockets. The excitement built by the Bobcats quickly went away as Toledo proceeded to win the next three sets with scores of 25-16, 25-17 and 25-23.
Toledo advanced to 3-2 in conference play, while the series split leaves Ohio’s MAC record at 2-2.
Buffalo sweeps Kent State twice
Buffalo brought out the brooms against the Golden Flashes twice, making that three sweeps in a row for the Bulls, with the first coming against Western Michigan last week.
Kent State is still looking for their first MAC win, falling to 0-4 in the conference. Buffalo is now 3-1 in the MAC, looking strong so far in conference play.
