BGSU Volleyball’s season has officially been extended as they compete in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) on Wednesday, Dec. 4 at 7:00 p.m. 

The Falcons received an automatic qualification into the NIVC by being the one-seed in the MAC tournament. They are slated to face the Binghamton Bearcats in the first round of the tournament, a 19-10 team that was swept by Toledo. 

Binghamton had a similar situation to Bowling Green in their conference, the Atlantic East Conference. They finished 8-2 in a six-team conference and lost in the first round of the conference tournament to the University of Albany, a 12-15 team that went 5-5 in the conference. 

Their fifth-year outside hitter, Tsvetelina Ilieva, is their best player by far, with 514 kills, a .277 hitting percentage, 44 aces, 260 digs (second on the team), and 64 total blocks. She is eleventh in total kills and kills per set in the nation and one of the best offensive players.  

If head coach Danijela Tomic and the Falcons win the game, they will play the next day against the Wright State Raiders, a team whom BGVB beat in four sets during the second invitational of their regular season. 

Wright State finished 24-6 overall with a 16-2 conference record, quite impressive in the Horizon League. However, they lost to No. 3 Green Bay in the semifinal in five sets, bringing their season to a close after a nine-game win streak mid-season.  

The Raiders have three players with 300+ kills, a setter with almost 1300 assists, and four players with 30+ aces. They led the Horizon in points, hitting percentage, assists, and kills and were lowest in opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills, and aces. They were also second in the league in aces, opponent blocks allowed, and opponent digs.