This will be BGSU volleyball’s second rematch from the regular season into the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). The first was two four-set wins against Wright State, one match in the second invitational of the season and one in the Super 16 of the NIVC.
The second will be against DePaul, a team Bowling Green beat in four sets in the Blue Devil’s tournament and arena in September if anything like the two games against Wright State, the Great 8 of the NIVC bodes well for BG against DePaul.
The parallels are not ignorable. Both the Wright State and DePaul matches in the regular season occurred in an invitational hosted by BG’s opponents, and both finished in four-set victories for the Falcons.
Just as well, BG is eight for nine when playing an opponent a second time, the only loss to Ohio State when they beat the Falcons twice on the weekend. One of those eight is Wright State, and three others are against teams that made the MAC Tournament, one against the MAC Champion: Western Michigan.
DePaul is not the greatest team BG has faced all season. They finished fourth in the Big East Conference and beat St. Johns in the Big East first round before losing to number one Creighton in the semifinal. They received a bid to the NIVC not as a first or second seed like BG but as an at-large selection by the committee.
Even their competition was relatively peak, with their best opponent outside of conference play being Bowling Green and Illinois-Chicago (Missouri Valley Conference).
In the 21 games that they won, grad student outside hitter Jill Pressly was the go-to throughout the season, scoring 568 kills on 1,513 attempts, adding the most aces on the team (40) and the second most digs (324).
After about a 220-point drop-off, pin-hitter Audrey Klemp and middle blocker Aly Kindelberger vie for second on the team in points, sitting around the 360 mark. Klemp has done most of her damage through her pure hitting, while Kindelberger’s 96 points and 14 aces help her point totals drastically, a more well-rounded player.
These three offensive weapons are almost a mirror image of BG’s. Lauryn Hovey, like Pressly, the do-it-all offensive and defensive presence, Mia Tyler, like Klemp, a strong, pure attacker that does very well in that one area, and Alexis Mettille, trailing Tyler by just a little in points but has added more aces and blocks than Tyler on the season.
A main difference is setter play, with DePaul running a two-setter system, Ashley Cudiamat and Amanda Saeger, and the Falcons utilizing only Amanda Otten for their setups while also adding more kills and blocks than the Cudiamat and Saeger combination.
For DePaul and head coach Marie Zidek, this is only the second time they have appeared in a postseason tournament since 2003. They beat Southern Illinois before losing to Drake in the 2023 NIVC and have beaten Toledo and Omaha to face the Falcons at home in the Great 8 of the playoff.
If Bowling Green wins, it will be the best post-season performance since 1992, when BG won five NIVC matches and lost in the championship to Washington State. It is already the furthest the Falcons have made it in the postseason under Danijela Tomic, In 2024, being the third time in program history, BG has won multiple postseason matches in one season.
Falcon Four players to watch:
Bowling Green Senior OH- Mia Tyler
Tyler went on a seven-game 10+ kill streak to start MAC play and has started NIVC play hot as well, with two games of 14 kills against Binghamton and Wright State. She has had the most kills of her career in 2024 (326), with her most digs (59) and blocks (50) compared to her other four seasons.
Bowling Green Sophomore Setter- Amanda Otten
The heart of the team, Otten, has taken a jump forward in the NIVC from an already great season. In the matches against Binghamton and Wright State, Otten scored 79 assists, ten kills on 17 attempts, five aces, and 20 digs with one double-double.
She has officially cracked 1000 assists, 100 kills, 200 digs, and 80 blocks this season.
DePaul Grad student OH- Jill Pressly
Like BG and Hovey, when the going gets tough, DePaul feeds Pressly. She has had only one match of single-digit kills and nine of 20+. She is the most attempted hitter on the team with 21 games of 40+ attack attempts, almost double the next closest team member’s attempt total.
She is also a dangerous server, having knocked two aces or more ten times, including an eight-game ace streak midseason and an ongoing five-game streak averaging two per game.
DePaul Senior MB- Aly Kindelberger
Tied for the most blocks of any Blue Devil, Kindelberger’s blocking should be a game-changer.
BGSU is one of the more blocked teams in the MAC, and while not the highest-blocking team in 2024, DePaul’s blocking wreaked havoc against BG in their last matchup. She had a solo and five blocking assists in the first matchup.
Her hitting has also stepped up lately, with a 21-kill game vs. Omaha on 42 attempts for a middle blocker (although she only recorded two blocks.
