BGSU volleyball (24-9, 16-2 MAC) is beginning to take the term “roll along” literally as the Orange and Brown felled the DePaul Blue Demons (21-14, 10-8 Big East) in four sets, advancing to their second Fab Four appearance in school history.
It has been quite a run for BG since falling in the semi-final round of the MAC Tournament, with the Falcons beating three straight opponents in the NIVC in four sets.
The big change to BGSU that separates this game from the others was the return of graduate student libero Lindsey LaPinta, who was absent in the Orange and Brown’s first two home games. In her stead, freshman defensive specialist Sydnie Hernandez filled in nicely, but she returned to the specialist role for the first time in the tournament.
While there were changes on defense, the big story was the Falcon offense, who put up 54 kills on the day with 12 aces to add to their dominant performance.
The two highest ace totals came from young players, with Hernandez and sophomore setter Amanda Otten notching three aces, each accounting for half of the team’s scores from the serve.
Junior, opposite Lauryn Hovey, did her part in wrecking the game as she usually does. However, sophomore outside hitter Edyta Waclawczyk stole the show as she tallied nine kills on the day, along with a career-high .353 hitting percentage.
Dominant play from BGSU translated in each set as the Falcons stormed to a one-to-nothing set lead (25-14), marking the twentieth time all year that BG has won the first set.
Set two was more of the same, with the Orange and Brown winning in a tighter contest 25-19 as they pushed DePaul to the edge of a reverse sweep. The Blue Demons were not ready to have their season end as graduate student outside hitter Jill Presley put up five of the 25 points necessary to push the match to a fourth set (17-25).
In set four, BG remained calm, dispatching DePaul 25-18, winning their first match on a Monday all season, meaning that BG has now won a match every day of the week.
The Orange and Brown await the winner of UConn vs St. Johns on Dec. 12, with the winner assumably hosting the Falcons in the Fab Four.
