The Falcon volleyball team swept the Northern Illinois University Huskies in a rematch of this past year’s Mid-American Conference championships Saturday.
Saturday night’s crowd of 1,503 was the second biggest volleyball crowd in Stroh Center history.
Head coach Danielja Tomic said the coaching staff’s goal was to take pressure off the players because it was a repeat of the MAC championship game and a nationally televised game.
“[Being 2-0 in the MAC] feels much better than being 0-2,” Tomic said. “It’s a great, new beginning to our [MAC] season that we started last week and I am so proud of our team. They deserve it, they have been working so hard and I’m hoping they are seeing the benefits of all that hard work.”
Team captain Lindsey Butterfield, an outside-hitter, showed off her hard work Saturday night, leading the team in kills with 11 recorded. Her counter part, Paige Penrod recorded 10 kills. All five Falcon players to record kills had at least four kills during the match.
“[The setters] did a great job setting everyone,” Butterfield said. “Their distribution to everyone was great, and they did a great job getting everyone involved. When everyone is involved and being aggressive, that’s our character. That’s what we want to bring every night.”
The two setters, Erica Fullenkamp and Laura Avila, had a combined 30 assists.
The Falcons had control of the match from the first to third set winning; 25-20, 25-21 and 25-19.
The BG defense looked strong as they gave up 28 kills and produced 48 team kills on offense.
Middle Kaitlyn Skinner had the highest attacking percentage with .800.
“Whenever there is a hit, teams like to crash in, and I love pushing the ball deep to the corners of the court,” she said.
Tomic said the control of tempo during the match was credited to “our best serving game” and keeping the Huskies out of sync.
“It’s great to make a statement early in the MAC,” Butterfield said. “I think we did a great job with our serves and keeping [NIU] out of their system. When we take them out of system we can dictate, and that’s what we want to do with every match.”
Skinner, Fullenkamp and Avila recorded aces. Libero Ashley Dunn led the servers with two aces.
The Falcons will take on Kent State Friday and No. 22 Ohio Saturday; both weekend games are away games. The flashes are 7-7 on the season and 1-1 in the MAC, and Ohio is 12-2 and like BG, are 2-0 in the MAC.
