BOX SCORE

KALAMAZOO -- Sophomore middle blocker Kate Corbett led the Broncos with 11 kills, tying her career high, and five blocks en route to sweeping Mid-American Conference East foe Akron 26-24, 25-22, 25-13 on Friday night in front of 1,017 fans, the second-largest crowd of the year at University Arena. With Central Michigan's loss to Miami, the Broncos (15-3, 6-1 MAC) regained sole possession of first place in the MAC West.

Junior Michelle Moore chipped in 10 kills, five digs, and two blocks for the Broncos while junior setter Jillian Mitchell led all players with 40 assists and nearly missed a double-double with nine digs. Junior libero Caitlin Strimel led all players with 23 digs.

Junior Katie Eberling added eight kills, six digs and two blocks and moved into sixth all-time at Western Michigan with 930 career digs.

“Akron was very good from the beginning tonight and because of that it took us a while to settle into our system,” head coach Colleen Munson said. “All the credit tonight goes to Akron for challenging us and making it difficult for us to do what we wanted.”

The two teams traded points to open the set until the Zips (7-11, 1-6 MAC) went on a 4-0 run to make the score 9-5.  Corbett answered back with a kill to break the scoring drought and start an 11-4 run for the Brown & Gold that put them up three, 16-13, after a Moore ace capped the rally. The Broncos eventually pushed the lead to five, 20-15, after back-to-back blocks by Eberling and Corbett, but Akron came back. A rotation error on the Broncos evened the match at 23-all before Allyson Doyle gave the Broncos set point with a kill. Akron fought that off, but another kill by Doyle and a Zip error gave WMU the set, 26-24.

The Broncos got a strong set out of Corbett with three kills and four blocks as WMU hit .289 with 15 kills and just two errors, while holding Akron to .186 hitting with 16 kills and eight errors, including five blocks.

WMU jumped out to a 4-1 lead to open set two after a kill by Corbett and three attack errors by the Zips. Akron answered back with a 5-0 scoring run of its own. This fired up the Broncos taking them on an 11-2 run making the score 15-8 led by Eberling, Jamie Gotham and Jillian Mitchell.  The teams exchanged points with the Zips edging closer with a few errors on the Bronco side.  Two kills from Corbett surrounded by a point from the Zips finish set two in the Broncos favor 25-22.

Set three was all Brown and Gold, with the defense holding Akron to a .000 attack percentage and match-high nine errors.  The Broncos had a sideout percentage of 84 percent compared to the Zips who had a 43 percent third set sideout percentage.  Broncos win set three 25-13 and the match 3-0.

For the match, WMU led Akron in kills (46-37), assists (45-32), attack percentage (.258-.102) and blocks (8.0-4.0), while the Zips had the edge in digs (65-55).

The Broncos come back to University Arena Saturday night for Volleyball Cares at 7 p.m. against Buffalo. All fans are encouraged to wear pink and participate in the silent auction for two authentic pink Adidas Western Michigan volleyball jerseys with proceeds supporting the American Cancer Society.