BOX SCORE
YPSILANTI, Mich. -- Five players had 10 or more kills and four players had 16 or more digs to lead the Western Michigan volleyball team past Eastern Michigan 25-20, 25-16, 23-25, 25-17 at the Convocation Center in Ypsilanti, Mich., on Friday night.
The win captured the first Sulewski Cup for the Broncos (12-2, 3-0 MAC). The Sulewski Cup is in honor of former WMU and EMU setters and sisters Jenifer and Kate Sulewski. Every time from now on when Western Michigan plays Eastern Michigan (6-11, 1-2 MAC) the cup will be at stake. Kate Sulewski was on hand to present the trophy to Western Michigan's Ashley Vogl after the Broncos' victory. WMU's Jen Sulewski was not in attendance as she is currently an assistant coach at Montana State University. The cup will be on the line again on Nov. 8 when EMU travels to Kalamazoo.
The Broncos set a few milestones as junior Katie Eberling had 10 kills and 19 digs to register her 36th career double-double and tie Kathryn Babcock's school record. She also moved into ninth all-time with 896 career digs in a match that saw WMU tie for fifth all-time with 98 digs in a four-set match. Junior setter Jillian Mitchell had 49 assists, 16 digs, six kills and four service aces as she moved into 10th all-time with 1,237 career assists.
Junior Michelle Moore led all players with 16 kills and junior libero Caitlin Strimel led all players with 26 digs. Sophomore Allyson Doyle added a double-double with 10 kills and 21 digs and sophomore Kate Corbett added a career-high 10 kills. Sophomore Jaime Gotham finished the double-digit streak with 12 kills and a team-high five blocks.
"This was a good win against an Eastern Michigan team that is very good defensively," head coach Colleen Munson said. "They wouldn't let anything fall and that forced us to work even harder for the points we earned. Winning against Eastern Michigan tonight in their building was an accomplishment and we need to play even better tomorrow night at Central Michigan."
The Broncos opened the match by jumping out to a 4-1 lead behind kills from Corbett, Moore and Gotham, but EMU came back. The Eagles tied the score at seven, but then WMU took control. An Eberling kill started a 10-1 run for the Brown & Gold, 17-8, that Eastern Michigan couldn't recover from, but that didn't mean they didn't try. The Eagles cut the lead to three, 23-20, before a kill by Moore and Strimel ace on set point, 25-20, gave the Broncos the early advantage.
Moore had seven kills in the first set as the Broncos compiled 19 kills as a team and hit .310, while holding EMU to 11 kills and a .205 attack percentage.
The Eagles led 3-1 in set two after back-to-back blocks, but Western Michigan quickly recovered to stage a 6-0 run that built a four-point edge, 8-4. Eastern Michigan came back and retook the lead, 12-11, but WMU used a 4-0 run behind three consecutive kills from Corbett, Gotham and Moore and a Strimel ace to lead 17-14. That was part of a set-ending 14-4 run that saw the Broncos end the set with eight consecutive points, including three of Mitchell's four aces.
The Broncos hit just .190, but did have 15 kills and held the Eagles to only seven kills behind 24 digs in the set from the Bronco defense.
A block by Moore and Gotham in set three forced the Eagles to call a timeout trailing 5-1. The timeout sparked EMU to a 17-5 run that forced WMU to call both timeouts before it was over and EMU led by eight, 18-10. The Eagles played sideout volleyball to reach set point, 24-18. Western Michigan staged a late rally by fighting off five set points before falling, 25-23.
The Broncos had 15 kills and six errors to hit .161, while EMU had 12 kills and four errors to hit .174.
The late rally in set three set the stage for set four as sophomore Courtney Seiler helmed a 5-0 run at the service line that forced EMU to call timeout with a three-point deficit, 9-6. Seiler finished the night by tying her career high with eight digs in just two sets. Eastern Michigan rallied for a 5-0 run out of the timeout to regain the lead, 11-9, but then Western Michigan went on a 9-1 run to build a six-point edge, 18-12, behind three kills from Eberling. The Broncos finished the set match strong as Moore, Doyle and Gotham each had a kill before EMU ended the match, 25-17, with an attack error.
The Broncos had 15 more kills in set four and held Eastern Michigan to just nine kills and a .020 attack percentage, including 27 digs by WMU.
The match finished with WMU hitting .210 and registering 64 kills as EMU hit .124 with 39 kills. The Broncos also had 98 digs to just 77 for EMU and added seven service aces with just two errors to four aces and eight errors for EMU. Blocking was close with eight for WMU and 7.5 for EMU.
Eastern Michigan was led by Jill Wolosiansky with 13 kills.
The Broncos head to Mt. Pleasant, Mich., to face Central Michigan (8-7, 2-1 MAC) on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Chippewas lost to Northern Illinois 25-23, 25-19, 25-21 on Friday.
