BOX SCORE
TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Western Michigan volleyball team defeated Bowling Green 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-21 on Saturday at the SeaGate Centre in Toledo, Ohio, to advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship match on Sunday at 3 p.m. against No. 2 Ohio.
The No. 5 Falcons (25-9) came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the top-seeded Broncos (25-4) in the regular-season, but WMU exacted payback to advance to its first MAC Tournament championship match since winning the tournament in 2000.
Junior Katie Eberling led WMU with her 44th career double-double as she tallied a team-high 16 kills, 12 digs and four blocks and hit .500. First Team All-MAC outside hitter Michelle Moore moved into third all-time in kills (1,388) at WMU with 13 kills, six digs and four blocks. Sophomore Kate Corbett hit .450 and tied her career high with 11 kills and her career high with seven block assists as WMU notched 13.5 blocks against Bowling Green.
Sophomore Allyson Doyle picked up 20 digs to tie for the match-high, in addition to seven kills and four blocks. Second Team All-MAC middle blocker Jaime Gotham hit .471 with nine kills and six blocks, while MAC Setter of the Year Jillian Mitchell had a match-high 55 assists. MAC Defensive Player of the Year Caitlin Strimel finished with 14 digs and two fourth-set service aces to move into 10th at WMU with 114 career aces.
After letting BGSU hit .303 to .199 for the Broncos in the regular season meeting, WMU was the offensive force with a .319 attack percentage and 58 kills. Bowling Green had 58 kills, but the Broncos' strong block forced them into 27 errors and a .204 attack percentage.
The first set didn't start in the Broncos' favor as Bowling Green raced to a 10-3 lead before Eberling halted the run with a kill. The Broncos took the lead, 19-17, after a 7-1 run behind five errors from the Falcons, but it was short-lived. Bowling Green got two-straight kills from Corey Domek to notch the set and took the lead for good, 24-21, after three-straight finishes from Meghan Mohr and won the set, 25-22, on a service error.
Mohr had nine kills and hit .600 in set one for Bowling Green as the team finished with 20 kills and hit .287. The Broncos hit .250 with 12 kills led by four from Gotham.
Behind the regular season match and the first set of the MAC Tournament semifinals, Bowling Green had won four-straight sets against Western Michigan and built a 5-2 lead in set two. A block by Gotham and Mitchell stopped the run and started a 13-6 run that forced a BGSU timeout with the Broncos up four, 15-11. Bowling Green came back to cut the deficit to two, 19-17, but another block by Corbett and Mitchell started a 3-0 run with an ace by Eberling and kill by Moore, 22-17. Six points later, Moore evened the match, 25-20, with another kill.
The Broncos hit .394 with 16 kills, while holding BGSU to .256 hitting with 15 kills. Moore hit .385 with seven kills to lead the charge.
The match was up for grabs coming out of intermission and Western Michigan was the team that took control. Kills by Eberling and Corbett staked WMU to a 4-1 lead, but Bowling Green came back to take a 7-6 lead after a block. Kills by Moore, Doyle and Moore again put WMU back in front, 9-7, for good. The Broncos continued to build on the lead and an ace by Doyle put the Broncos up by six, 16-10. BGSU tried to cut into the lead, but an error put WMU back up six, 20-14, late in the set and Mitchell served WMU into the fourth, 25-16, after three errors by the Falcons and another set-closing kill from Moore.
The Broncos hit .414 with 16 kills and just four errors, while the Falcons hit .100 with 10 kills and seven errors. Eberling had five kills and Doyle and Corbett each had three block assists as the Broncos posted 4.5 blocks in set three.
Bowling Green scored the first three points of set four and eventually went up four, 7-3, in the early going. The Broncos regrouped and went on a 6-0 run, 9-7, to take the lead for good. That was part of a larger 15-4 run that pushed the lead to seven, 18-11, after a block by Eberling and Corbett. The Falcons made one last run and cut the lead to three, 23-20, but Gotham hammered it home to stop the run and Doyle finished the match, 25-21.
The Broncos hit .250 with 14 kills and five errors, while BGSU hit .132 with 13 kills and eight errors. The Broncos' block came up big with five in the final set.
Mohr led all players with 21 kills for the Falcons and Alex Zlabis had 20 digs.
The championship match will be at 3 p.m. Sunday from the SeaGate Centre. Tickets are still available and the match will be available to Bronco Insider subscribers.
