BOX SCORE
KALAMAZOO -- In a battle between the two favorites in the Mid-American Conference, it was MAC West favorite Western Michigan over MAC East favorite Miami 25-19, 18-25, 25-18, 25-16 in front of 1,035 fans at University Arena on Saturday night.
The Broncos (11-2, 2-0 MAC) were paced by junior libero Caitlin Strimel with a season-high 29 digs. Junior Katie Eberling chipped in her 35th career double-double with 14 kills hitting .361 and 12 digs. Sophomore Allyson Doyle added 10 kills and 10 digs of her own and hit .300, while junior setter Jillian Mitchell added a double-double on her way to 46 assists, 11 digs, five kills and three blocks. The kill leader, though, was Michelle Moore with a match-high 16 kills and three blocks.
Sophomore Jaime Gotham was strong at the net with seven blocks, including one solo, as the Broncos posted 11 total blocks.
"Once again, it was a case of our players controlling tempo and dictating what the other team was going to do, instead of reacting," head coach Colleen Munson said. "This is a quality win against a very good Miami team and now we need to build on this because we still have 14 more league matches to go."
Playing in front of the big home crowd, the Broncos opened a 10-3 lead in the opening frame as Kate Corbett, Moore, Gotham, Doyle and Eberling all had at least one kill. The RedHawks (7-7, 1-1 MAC) came back and cut the lead to one, 12-11, but back-to-back kills by Eberling and Moore gave WMU a three-point cushion. The Broncos pushed the lead to five, 18-13, moments later after a block by Gotham and Moore preceded a Moore kill.
Miami, the defending MAC Tournament champions, kept fighting and cut the lead to two, 19-17, but a kill by Doyle and a botched overpass put WMU back up four, 21-17, as they took the first set, 25-19. The Broncos had 18 kills and hit .310 in the opening set, while also adding four blocks and 20 digs to hold Miami to .116 hitting.
Back-to-back blocks by the RedHawks forced WMU to call timeout trailing 10-7 in the second set. The Broncos were able to cut the lead to two after a Corbett kill and Moore kill, but another block put Miami up, 13-9, and WMU never got closer than three the rest of the way in dropping set two, 25-18.
Miami had 18 kills of their own in the second set and hit .286, while WMU had just 11 kills and hit .158.
After the 10-minute intermission, the Broncos came out fast and forced Miami to call timeout after a Gotham kill put WMU up 12-8. Miami fought back and cut the lead to two three times, but WMU got a block from Gotham and Eberling followed by kills from Eberling and Doyle to go up five, 17-12. It was sideout volleyball from that point and WMU finished off the RedHawks with an ace from Gotham, 25-18.
WMU hit .357 with 17 kills and only two errors, while Miami hit a respectable .225 with 13 kills. The Broncos also picked up another 20 digs, including eight from Strimel.
It was another fast start for the Broncos in set four with Miami calling another early timeout, 7-3, after Gotham put away a misplayed serve by the Broncos. Miami came back again and cut their deficit to one, 8-7, before the Broncos went on a 9-3 run to push the lead to seven, 17-10. Mitchell and Eberling each had two kills during the run and Strimel registered her 100th career ace to become just the 17th player in school history to reach that mark. The Broncos continued to stretch their lead as Miami's Emily Schroeder had three straight attack errors and Eberling finished off the 4-0 run with a solo block, 23-14. Two points later she finished the match with a kill, 25-16.
It was defense that won set four as WMU forced Miami into 10 hitting errors and a .024 attack percentage. The Broncos added three blocks and 13 kills.
For the match, WMU hit .269 with 59 kills and 16 errors, while Miami hit .162 with 54 kills and 27 errors. The Broncos had 72 digs, while Miami had 75 and the Broncos had two more service aces with four in the match.
The Broncos go back on the road next weekend to play in-state MAC rivals Eastern Michigan on Friday and Central Michigan on Saturday.
