BOX SCORE
KALAMAZOO - The Western Michigan volleyball team hit a season-high .378 behind senior Michelle Moore's career-high .556 hitting with 15 kills and no errors in 27 swings to defeat Valparaiso, 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-15), on Saturday night at University Arena in the regular season finale for both teams.
The Broncos (24-11) will now watch the NCAA Tournament Selection Show tomorrow at 3 p.m. on ESPNews to see if they receive an at-large bid to the 2009 NCAA Volleyball Championship.
Moore moved into fourth in Mid-American Conference history with 1,919 career kills and her 463 kills this season is ninth at WMU.
MAC Freshman of the Year Jessica Brown added a match-high 16 kills, three blocks and hit .481, while senior Katie Eberling hit .419 with 13 kills, eight digs and two blocks.
Senior Jillian Mitchell moved into fourth in WMU history with 3,481 assists after passing out 46 with seven digs against the Crusaders (22-11), runner-up in the Horizon League regular season. Mitchell's 1,346 assists this season is fourth in WMU history.
Senior Caitlin Strimel led all players with 26 digs to increase her career total to 2,583, fifth-best in NCAA history. Her 542 digs this season is fourth at WMU. Strimel holds each of the top four spots in single season digs at WMU.
Doyle added 16 digs to move into sixth in school history with 459 digs in a single season. Eberling's 457 digs is seventh in a single season at WMU.
The opening set was the tightest with 10 ties and five lead changes. Valparaiso held the late advantage, 20-18, after back-to-back kills and a WMU attack error. The Broncos stopped the run with a Brown kill, but Valpo had another kill on the next point to stay up by two, 21-19. The Crusaders missed the next serve and Brown and Mitchell stuffed Angie Porche to tie the score. Valpo had a chance to break the tie on the next point, but missed and WMU regained the lead, 22-21. VU tied the score with a kill on the next point, but then Moore had back-to-back kills to put WMU at set point, 24-22. The Broncos took the set as Porche touched the net on her next attack, 25-22.
The Broncos hit .250 with 14 kills, five by Brown, while Valparaiso hit .236 with 19 kills and six errors.
A kill by Moore put the Broncos up three, 7-4, but the Crusaders came back and evened the set, 8-8. Valparaiso missed another serve and then a block by Brown and Eberling and kill by Brown put WMU up four, 12-8. Two kills by Brown and Eberling pushed the WMU lead to six, 17-11, and the Broncos finished the Crusaders, 25-19, with an Eberling kill.
WMU hit .457 with 18 kills and two errors in the set. Brown led WMU with six kills, while Moore and Eberling each had five kills. The Crusaders hit .150 with 11 kills and five errors.
The Broncos were never threatened in the third set as they dominated Valparaiso to the tune of a 12-point lead, 15-3, to open the set. The Crusaders saved two set points, but Doyle hammered one home to end the match, 25-15.
WMU hit .450 with 20 kills and two errors, led by Moore with seven kills and five each by Brown and Eberling. Strimel was all over the back row with 14 of her 26 digs in the final set. Valpo hit .200 with 12 kills and three errors.
Overall, WMU hit a season-high .378 with 52 kills, seven errors, 66 digs, five blocks and four aces. The Crusaders hit .200 with 42 kills, 14 errors, 56 digs, 3.5 blocks and three aces.
Katie Britton led Valparaiso with 11 kills and hit .423, while Porche had 10 kills. Taylor Root collected 22 digs and Kim Bukowski passed out 27 assists.
