OXFORD, Ohio – The for second straight night the Western Michigan volleyball rallied from a 2-0 deficit to come back and advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament Semifinals after defeating Ball State 3-2 (19-25, 17-25, 25-23, 25-23, 15-13) in the MAC Quarterfinals at Miami University on Friday night.
Freshman outside hitter Rachel Bontrager once again led the Broncos (17-12) with 19 kills. Sydney LeMay had 17 kills and hit .270, while Olivia Kofie also had 12 kills. Kofie became the 23rd WMU volleyball player to reach 1,000 career kills after her 11th kill of the night, late in the fifth set. Mary Murphy had 58 assists and 11 digs for a double-double, while Kathleen Reilly led the match with 34 digs.
After dropping the first two sets 25-19 and 25-17, Western Michigan found itself down 6-4 early in the third set. WMU battled back to tie it up at 10-10 but the Cardinals pulled ahead 15-12. The teams went back-and forth and a kill by Quiana Ware tied the set up at 18-18. After trading points three times the set was deadlocked at 21-21. Murphy tallied a kill to give the Broncos their first lead of the set, 22-21. Kofie followed with an ace to go up 23-21. BSU battled back with two-straight points after a timeout to tie it up at 23-23. A ball handling error on Amber Seaman put WMU on set point and LeMay finished it off with a kill.
The two teams battled early on in the fourth set to a 10-10 tie. The Cardinals jumped ahead by two and maintained the gap to 14-12. Western Michigan responded with a 4-0 run to take a 16-14 lead. WMU increased the lead to 20-16 but saw it evaporate thanks to a 5-1 run by the Cardinals, deadlocking the set at 21-21. The teams traded points to a 23-23 tie after a kill by Bontrager. LeMay and Kofie combined for a block to give the Broncos set point and then did it again to put the set away for WMU, tying up at 2-2.
Ball State jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the final set. Western Michigan responded and steadily chipped away at the lead to get within one, 9-8. The cardinals extended the lead to 12-9 but the Broncos countered with a 4-0 run to take a 13-12 lead. A kill by Jessica Lindsey evened it out at 13-13 but BSU's Carly Cappello hit her serve into the net to give WMU match point. After a long rally LeMay finished off the match with her 17th kill.
Western Michigan takes on Bowling Green on Saturday at 7 p.m. The MAC Semifinal match can be seen live on ESPN3.com.
