Early this season, it's understandable to see why Western Michigan University's volleyball team heavily relied on its outside hitters for a lot of the offense.

Three-time All-Mid-American Conference First Team setter Logan Case has three-time All-MAC First Team outside hitter Maggie King, along with many other talented hitters on the pins who can all put the volleyball down with authority.

"I think part of our system, as we were developing, had early success on the pins, and that's where the eyes went," WMU head coach Colleen Munson said.

Now, the eyes of opponents have to respect the Broncos' middle hitters as well as those players on the outside. If a foe doesn't respect the middles, it's more than likely going to pay for it.

In a big way.

A 16-2 overall record and a 6-0 mark in the MAC going into Thursday and Friday home games (5 pm starts) against rival Central Michigan University shows the balanced attack Western Michigan is now presenting.

"I love that the offense is a double-edged sword," sophomore middle Mary Clare Brusek said. ''I'm seeing more single blocks and that's because of a good pass to Logan who is looking out of the corner of her eye for a single block and I don't know how she does it, but she exploits it."

WMU's three middles – Brusek (6-0 feet tall), sophomore Amanda Glanton (6-3) and junior Madison Merz (6-1) have combined for 242 kills with 66 hitting errors in 525 attempts, a nifty .335 hitting percentage.

"We're now getting off the net like we need to and actually becoming part of the system, not just selling it out when we aren't getting set," Merz said. "Now, the blockers can't get to the outside because we're an offensive option."

That offense has especially shown up in the six MAC victories. Brusek, whose nickname is MC, has hammered home 63 kills with just five errors in 106 attempts for a league-leading .547 hitting percentage in conference play. Glanton, counting the six MAC matches plus the tough loss to Western Kentucky, has 32 kills and 10 errors in 75 swings for a .293 percentage. Merz has come off the bench against Bowling Green, Kent State and Ohio for four kills and no errors in 11 swings, a .364 percentage.

Defensively, they have been a wall at the net. In the MAC, Glanton has three solo blocks and an outstanding 21 assisted blocks. Six of those assists came in last Friday's grueling five-set win at Ohio University. Brusek has six solos and 13 assists, while Merz has added three assisted blocks in the MAC.

"It has clicked," Munson said. "When our outsides have success, the attention has gone there, and the blocking has tried to contain them.

"It gives the opportunity for our middles to have the open net and run the ball into open spaces. It took some maturity for our middles to get to where they are now."

The trio is carrying on a long WMU tradition of outstanding middles. Since 1980, WMU has had 13 middle hitters win a total of 25 All-MAC First Team awards.

All three agree that a tough pre-MAC schedule helped get the middles going.

"We were playing against Power 5 (conference) teams in the preseason and they had these huge people in the middle and I felt if we can overcome them, we could continue to play well in the MAC," Brusek said.

At the start of the season, it's easy to see why opponents might not have given the middles much notice. Last year as a freshman, Brusek played in spot duty for 18 matches and had a .246 hitting percentage. This season, the hitting percentage is up to .353, which is fourth in the MAC. Glanton was on the floor more than Brusek last season, hitting .257 and averaging 0.70 blocks per set. This season, she's up to a .392 hitting percentage, but she has fewer than three total attempts per set, so she doesn't qualify on the MAC hitting list. Her blocks per set is up to 0.88, which is eighth in the league. Merz has 17 block assists this season and averages 0.78 blocks per set.

"I don't think I would recognize myself from last year to this year and it's unbelievable how much our entire team has grown," Brusek said.

Brusek has grown from being a four-sport (volleyball, basketball, golf, lacrosse) standout at Marist High School in Chicago to loving volleyball now. However, it was basketball which was her first love and it's easy to understand why. Both her parents played hoops at DePaul University and her grandfather played for Northern Arizona.

"I actually hated volleyball until about the eighth grade," Brusek said with a smile. "I had played basketball since the third grade and thought I would go to college to play basketball."

Glanton had a similar experience going up.

"I never thought I would play volleyball," she said. "When I was little, I was in basketball, soccer, dance, you name it. I wasn't going to play a tall people's sport just because I was tall."

She changed her mind around her freshman year at Davison High School.

"I quit growing around my freshman year in high school and have been 6-3 ever since," she said.

Merz, who played at Cincinnati powerhouse Mercy McAuley High School, looks at herself as having grown both physically and mentally this season.

"I look at my accountability to myself and others, stepping up and not depending on three people to lead the team," Merz said. "We need others to step up and that's where my growth has been."

As far as being a backup, "It's tough, but it's part of growing up, and realizing what we are doing is working," she said. "I love to see our team succeed, so I'm fine with that, but I'm continuing to work on myself so I can be part of the system."

Part of this year's system for WMU is winning more five-set matches. Last season, the Broncos were 1-5 in MAC five-setters. This past Friday, they made a big leap forward with a five-set, come-from-behind win over Ohio University.

"Wow, it was crazy, thinking about last year how down we were because we couldn't finish those matches," Merz said.

Added Brusek: "That was the first time this season in the MAC we've faced adversity and I know we grew a lot because we had to come back after losing two sets in a row. Last year, we wouldn't have come back. "It was awesome in the fifth game because we felt the confidence and it was like there was no way they were going to get back into this game."

With the growth of the middle attack game, that could be the norm for the rest of the season.