KALAMAZOO, Mich. – Winners of four in a row, the Western Michigan volleyball team wraps up its homestand on Tuesday night as it hosts Northern Illinois. 

WMU (11-13, 8-3 MAC) vs NIU (10-10, 3-8)
Tuesday, Oct. 28 | 6 pm | TICKETS | WATCH LIVE | LIVE STATS

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HOME SWEET HOME
After picking up a pair of five-set wins against Bowling Green over the weekend, Western Michigan wraps up its homestand on Tuesday evening against Northern Illinois. The Broncos are 24-2 against MAC opposition at University Arena over the last three seasons. 

SERIES HISTORY
Western Michigan enters Tuesday's contest with a 41-30 lead in the all-time series against Northern Illinois. The Huskies won the first meeting of the season back on Oct. 7 in DeKalb to break a five-match winning streak for the Broncos in the series. WMU has won five straight over NIU in Kalamazoo.

LAST TIME OUT
WMU is coming off of a pair of five-set victories over Bowling Green this past weekend. On Friday, the Broncos dropped the first two sets, but came all the way back to win in five to collect their first reverse sweep since Sept. 10, 2022, against Grand Canyon. Western Michigan fell down 1-0 and 2-1 on Saturday, but again roared back to win in five. The victories brought the Brown and Gold to 8-3 in league action and a tie for second with Toledo. 

DOUBLE-DOUBLE MACHINE
Leah Richmond picked up her 18th double-double of the season in Saturday's victory, totaling 49 assists and a career-high 22 digs. It was the first 20/20 match by a Bronco since Logan Case had 55 assists and 21 digs on Sept. 1, 2024, against Clemson. For the season, Richmond leads the conference in both total assists (905) and assists per set (9.84), with her 905 total assists ranking third in all of NCAA Division I. The redshirt freshman also ranks 10th in the MAC in digs per set with 3.22.

MC'S HAMMER
Mary Clare Brusek has become automatic in MAC play, having posted double-digit kills in all 11 league contests for the Broncos, and was rewarded on Monday by being named the MAC Offensive Player of the Week. Over the weekend against BG, the senior posted a team-high 15 kills in Friday's reverse sweep, and then erupted for a career-high 23 kills on a .526 hitting percentage in Saturday's win. In conference play, she is fourth in kills per set at 3.48 and seventh in hitting percentage at .343.

BRONCO BLOCK PARTY
Western Michigan's blocking has seen a major uptick in conference play, with the team recording double-digit blocks in 10 of 11 MAC matches after having double-digit rejections just once in non-conference play. WMU's success up front culminated in a season-high 16 blocks in Friday's reverse sweep of BGSU, with 13 of the 16 blocks coming in the final three frames. Amanda Glanton has been a key part of the improved blocking for the Broncos, and leads the MAC in both total blocks (67) and blocks per set (1.46) in league play.