Despite a First Set Win, Volleyball is Upset by Broncos in MAC Semifinals

Saturday, November 18

Oxford, Ohio

7:00PM

Bowling Green State University

17-11

Western Michigan

18-12

Western Michigan

Bowling Green

Despite a First Set Win, Volleyball is Upset by Broncos in MAC Semifinals

November 18, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Jenna Jorgensen (Assistant Director of Athletic Communications)

OXFORD, Ohio – The Bowling Green volleyball program (17-11, 13-3 MAC) fell in a hard fought 3-1 (25-19, 21-25, 18-25, 21-25) final to Western Michigan (18-12, 8-8 MAC) on Saturday evening in the 2017 Mid-American Conference Tournament Semifinals. The No. 2-seeded Falcons opened with a first set win, although the No. 6-seeded Broncos were able to rebound to advance to the MAC Championship.

The Bowling Green volleyball program completed the season with a 2017 MAC Regular Season Championship title and will have the opportunity to continue postseason play at the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC) tournament.

Box Score

Statistical Standouts

Three Falcons tallied double-digit kills, in senior Nicole Slimko (16), junior Isabel Kovacic (12) and sophomore Jessi Holly (10).
A native of Crystal Lake, Ill., it was Slimko's fifth consecutive match with 10+ kills, while Holly has now posted double-digit kills in nine of the last 10 matches.
With a team-high of 27 digs, junior libero Kallie Seimet reached her 21st 20+ dig match of the season, and now tallies 1,561 in her career which ranks fifth overall in program history. In the 2017 campaign, Seimet now tallies 752 which is a Bowling Green program record for most digs in a season.
Also earning double-digit digs was sophomore Victoria Iacobelli, as she earned 10 against the Broncos.
At the net, Slimko led the Falcons with three total blocks on the team's 6.0 on the night. While five different Falcons had a hand in the blocking game, freshman Katie Kidwell and junior Madeline Brandewie each posted a pair.
At the line, the Falcons totaled four service aces, including two from sophomore Paulina Iacobelli, and one each from Seimet and Victoria Iacobelli. A native of Novi, Mich., Paulina Iacobelli leads the team with 37 aces on the season.
Despite the Falcons opening with a strong team hitting percentage of .378, Western Michigan ultimately held the advantage in hitting percentage by a narrow .277-.238 margin. On the night, the Broncos marked the edge in kills (64-53), service aces (7-4), and digs (74-67), while the pair of conference rival were square with 6.0 total blocks each.
On the night, the teams battled through a total of 23 tie scores and 11 lead changes over the course of the four sets.

Play-by-Play

Standing out in the opening set was senior Nicole Slimko, as she tallied the opening point of the match, as well as the set point for a team-leading five kills through the first set.
In the opening set, the Falcons were able to build an early 10-5 lead in the first after Kidwell's first block of the night pushed Western Michigan to call its first timeout at early points. Bowling Green continued to lead outright through the remainder of the set, while as Paulina Iacobelli slammed her team-leading 36th service ace of the season, Western Michigan was forced to call its final timeout as Bowling Green built a 17-9 lead. The Falcons went on to claim the set by a score of 25-19.
Although the Falcons got off to a quick 2-0 lead in the second set, Western Michigan was able to keep it a narrow game. Junior Isabel Kovacic stepped up for the Falcons offense, as she hit five kills to lead the team with nine through the first two sets. The Broncos started to extend its lead as it notched its third ace of the match to recover a 15-14 marker, and ultimately took the game 25-21.
Much more narrow, the team's fought through six tie scores and a match-high of five lead changes in the second set.
In what was a back-and-forth start to the third set, Western Michigan was able to go up 2 sets to 1 by a score of 25-18. Despite a pair of aces in the third set, one from each Paulina and Victoria Iacobelli, and several big digs by Kallie Seimet, the Broncos began to build a lead at the 13-10 marker that resulted in the third set victory.
After opening the fourth set by winning the point, the Falcons were able to build an early 9-6 lead. There was a new life in the Bowling Green squad as Katie Kidwell notched a kill to put the Falcons on a three-point scoring run, while Seimet tallied an ace shortly thereafter to put the Falcons up 13-11.
A standout point in the fourth set was at 15s, as the Falcons issued a challenge and had a call reversed. With the point, Bowling Green held a 16-14 edge, although the Broncos were able to rebound and tie the match back up at 18s, as it was one of a match-high of nine tie scores in the fourth set.
Senior Nicole Slimko continued to stand out on the Falcons offense, as she jumped for a solo block to regain the Falcon lead at 20-19, and dunked her 16th kill of the night to put Bowling Green up 21-19, forcing Western Michigan to call its final timeout. Coming out of the timeouts, the Broncos were then able to rebound and take the fourth set 25-21 to upset the Falcons 3-1.

Coach Tomic's Take

"It's a tough loss – we were really hoping to get the chance to play tomorrow for a championship and finish this unbelievable season by winning it all, but it wasn't meant to be. The credit goes to Western Michigan, they outplayed us. I think we could have played a bit better, but they affected how we played on our side of the net."
"I'm very proud of our team for the season that they gave us and of how much they have grown this year. It is unbelievable, the rate of growth they showed with how young they are. I am excited for the future and excited to have a chance to play in a postseason. It's not the NCAA Tournament where we wanted to be, but we will play in the NIVC and find out Sunday where we will play. I think this is a great opportunity for our young team to experience postseason play and we will get back in the gym to start practicing."
"It's been an incredible year and all of our players should feel very proud of all we have accomplished. I told them that this match is not going to define who we are and what we have done this year. We will learn from it to be better and work on getting back to the championship next season here at Miami."

Up Next

The Bowling Green volleyball program holds an invite into the National Invitational Volleyball Championship postseason tournament. Keep an eye on BGSUFalcons.com for future info.

Follow the Falcons

For more information on the volleyball program, follow the Falcons on Facebook (Bowling Green State University Volleyball), Twitter (@BGSUVolleyball and @BGAthletics) and Instagram (bgsuvolleyball) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.