Battle of I-75 Highlights Weekend Road Trip For The Falcons

Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team will travel north to renew the Battle of I-75 on Friday, marking the second meeting of the rivalry this season after BGSU football pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the college football season with a 20-7 win. From there, the Falcons will head to Muncie, Ind. to take on Ball State. The Orange and Brown will enter the weekend on the heels of a 1-1 record a week ago, falling to Central Michigan, but topping Eastern Michigan in a roller coaster five-set thriller on Saturday (Oct. 19). As it stands, the Falcons are the tied for third in the MAC East with Ohio, trailing Miami by one game and Akron by two. BGSU bested Ohio earlier in the season, 3-2.

Next Home Match: Bowling Green will return to the Stroh Center on Nov. 1 to take on Kent State. Tickets for that game, and all BGSU home matches, can be purchased HERE.

FULL GAME NOTES

Last Time Out
After falling to Central Michigan on Friday, the Falcons stormed back on Saturday to capture their fourth consecutive Saturday win, sweating out a five-set victory over Eastern Michigan. Bowling Green pulled out all the stops against the Eagles, seeing multiple players break career highs. Among the leaders for the weekend, Katelyn Meyer led the way for the Falcons, recording a career-high 28 kills, also marking her first 20-kill match of her career with BGSU. Meyer complimented the 28 kills with a .338 hitting percentage on 74 attempts. Senior Jessi Holly also tallied her first double-digit kill match of the season with 13 while pitching in three service aces for the second consecutive night.

Reconnaissance Of The Rockets
UT will enter Friday's contest holding an 0-8 record in the MAC with a 7-13 overall standing. Of the eight Rocket losses in the conference, three have been via sweep, while three have also been five-set matches. Statistically, Zoe Bimbrich leads the team in kills, 206, and all three block categories. Last year, the Falcons won the match, 3-1, marking the third consecutive win in the series for the Orange and Brown. Under Coach Tomic, BGSU is 5-2 against the Rockets. Additionally, over the last 15 meetings, the Falcons are 11-4 in the series while also leading the all-time series with a 55-16 record.

Comparing To The Cardinals
Entering this weekend, Ball State holds a 5-3 MAC record while being 11-9 on the season, the same as Bowling Green heading into the weekend. Last weekend, the Cardinals were on each end of a sweep, topping Ohio, but falling to Kent State. During MAC play, Ball State has bested Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Toledo. The Cardinals are led by Amber Seaman and Natalie Risi, each with 21 aces on the season. Seaman also leads the team in assists with 538 while Risi is atop the kills list with 208. A year ago, Ball State took the match by a score of 3-0 to extend their winning streak in the series to five.

Digging Deep Against The Competition
Against Eastern Michigan, three Falcons registered double-digit digs, with all three also surpassing the 20-dig mark. For the second time this season, Taylor Haberland hit 20 digs on the dot, marking her career high with Bowling Green. Senior Isabelle Marciniak chalked up 21 digs to match her 56 assists, being her seventh double-double of the season. The 21 digs also was just two shy of her career-high. Sophomore Julia Walz paced the Orange and Brown with a team-leading 38 digs, also a career-high. Averaging 5.44 digs per set, Walz stacks up to 11th nationally. The team is also 11th nationally for digs per set with 17.91.

Block Party At Kidwell's
Over last weekend junior Katie Kidwell controlled the net for the Falcons, totaling 11 blocks over the two matches. Kidwell began by tallying four block assists against Central Michigan, before moving the four to solo column against Eastern Michigan and adding on three assists as well. Currently, Kidwell slots in at 10th all-time in program history for career block assists with 297, needing just seven to pass Caty Rommeck for ninth all-time. As for career total blocks, Kidwell has 349, putting her just 19 shy of moving up to 10th all-time.

Setting At Third All-Time
Totaling 87 assists over two matches last weekend, senior Isabelle Marciniak made the jump from fifth to third on the career assists list for the program. Now with 3,465 career assists, Marciniak trails just Carey Amos and Linda Popovich on the all-time list. To pass Amos for second, Marciniak needs to accumulate 315 assists. As for Popovich, 942 assists stand between Marciniak and being the all-time leader for career assists at Bowling Green.

Follow the Falcons
Be sure to follow the Falcons volleyball team on social media
Twitter - @BGAthletics and @BGSUVolleyball
Instagram - 'bgfalcons' and 'bgsuvolleyball'
Facebook - 'BGSU Athletics' and 'Bowling Green State University Volleyball'
YouTube - 'Falcon Athletics'

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Taylor Haberland

Jessi Holly

Katie Kidwell

Isabelle Marciniak

Katelyn Meyer

Julia Walz

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