Volleyball Preps For Midweek MACtion At Miami, Weekend With Western

Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball program will take on a duo of MAC opponents this week, traveling to Oxford and Kalamazoo. The first match, being played against Miami, will serve as the first midweek match of the season for the Falcons, taking place on Thursday with a first serve of 7 p.m. From there, BGSU will move north to Kalamazoo to take on Western Michigan on Saturday with a 5 p.m. start. The Orange and Brown will enter the contest against Miami holding a 3-1 MAC record with a 9-7 overall standing. The team is currently coming off of a 1-1 weekend, having swept Buffalo on Saturday, rebounding from a 3-1 loss to Akron on Friday. Offensively, Bowling Green has been efficient thus far, tallying the second highest hitting percentage in the conference at .269, trailing just Western Michigan in the category.

Next Home Match: Bowling Green will return to the Stroh Center on Oct. 18 to take on Central Michigan. Tickets for that game, and all BGSU home matches, can be purchased HERE.

FULL GAME NOTES

Last Time Out
The Falcons began the home portion of their MAC schedule this past weekend, hosting Akron on Friday and Buffalo on Saturday. Opening the weekend, Akron bested BGSU by a score of 3-1 with two of the four sets needing extra points to determine a winner. A few new faces saw action in the game with freshman Yelianiz Torres recording a career-high seven kills. However, Bowling Green fueled a quick turn around for Saturday's match, sweeping Buffalo over three sets behind a team effort. Jacqueline Askin led the team in kills with 13, six of which came in the first set, along with three service aces. As a team, the Falcons totaled nine service aces while also accumulating a .309 hitting percentage in the 3-0 win.

Scouting the RedHawks
Miami will enter Thursday's contest with a 7-8 overall record, including being 2-2 in conference play. Within the conference, the RedHawks and Falcons have faced the same opponents thus far in Ohio, Kent State, Buffalo and Akron. Against those teams, Miami has swept both Kent State and Buffalo while being swept by Akron and falling 3-1 to Ohio. Bowling Green has seen the same results against three of the four teams, having beat Ohio 3-2. Statistically, the RedHawks are second in the MAC for service aces while being 11 of 12 for opponent hitting percentage, allowing the opposition an average of .272.

Scouting the Broncos
Currently, Western Michigan holds an 11-5 overall record with a 2-2 MAC standing, having topped Eastern Michigan and Toledo via sweep, but fell to Central Michigan (3-0) and Ball State (3-1). The Broncos currently lead the MAC in hitting percentage, hitting .300 while also being second in kills per set, averaging 13.31. Western is led by junior outside hitter, Rachel Bontrager who leads the MAC in kills per set, averaging 3.85 kills.

Digging into the National Rankings
Bowling Green is once again moving into the rankings nationally for digs. As a team, the Falcons are currently ranked 12th in the nation for digs per set, averaging 17.52. Less than one dig per set separates BGSU from being in the top five, and just two separates them from the nation's leader, Wright State. As for total team digs, the Orange and Brown have 1,069 this year, which ranks 25th in the country of the 334 listed, tied with Purdue Fort Wayne. The Falcons are just 15 digs away from entering the top 20 nationally. Individually, Julia Walz is ranked 10th for digs per set with 5.55, being less than 0.1 away from moving up to eighth in the nation.

Rewriting the Record Book
The Falcons have a few athletes nearing career milestone marks as well as program record marks. Isabelle Marciniak is closing in on moving up on the career assists list. Currently fifth, Marciniak is just 78 assists from moving into fourth and 91 from third. Also, after moving into 10th all-time this past weekend for career block assists, Katie Kidwell needs just 20 block assists to move up to ninth all-time. Kidwell is also closing in on the top 10 all-time for total blocks in a career at BGSU, needing 36 to surpass Carlyn Esslinger for 10th. Additionally, a few Falcons are close to setting new career highs, including Jacqueline Askin who needs six kills to set a new single season high for her career.

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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