Falcons Claim Second Straight Sweep With 3-0 Win At Western Michigan

Thursday, January 28

Kalamazoo, MI

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-0,3-0MAC

Western Michigan

2-1,2-1MAC

Bowling Green

Western Mich.

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Claim Second Straight Sweep With 3-0 Win At Western Michigan

January 28, 2021 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

Kalamazoo, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University volleyball program captured their second sweep in just three matches with a 3-0 victory over Western Michigan Thursday night (Jan. 28). The win pushes the Falcons to 3-0 on the season, their best start since the record-setting 12-0 beginning to the 2011 season. The two sweeps in the first three matches is also an achievement last reached by the Falcons in the 2011 campaign. The Falcons and Broncos will return to the court tomorrow at 6 p.m. to conclude the series. The match is set to be broadcasted on ESPN+.

Set Scores (Box Score PDF)
Set 1 - Bowling Green 25, Western Michigan 22
Set 2 - Bowling Green 25, Western Michigan 18
Set 3 - Bowling Green 25, Western Michigan 22

Play-By-Play Notes

In the first set the Falcons kept a slim cushion, but a 3-0 run to push the score to 11-7 extended that lead for Bowling Green early in the set. The Orange and Brown soon had another 3-0 run that made the score 14-8.
Out of the media timeout that came at 15-9, Western Michigan worked to close the gap, including a 3-0 run that cut the lead down to 16-15 to force a timeout from the Falcons' bench.
Before the end of the set, Bowling Green used another 3-0 run to create separation, seeing a Broncos' timeout with the score at 22-18. The Falcons were able to use that momentum to close out the set at 25-22.
The second set began close as both teams traded points before Western Michigan used a 4-0 run to take a 12-10 lead and force a Bowling Green timeout.
The Falcons soon responded with a run of their own to return the score to a tie at 14-14. The run continued and extended to 7-0 before a timeout from WMU and then 10-0 before another timeout with the run ending soon after at 11-0.
The set would end 25-18 after a 15-4 run to close out the set for the Falcons and give them a 2-0 advantage.
In the third set, Western Michigan saw a 4-0 run give them a 7-3 lead early in the set that forced a timeout from the Falcons.
Later in the set Bowling Green was able to use a 4-0 run of their own to get back into the set with the score at 11-10 WMU.
Another 3-0 run by the Falcons would tie the set score at 18-18 and force a timeout by the Broncos. Western Michigan battled back, but another 3-0 run granted Bowling Green an eventual 22-21 lead before another timeout. The run would stretch to 5-0 before WMU landed a point.

Strong Individual Performances

Once again logging the most kills on the team, Katelyn Meyer accumulated 19 kills for the second consecutive match. Additionally, she also landed her first ace of the season.
With a team-leading 17 digs, Petra Indrova logged a new career-high while also registering double-digit digs for the third straight match, doing so in each so far this season.
Hanna Laube paced the Falcons from the setter position with 37 assists while also landing her first two aces of the season. She also registered her first career solo block and set a new career-high for block assists with three and total blocks with four.
In the ace department, Katie Kidwell joined Laube with two aces of her own, setting a new season-high through the first three matches.
From the middle blocker position, Nikolija Katanic knocked down her first solo block of the season, tying a career-high, and added three block assists to her line as well.

Coach Tomic's Take
"We are very pleased and happy that we earned our first road win. We expected a tough match and even though we won in three, you can tell by the scores in the first and third set that the match was tight. Western is a good team and we have a lot of respect for them and we knew they had some weapons. We had a good game plan and it was a matter of execution. When we did that, things worked out to our advantage.

Our sideout wasn't at the level we want it and we struggled more. But the good sign, and what I liked, we were able to come back after we were down. In the second set we were behind and then Katie was able to get us going on runs. At the timeout we talked about our effort and competitiveness and the team responded really well. That was positive, that we have that ability no matter what the score is, to play one point at a time. The same thing happened in the third. Developing that patience and composure, no matter what the score is, we know we have that ability if we play to our standard that we can win.

Katelyn Meyer had an outstanding game with 19 kills and she's elevated her game to the next level. We need Katelyn to do that, but she's getting help from other players, too. I thought Katrin played well. She was efficient and did her job. Petra struggled offensively, but I was very happy with her defensive performance. It was good to see that her struggle offensively, even though she still had eight kills, didn't affect other aspects of her game.

I told the team at the end, we will have some of these really good individual performances, but we win as a team. Our role players did their job. Taylor Haberland was very consistent behind the serving line and we were able to get them out of their system. Katie Kidwell got back. She didn't have her best two matches last week, but she was back with her hitting, efficiency and blocking. Nikolija had a really good game and was efficient. A lot of good, positive touches for us and discipline. Everyone had to do their piece and contribute, and they did.

There's definitely areas we need to improve for tomorrow. With any team you play for the first time, for Western I'm sure it's different than seeing us on video. Now playing against us, it's a little bit different. They'll make adjustments, but I also trust in our ability to make adjustments and we know some areas where we have to improve and we expect another tough match tomorrow. "

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