Volleyball Earns First MAC Regular Season Title Since 1992

Saturday, November 11

Buffalo, NY

6:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

17-10, 13-3MAC

Buffalo

15-12, 8-8MAC

Team	1	2	3	4	Final F
Bowling Green	25	25	25	26	3
Buffalo	27	22	21	24	1

November 11, 2017 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: Jenna Jorgensen (Assistant Director of Athletic Communications)

BUFFALO, N.Y. – With a 3-1 (25-27, 25-22, 25-21, 26-24) victory at Buffalo (15-12, 8-8 MAC) Saturday evening, the Bowling Green volleyball program (17-10, 13-3 MAC) earned its first Mid-American Conference Regular Season Championship since 1992 by a record of 13-3. The Falcons are MAC Co-Champions with Miami, and through numerous tie-breakers, will be the No. 2 seed in next week's MAC Tournament.

Box Score
Mid-American Conference Tournament Central

Statistical Standouts

After dropping the opening set in extra points, the Falcons rebounded to earn three-straight set wins and claim the match 3-1 over Buffalo for the second time this season. Bowling Green is currently on a three-match win streak heading into the MAC Tournament.
Sophomore Jessi Holly reached her fifth double-double of the season by totaling a team-high of 18 kills and 11 digs, while hitting a percentage of .239. Holly was also a well-rounded presence on the court as she earned two of the Falcons nine service aces, and one block on the night.
With back-to-back aces to close out the match in extra points, sophomore Paulina Iacobelli contributed a team-leading three service aces on the night. On the year, Iacobelli has tallied a team-high of 35 to average 0.36 service aces per set.
By tallying 27 digs in tonight's match, junior libero Kallie Seimet earned her 20th 20+ dig match of the season, and now marks 725 digs on the season. The Oregon, Ohio native is just two digs shy of setting the program record of digs in a season, and now marks 1,534 career digs, which ranks fifth overall in Bowling Green volleyball program history.
Three Falcons tallied double-digit digs in Seimet (27), Victoria Iacobelli (13) and Holly (11), while a pair of Falcons earned double-digit kills in Holly (18) and Nicole Slimko (13).
With a total of nine service aces from four different players, the Falcons earned a new season-high in aces against its opponent.
Sophomore setter Isabelle Marciniak led the Bowling Green squad with 41 assists, in addition to earning five digs and three total blocks on the night.
Leading the team defensively was freshman Katie Kidwell, who jumped for four successful blocks on the night, of the Falcons 10.0 against the Bulls.
Also standing out on the Falcons offense was junior Madeline Brandewie, who earned nine kills while hitting a team-high percentage of .333, in addition to junior Isabel Kovacic who tallied nine kills while hitting .154.
Overall, Bowling Green held the advantage in hitting percentage (.148-.143), kills (52-49), and service aces (9-5), while Buffalo held the narrow edge in digs (68-66) and total team blocks (16.0-10.0).
The pair of conference rivals battled through a season-high of 44 tie scores and 19 lead changes, including a match-high of 13 lead changes in both the second and fourth sets, as well as seven lead changes in the second game of the night.

Coach Tomic's Take

"I am beyond proud of the effort, teamwork, toughness and a true BG Warrior spirit that our young team showed tonight in a match that had a championship on the line. Buffalo is a very good team and really tough to beat at home. Our players showed maturity and resiliency beyond their years and won the points in each set that mattered the most."
"We will enjoy this magical finish of the regular season until Monday, but then all of our focus is on the MAC Tournament and winning two more matches next weekend."

Up Next

The Bowling Green volleyball program will now travel to Oxford, Ohio to compete in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, looking to win its first tournament title since 2012.
With the No. 2 seed in the MAC Tournament, the Falcons have earned a bye in the first rounds of the tournament, and will face off against the winner of the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds on Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in the semifinals.
If they are to advance, the Falcons will face the winner of No. 1 seeded Miami versus the winner of No. 4 / No. 8 seed in the MAC Championship on Sunday, Nov. 19 at 4:30 p.m.

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.