Falcons Fly North For First MAC Road Contests, Facing EMU, CMU

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team will hit the road for the first time during MAC play this season, heading to the state of Michigan for a pair of matches. The weekend will begin for the Orange and Brown on Friday (Oct. 3) with a 6 p.m. first serve against Eastern Michigan in Ypsilanti. From there, the Falcons will transition a bit further north to Mount Pleasant, facing Central Michigan on Saturday (Oct. 4) at 4 p.m. Both matches will be available to watch on ESPN+ with radio streams available from BG Falcon Media.

BGSU Schedule This Week
Friday, Oct. 3 | BGSU vs. Eastern Michigan | 6 p.m. | ESPN+
Saturday, Oct. 4 | BGSU vs. Central Michigan | 4 p.m. ESPN+

First Serve

The Falcons will hit the road for the first time during the MAC schedule, looking to extend their current win streak of 11-straight road conference regular season matches that dates back to Nov. 3, 2023.
The Orange and Brown head into the weekend with 398 MAC wins in program history, just four away from reaching 400. So far, only three schools have hit the mark, being Western Michigan, Ball State and Miami (OH) with Miami doing so this season.
The Falcons will take on Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan this weekend, the only two teams to beat Bowling Green during the MAC regular season last year. The losses both came in five sets.
Bowling Green is off to a 2-0 start this season and will look to push that record to 4-0. BGSU has started four of the last five MAC seasons with a record of 4-0 or better.
The Falcons head into the weekend having won six of their last seven matches. The only loss during the streak was to Michigan State, who was 8-0 at the time and currently hold a record of 11-1 after falling to #12 Minnesota.
Bowling Green had the third-hardest non-conference schedule in the MAC behind only Ball State and Ohio. While BGSU is 8-6 on the season, they hold a record of 8-2 when playing teams that aren't receiving votes in the nation's top 25 poll.
Helen Wilford is coming off a MAC Defensive Player of the Week honor, the fourth different Falcon to receive a MAC weekly award this season.

Eyeing The Eagles
Eastern Michigan is coming off a pair of losses to open MAC play, falling to Western Michigan in four sets and Northern Illinois in three. As for the season, EMU holds an 8-7 record while being undefeated at home with a 3-0 record. The three home wins for EMU included sweeps over Purdue Fort Wayne and Niagara as well as a four-set win over Valparaiso. For the year, the Eagles have ranked in the top three in the MAC for digs per set, blocks per set, kills per set and assists per set.

BGSU vs. EMU, All-Time
Bowling Green holds the advantage all-time over Eastern Michigan with a record of 41-30 over the 71 meetings. Despite the record, EMU won the last meeting, playing just once last season. As for the series in Ypsilanti, the Falcons have won the last two contests, taking a 3-0 win on Oct. 26, 2023 and a 3-1 victory on Oct. 22, 2022. Dating back to the 2016 campaign, the Falcons hold a record of 4-1 when playing in Ypsilanti. During the meeting last year between the two, all three sets that Eastern Michigan won went into extra points, including a 16-14 score in the fifth set.

Centering On Central
Central Michigan opened MAC play with two losses, but both came in five sets. The Chippewas began against Northern Illinois before taking on Western Michigan, nearly beating both on the road. The losses moved CMU to 3-11 on the season with their last win being on Sept. 12 with a seven-match losing streak since. Their wins for the year include a four-set win over High Point on Aug. 29, a three-set sweep over Milwaukee on Sept. 6 and a three-set sweep over UMKC on Sept. 12.

BGSU vs. CMU, All-Time
The Falcons and Chippewas will be meeting for the 66th time in program history with Bowling Green holding a 37-28 advantage in the all-time series. Despite that, Central Michigan won last year's meeting in five sets, giving them back-to-back wins over BGSU. The last win for the Falcons in the series came with back-to-back sweeps in 2022 that marked the backend of a seven-match win streak for the Falcons over the Chippewas, as well as winning 10 of 11. As for matches played in Mount Pleasant, Bowling Green has a record of 6-1 over the last seven with the loss being the most recent.

BGSU Approaching MAC Milestone
As a program, Bowling Green is nearing a milestone in the way of conference wins. After a 2-0 start to MAC play, the Falcons hold 398 wins all-time against MAC opponents, leaving the team just four shy of reaching 400 MAC wins as a program. Entering MAC play, only two teams in the conference had reached 400 wins, being Western Michigan (457) and Ball State (446). Miami (OH) already hit the mark this season, now at exactly 400, while Ohio is also nearing the milestone with 392.

Road MAC Warriors
The Falcons head into their first road weekend in the MAC riding an 11-match winning streak in regular season road MAC contests. The streak dates back to Nov. 3, 2023 after going a prefect 9-0 on the road in the MAC last season. Additionally, the Falcons have won at least their first two road MAC contests in six of the last seven seasons, dating back to the 2018 campaign. During that stretch, BGSU has posted three undefeated road conference records, going 9-0 in 2024, 11-0 in 2020 and 8-0 in 2018 during the MAC regular season.

Defense Highlights MAC Start
Through the first two matches of the MAC schedule, defense was a highlight for the Falcons. Bowling Green held opponents to a .107 hitting percentage and averaged 3.29 blocks per set, both leading the conference. In the blocking category, the Falcons knocked down 23 in just seven sets, only one shy of the total lead in the MAC behind Western Michigan's 24 with WMU playing two more sets than the Falcons.

Wilford Earns First MAC Award
Helen Wilford was named the MAC Defensive Player of the Week, her first MAC recognition. Wilford led the BGSU block, holding opponents to a .107 hitting percentage over the two matches. Wilford's high for the weekend came against Kent State, knocking down eight block assists in three sets. Wilford complimented her defense with a strong attack percentage, hitting above .570 in both matches, landing 10 kills on 17 error-free attacks. Wilford is the fourth different Falcon this season to be named a MAC Player of the Week and the first to earn a Defensive Player of the Week honor.

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