2017 MAC VOLLEYBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TOURNAMENT
- November 16th-19th, 2017
- Millett Hall // Oxford, Ohio
- Bracket
- Television: ESPN3 (WatchESPN.com)
- Championship Central
#8 Eastern Michigan def. #5 Buffalo 3-1 (25-20, 25-18, 24-26, 25-18)
- Attendance: 150
- Box Score
The first upset of the 2017 MAC Volleyball Championship Tournament came in the tournament’s first match, when 8th-seeded Eastern Michigan upsets 5th-seeded Buffalo 3-1. In the teams’ only other matchup this season, Buffalo won by a 3-0 sweep, and Eastern Michigan hadn’t beaten Buffalo in any match since 2014 – when this year’s seniors were freshmen. In fact, only 1 player on Buffalo’s team had ever played in a game where the Bulls beat Eastern Michigan – senior middle blocker Samantha Falco – and she came up big on Thursday with 10 kills and just 1 error on 16 swings for a team-high .562 hitting percentage.
It was that Eastern Michigan offense that led the win – they hit .287 (.336 in the 3 sets they won) to carry the day – including an efficient, 0-error final set. Falco was one of 3 players with double-digit kills, including Cassie Haut (13 kills, .222 hitting percentage) and Jordan Smith (17 kills, .212 hitting percentage).
Buffalo, meanwhile, was undone by errors (24 hitting, 13 service) in spite of having nearly as many kills (55-59) and more blocks (6-4) than Eastern Michigan.
The Eagles tightened up their rotation to just 9 players – using a shorter bench than the 10-11 they’ve played most of the season. Now they advance to play 4th-seeded Ohio on Friday at 4:30 PM Eastern Time.
#6 Western Michigan def. #7 Central Michigan 3-2 (21-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-17, 15-8)
- Attendance: 213
- Box Score
Western Michgian went down 2-0 in the second opening-round game of the 2017 MAC tournament, with another (albeit more minor) upset in the makings. But the Broncos’ offense improved in every frame, including an explosive .615 hitting percentage in the 5th, to come all the way back and win in a 15-8 tie-breaker.
The service game was the difference-maker here: Western Michigan had 7 aces and 7 errors, while Central Michigan had 0 aces and 8 errors – though neither team was outstanding in the regular season in that category (they ranked 8th and 9th, respectively, in aces/set in the regular season). 5 of Western Michigan’s 7 aces came in the 3 sets they won.
The comeback was really a team effort by WMU. The rally began in the 3rd set, where senior middle blocker Olivia Kofie had 7 kills and the team’s only block. She cooled off in the 4th set offensively, but freshman outside hitter Rachel Bontrager and Kofie’s fellow senior middle Sydney Lemay picked up the slack, combining for 13 of the team’s 16 kills, and recording just 1 hitting error between them (on 20 total swings, for a .600 hitting percentage in that set). Kofie, in spite of 1 kill and 1 error on 7 swings in the 4th set, still chipped in defensively with 2 digs, 1 solo block, and a block assist – part of a 3-0 block advantage in the 4th set.
The closing effort came largely from the freshman Botranger, who had 4 kills on 5 swings, plus a block assist (alongside Kofie) in the final set for a pumped-up Broncos team. Central Michigan also gave away 5 points out of 15 on that last set on errors (hitting and service). Bontrager had 23 kills for Western Michigan on .388 hitting, followed by Lemay with 17 on .333 hitting.
Central Michigan was led by Jordan Bueter, who had 19 kills, and hit .210. Only 1 Central Michigan player hit better than .300 – Paige Cary at .364. That’s in spite of Central Michigan hitting better than Western Michigan overall (.230-.222).
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