AKRON, Ohio – The Western Michigan volleyball team won its fourth straight Mid-American Conference road match with a complete effort on Saturday night, beating the Akron Zips 3-1 (25-19, 25-21, 23-25, 25-21) at James A. Rhodes Arena to improve to 6-2 in MAC play. The Broncos are now 10-13 overall on the season.
Sophomore Sydney LeMay continued her stretch of strong offensive play with a gem against the Zips, posting 13 kills on 28 attempts with four errors for a .321 hitting percentage. Alysia Baznik had her fourth straight double-double with 11 kills and 11 assists while also recording two aces, and Mikaela Ryshytylo had 11 kills and a team-best .348 hitting percentage. Olivia Kofie was a force both offensively and defensively, swatting seven kills and recording a team-high nine blocks as the Broncos out-blocked the Zips 14.0-8.0. Hailey Knecht added a match-high 21 digs, Caroline Rose had 11, and the setting duo of Mary Murphy and Sydney Cheatham combined for 44 assists.
The Broncos never trailed in the first set as they raced out to a 9-3 run, with the pair of Kofie and Nicole Kinser capping the run by blocking Anna Wenger. Akron pulled to within 13-12 on a kill by Amanda Bedell but Ryshytylo held them at bay with a kill. Bedell eventually tied it with an ace at 14-all but Kofie was there again, bouncing a kill to break the stalemate and put her team back In the lead for good. She helped WMU win the race to 20 with a kill that made it 20-15 and Baznik delivered the clinching kill at 25-20.
Things tightened up for the remainder of the match but the Broncos were up to the task. LeMay and Hannah Landis broke a 10-10 tie with a block of Bedell and WMU went up 15-12 after Rose aced Bedell a few points later. LeMay made it 20-16 with a kill and Baznik forced the Zips into their second timeout of the set with a kill to make it 21-17. It was an Akron service error that gave the Broncos set point, putting them ahead 2-0 in the match.
Akron edged the Broncos out by a 25-23 score in the third set to stave off elimination but could manage no more as WMU held on for a win in the decisive fourth set. Kofie capped off a 6-3 run to start the set with a kill and a pair of errors by Wenger put the Zips in disarray, trailing 9-5. Kofie blocked Kelsey Wilson to make it 15-11 and the duo of Kofie and Kinser blocked Wenger to make it 19-14. LeMay forced match point with a kill and the Broncos completed the win on an error by Karley Kusan.
