(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) Western Michigan University middle blocker Jesicca Brown had a career high with 20 kills against Nothern Illinois University Thursday night.
On a night that honored its four star seniors, it was the freshman that came to play to help the Western Michigan University volleyball team (19-9, 11-2 Mid-American Conference) clinch at least a share of the MAC West title.
Freshman Jessica Brown had a career night landing 20 kills and also had an impressive .395 attack percentage to go with it.
“She was really on target,” head coach Colleen Munson said. “Jill [Mitchell] kept hitting it at her, it was really nice to see.”
Brown had 38 total attacks in the game, which was third most. The win for the Broncos also guarantees them at least a No. 2 seed in the MAC tournament and leaves the magic number at one for the Broncos to take sole possession of the MAC West title.
With three MAC games to go, Central Michigan University must win all of its games to try to tie Western Michigan.
Things weren’t heading toward a happy ending at the start of the first set when the Northern Illinois University Huskies (13-13, 7-6) came out firing taking an early 6-0 lead. Four of the first six points came off Bronco errors and that set the tone for the rest of the set. The Huskies completely dominated the Broncos in that first set 25-16 to take an early lead against the Brown and Gold at home.
“We came into the game focusing on the game,” senior outside hitter Katie Eberling said. “We didn’t do that though.”
Despite being out of position in the first two sets, the Broncos had Brown’s clutch play to come in and get some much needed points in a much needed set. Brown had five kills in the first set and six in the second set and a blocking assist to go along with that to help WMU to a 25-22 win going into the break. Eberling also made up for the lack of the Broncos being in the right place by landing five of her 15 kills in the second set.
“I think we were hesitating and thinking someone else is going to get the job done instead of taking care of your own job,” Eberling said about WMU’s lack of position.
The Broncos had the case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde’s all night, one side showed them committing 19 errors, being out of position, not executing and the other side showed their resiliency in making two huge comebacks in both the third and fourth sets to take the match playing great defense.
“It looked like we were over thinking, over analyzing, and over trying,” Munson said. “And that combination is not good.”
WMU had eight less kills and 10 less digs than the Huskies who were led by Meagan Schoenrock with 20 kills and Maddie Hughes who had a game-high 29 kills. Caitlin Strimel had 28 kills for the Broncos.
The Broncos rallied from a 22-18 deficit in the third set and a 16-11 deficit in the fourth to get a win for the seniors on Senior night.
“At first it took us longer than we wanted to figure out their shots,” Brown said. “It was really important I always want to try for the seniors, they show me the ropes.”
