Meyer picking up where she left off

It had been 425 days, 10 hours, and 12 minutes since Bowling Green State University’s volleyball game had played a game, but 5-foot-10 junior outside hitter Katelyn Meyer (Eastwood) was in true form.

The Bowling Green volleyball team claimed two of the three Mid-American Conference recognitions with Meyer being named MAC East Offensive Player of the Week and junior Hanna Laube being named MAC East Setter of the Week. 

This comes after the Falcons completed a weekend sweep over Northern Illinois to begin the season with 3-2 and 3-0 victories. 

Meyer paced the Falcons in both matches for kills, beginning with 20 in Friday’s five-set match before landing 19 kills in 38 attempts in Saturday’s sweep.  Over the two matches, Meyer maintained a .316 hitting percentage, including a mark of .474 during Saturday’s match. 

“Katelyn Meyer was just unbelievable today (the second match), which she is most nights, said BGSU coach Danijela Tomic. “But it was just unbelievable. The only hitting error that she had was one from the back row. She had to remind me, ‘I said you had 19 kills and one error,’ and she said, ‘Oh, yes, that was the one from the back row.’ But, she was outstanding.”

In addition to the kills, Meyer also had six digs and a block assist against Northern Illinois. This is Meyer’s third career recognition after being named twice last season. In the second match, Meyer also had just one error for an impressive .474 hitting percentage. In addition to the kills, Meyer also had six digs and a block assist against Northern Illinois and she landed seven kills in the first set alone.

Meyer credits her teammates for giving her the opportunity to go all out when she needs to.

“Before the match, we talked about being connected and having each others’ backs and playing play-by-play, just winning one point at a time and knowing that we’re going to have urgency — I know that my team has my back so I can go through and do all that I can,” Meyer said.

Meyer added that after Northern Illinois took BG to five sets in their first match, the team came out with an urgency to sweep the Huskies one night later.

“I think we needed to show everyone what we were capable of because we knew what we showed yesterday wasn’t up to our standards and what we’ve been doing in practice,” Meyer said. “It wasn’t really pressure, it was that we wanted to attack and show everyone what we’ve been doing and how hard we have been working.”

‘Champions get forged’

Tomic believes the five-set match against Northern Illinois displayed her team’s resilience.

“We wouldn’t have it any other way. We want to be challenged. We want to be pushed.  That’s how we get better. You know, champions get forged,” Tomic said. 

“You have to be put through the fire. You have to go through these kind of matches to learn how to face adversity, even when you are not playing your best. Even when you are struggling, still finding a way to win is a sign that we have what it takes to compete for a championship and that is our goal.”

Meyer says communication on the court is key to her team’s success.

“We actually talked about that in our meeting before the (second NIU) game, too,” Meyer said. “We talked about how much we want to emphasize in huddles and how much we want to connect with each other. I think in this match especially we were very connected with each other. 

“I felt like we all have the same more calm energy and even the people on the bench — they are cheering us on with everything they had. We talked about how we all have different roles and everyone is doing their role perfectly and to their best of their abilities. Between the coaches and the players on and off the bench, we all had the same mindset. We were all really connected today.”

Tomic says that her freshman class may be the best the program has ever seen, and Meyer says she welcomes the younger players and what they bring.

“We love the freshman class,” Meyer said. “We talk about how every year we are going to get players who are more and more talented and it’s just going to rise the tide, like iron turns into iron, and with their skills and what we’ve been doing in practice it’s more invested, it’s more competitive, so we are really excited for this season.”

In the MAC volleyball preseason poll BG was picked to finish second in the East Division, as voted on by the conference’s 12 head coaches. However, the Falcons did receive the most first place votes in the East division with five. Bowling Green also received the most votes to win the MAC Tournament with five votes there as well. 

  Meyer was the only Falcon named to the Preseason All-MAC Team. Meyer has ended the season as a member of the All-MAC first team each of her first two years, being both the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Last year, no Falcons were selected to the Preseason All-MAC Team. Meyer was also named to the All-MAC tournament team and was a three-time MAC Offensive Player of the Week winner last year. She was also named to the Golden Dome Invitational All-Tournament Team and the Hampton Inn Bowling Green Invitational All-Tournament Team in 2019.

Last year, she appeared in all 33 matches for the Falcons, playing in 122 sets and led the team with a career-high 459 kills. Meyer registered six 20-plus kill matches, including a career-high 28 against Eastern Michigan. She also totaled 1,374 attack attempts on the season, the third most for a single season in program history and 18th in the nation. She set new career-highs with 104 digs, 39 block assists and 45 total blocks.

As a freshman Meyer averaged 2.81 kills per set to become the team’s leader with 267. She registered 14 kills and zero attacks errors for a .424 average in hitting efficiency versus Kent State. That first year Meyer reached double-digit kills in 15 matches and registered a total of 15 service aces.

At Eastwood, Meyer was a four-year letter-winner for both the volleyball and track and field programs and she played club with the Premier Volleyball Academy.

Meyer was a four-time all-conference honoree, earned back-to-back Northern Buckeye Conference and Ohio District 7 Player of the Year accolades, was named Second Team All-Ohio her junior year and First Team All-Ohio her senior year. She totaled 1,482 kills in her four-year career at Eastwood, helping the team post a 52-2 record over her final two seasons. She was also a seven-time All-Ohio athlete in track and field and the Division II state champion in the high jump and runner-up in the long jump her senior year. (— includes BGSU Athletics press release material)