Although it was an expectation for Bowling Green’s volleyball team coming into the season, the Bobcats
achieved one of their main goals Tuesday against Perrysburg.
BG made quick work of the visiting Yellow Jackets, winning, 25-19, 25-13, 25-13, to clinch a share of its
eighth consecutive Northern Lakes League title. PHOTO
GALLERY
The
Bobcats improved to 14-4 overall and 11-0 in the NLL, three games ahead of second-place Perrysburg. The
Yellow Jackets are 15-4, 8-3.
BG can win the NLL outright by winning one of its remaining league matches against Anthony Wayne,
Springfield, and Northview, all teams the Bobcats have already defeated this season.
The NLL title was the seventh straight for BG coach Deb Mathias, who has announced this will be her final
season coaching the Bobcats.
“It’s always nice to go out and end on a high note,” Mathias said. “To be here for seven years and win
the league championship every year that I’ve been here is definitely an accomplishment and I’m proud of
that.
“To be honest, it’s been a lot of hard work taken on by the players. They all play and do a lot of
different things in the offseason, and they all try to make themselves better in the offseason by going
to camps and playing club at a high level,” she added. “And then conditioning programs and weight
training programs. They take all that stuff seriously.”
Perrysburg, the preseason favorite to win the NLL, battled with BG for the first game, cutting the
Bobcats’ lead to 21-18. But BG scored four of the game’s final five points, capped by a Kelsey Lahey
kill.
BG then dominated the final two games, winning both by 12 points. The Bobcats never trailed in the match.

“We’ve been talking about it all week,” said BG senior setter Amanda Mazey, who led all players with 30
assists. “We’ve been putting announcements on at school, making sure everybody got out here. We gave out
all our jerseys. We wanted to pack the gym. This was a big match for us. We knew it was going to be good
and we were really excited to win.
“We’ve proved it, considering we swept (Perrysburg) twice and they were picked first over us,” Mazey
added. “We came out with a bang every single time. We got up on them and it was just really exciting. It
was what we wanted to do.”
Lahey led all players with 16 kills and added nine digs. Chelsea Watson added 10 kills, Molly Beattie had
13 digs and four aces, Sarah Sikula chipped in with six kills, and Haley Broadway added 11 digs for the
Bobcats.
For Perrysburg, Stephanie Richards had 12 digs and six kills, and Jessica Doore also had 12 digs. Lindsay
Smith led the ’Jackets with 19 assists.
“They’re very low-error. They execute with the ball and that will win volleyball games,” Perrysburg coach
Jamie Babcock said of BG.
“It takes a long time to establish that confidence, to walk into anyone’s gym and win. Bowling Green has
a seven-year history and they’re going to have another year of it,” she added. “It’s a learned culture.
We’re better than we were last year, so I expect every year to just get better and better. They’ve been
eight years in the making.”
Now, along with winning the NLL title outright, BG will shift its focus to the postseason tournament. The
Bobcats were upset in the sectional finals last season.
“Last year the girls that I had were kind of inexperienced as far as tournament play goes, so this year I
believe that we have that experience. I also believe that we have that confidence, beating and playing
against a lot of good teams,” Mathias said. “That confidence that we have right now is going to lead us
into the tournament and they’re going to continue to play out of their minds like they have been
playing.”