TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo women's volleyball team will play Western Michigan to open the 2021 Mid-American Conference Tournament on Sunday in Muncie, Ind.

The No. 5-seeded Rockets will face off against the No. 4-seeded Broncos in the quarterfinals at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. Following the contest, No. 3 Ohio will play No. 6 Northern Illinois at 7:00 p.m.

The winner of the Toledo/Western Michigan match will move on to face No. 1 seed Ball State on Monday, Nov. 22 at 4:30 p.m. in the semifinals. No. 2 seed Bowling Green awaits the winner of the other quarterfinal winner on Monday at 7:00 p.m. The championship match will take place on Wednesday, Nov. 24 at 4:30 p.m.

All matches throughout the tournament will be streamed live on ESPN+.

"It is exciting to see our program's hard work pay off and give us a chance to compete at the end of the year," head coach Jason Oliver said. "We always had this as one of our goals and it is nice to get to this point.  We realize that every team from here on out is 0-0, and we are going to fight to be the best version of this team.  This experience will go a long way for our program and hopefully it is just the start of something special."

Toledo in the MAC Tournament
The Rockets are making their first appearance in the MAC Tournament since 2016 and their 13^th appearance overall. Toledo has faced Western Michigan twice in the MAC Tournament, with each team winning once.

Last Time Out - WMU
Sunday's match will be the third this season between Toledo and Western Michigan. The two teams split a weekend series earlier this year, with WMU winning the first match in five sets and UT coming back to win on Saturday in four sets.

The Rockets won the first two sets against the Broncos in the first contest, but couldn't close the deal and ended up on the wrong end of a five-set decision. Ryann Jaqua achieved an impressive milestone, cracking 1,000 career digs and becoming the 16th player in program history to reach that benchmark. The Kalamazoo, Mich. native tallied 23 digs that night. Taylor Alt led all players with a season-high 26 kills, her third career match with at least 25 terminations, while hitting .296. Sina Uluave recorded a double-double with 13 digs and 11 kills. Elaine Redman contributed a season-best 48 assists.

The next day, The Rockets won the first two sets over the Broncos, but WMU won the third set and held a 21-17 lead in the fourth frame. Toledo didn't back down, instead scoring the next eight points to storm back and win, 25-21, to cap its weekend with a victory. Taylor Alt once again led Toledo with 21 kills, and she added 14 digs to record her seventh double-double of the season. The Ottawa, Ohio native was outstanding against WMU, averaging 5.22 kills/set this weekend. Elaine Redman filled up the box score, tying her season-high with 48 assists while collecting four kills, three blocks, and three aces. Sina Uluave had 15 kills and 15 digs, her fifth double-double on the year. Abby Erickson had seven kills and three blocks, while Rhyenne Filisi registered nine terminations and four blocks.

Record Watch

• There are two Toledo team records that could potentially be broken by this year's team:
  • The all-time record for blocks/set in a season was set by last year's squad (2.37), but this year UT is on pace to break that record, averaging 2.44 blocks/set).
  • Toledo is hitting .213 as a team this season, which would break the program's attack percentage record of .211, set in 1992.
  • Barring something unforeseen, there will be a new team total blocks record. The current mark is 264.0 total blocks, set in 1987. This year's Rocket squad has accumulated 263.5 total blocks.

Quick Hits

• Three Rockets are on pace to put themselves in rarified air in program history:
  • Taylor Alt is averaging 4.06 kills/set which would rank fifth all-time in Toledo history and make her the fifth player in school history to average at least four kills per set. The last Rocket to do that was Kate Bean in 2005 (4.07 kills/set).
  • Alt's 434 kills and 1,115 attack attempts have both cracked the Top 10 for highest single-season totals in school history. Her 434 kills currently rank fifth and are two away from moving into fourth place (Kate Bean, 2005, 435 kills) and her 1,115 attacks are 10^th-most all-time.
  • Rhyenne Filisi (1.04) and Olivia Vance (1.01) are both averaging just over a block per set, and those figures would rank sixth and tied for seventh, respectively in school history. The last Rocket to average at least a block per set in a season was Dakota Harkins in 2013 (1.00 blocks/set).

• Toledo's 19 victories are tied for the most since 2013, when UT went 19-12 on its way to finishing in a tie atop the MAC West Division.
• Taylor Alt is second in the MAC in kills/set, averaging 4.06. She is one of two players in the MAC averaging at least four kills per set, and she ranks tied for seventh among all underclassmen in Division I in that category.
• Toledo has been an outstanding defensive team all season long, and especially in conference play. The Rockets are holding MAC opponents to a .159 attack percentage and are blocking at a rate of 2.59/set, figures that rank second and first in the conference, respectively.