Falcons Use Strong Team Effort to Fly Past Kent State, 3-2

Friday, October 30

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

6-18, 2-9MAC

Kent State (S.A.A.C.: Trick-or-Treat at the Stroh)

14-9, 8-3MAC

Kent State

Bowling Green

Photo by: Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications

October 30, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, BGSU Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Stats: Box Score (PDF)
Final Stats: Box Score (HTML)
Video: Post Match Interview with Coach Tomic
Video: Post Match Interview with Katie. Scholten
Photos: Photo Gallery (Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications)

Bowling Green, Ohio – In a match that saw a number of Falcons set new individual career single match records, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team had five players record double digit digs and four different Falcons post double digit kills in a 3-2 come from behind win over the Kent State Golden Flashes on Friday night at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green, Ohio.

BGSU defeated Kent State, who entered the contest on a seven-match winning streak, by the scores of 25-22, 21-25, 19-25, 28-26 and 15-10.

The win pushes the Falcons to 6-18 overall and 2-9 in league play, while the loss drops Kent State to 14-9 overall and 8-3 in the MAC.

BGSU remains undefeated versus the Golden Flashes in volleyball action inside the Stroh Center which opened in 2011, moving to 5-0 overall with the victory on Friday night.

"This is huge. This is huge for our team to win in this fashion and against a really, really good Kent State team that has been on a roll and really one of the hottest teams in the MAC. To do what we did tonight just speaks about our kids," commented head coach Danijela Tomic. "It was high level volleyball and to show the character coming back in the fourth set from behind to win that set to stay in the match and then carry that momentum into the fifth set, that we were not able to do in our last two times that we played in five set matches, just shows how much our team has grown. I'm just very, very proud of them and I'm just happy for them to see the hard work that is finally paying off."

BGSU set a number of career single match records on Friday night in the win led by freshman libero Kallie Seimet's career-high 34 digs and fellow first-year Falcon Madeline Brandewie's career-high 11 kills. Nicole Slimko had a career-high six total blocks to go with her 10 kills in the win, as Madeline Garda reached double digits in digs with 18.

Three different Falcons registered double-doubles on the night, as Katie Scholten dished out a career-high 55 set assists to go along with 16 digs and junior middle Alyssa Maloney tallied 14 kills and a career-best 10 digs. Outside hitter Jelena Sunjic posted her sixth double-double of the season with a match-high 21 kills and 17 digs, which tied her career-high.

Bowling Green as a team totaled a season-high 16.0 team blocks and 107 digs in the five-set win.

Kent State had two players record a double-double in Kelsey Bittinger, who had 20 kills and 21 digs, and Kelly Hutchison, who tallied 19 kills and 19 digs. Drew Norberg and Bridget Wilhelm finished with 14 and 10 kills each, respectively, while libero Challen Geraghty picked up 28 digs overall in the loss.

The first set saw no ties and no lead changes throughout, as BGSU grabbed a 2-0 lead early on a block from the combo of Maloney and Slimko, followed by a spike from Sunjic, to open up the match.

The Orange and Brown had an answer for every Kent State point over the next several services and used a kill from Slimko and a Kent State attack error to pull out in front by five at 11-6 and force a Golden Flashes' timeout.

Out of the break, the visitors in blue tallied three straight points, including a service ace by Katarina Kojic, to trim the BGSU lead down to two at 11-9.

A Kent service error ended the run and gave the Falcons new life, as BGSU extended its lead to as much as six at 16-10 on an Isabel Kovacic service ace and again at 17-11 on a Brandewie kill.

Although Kent State refused to go away, the Falcons declined to relinquish the set lead and took set point at 24-18 on a Golden Flashes' miscue.

However, Kent fought off four straight set points and cut BGSU's lead back to two at 24-22 when a kill from Brandewie slammed into the court to give the home team the 25-22 opening set win.

The second set saw one tie and one lead change in the early stages of the game, as BGSU took a 1-0 lead on a Maloney kill, only to see Kent State score back-to-back points off of two straight Bittinger kills to take the lead at 2-1.

The visitors did not look back, as Kent pulled out to a six point lead at 12-6 on a service ace from Sarah Mills to force a BGSU timeout.

Following three more Golden Flashes' points, which put the lead at 15-6, BGSU clawed back into the set with a solo block from Maloney, a kill from Kovacic, a block from both Slimko and Maloney, as well as kills from both Maloney and Sunjic to close the gap to three at 17-14 on a second Kovacic spike.

Falling back down by as much as five at 21-16, 22-17, and 23-18, the home team rallied late to get to within two points once more at 23-21 on a Maloney spike, before back-to-back kills from Norberg and Wilhelm ended the rally with Kent State in front 25-21.

The third set proved to be much closer than the previous two sets, as BGSU erased an early 3-0 deficit with four straight points to take a 4-3 lead on a Garda ace.

Six ties and three lead changes later, Kent State took a 13-9 lead with a 5-0 scoring spurt until a kill from Maloney ended the run and put the Falcons down just three at 13-10.

Kills from Kovacic and Sunjic followed to place the home team down one at 13-12, yet Kent State responded with another scoring surge, this time a 4-0 run, to push its lead back to five at 17-12.

The Falcons pulled to within three of the Golden Flashes at 18-15, but were unable to slow down Kent State's strong offensive attack as the visitors rolled to a 25-19 win to take a 2-1 match lead.

Looking to survive and extend the match to a fifth set, BGSU's and Kent State's fourth set proved to not only be the best set of the match, but also went on to be the difference maker overall as the momentum clearly shifted from the visitors to the home team.

Kent State scored first to go up 1-0, only to see BGSU's Maloney knot the set up at 1-1 with a spike.

That would be the first of 12 ties in the game, as neither team could pull away from the other.

Back-and-forth the two teams went with Kent taking the largest lead of the set early at 7-5, only to see BGSU fight back to retake the lead at 8-7 on another Maloney kill and then again at 9-8 on a Slimko slam.

The Golden Flashes separated themselves from the Falcons at 16-11 on a kill from Wilhelm which capped a 5-0 run and appeared to have the set in hand.

However, the Falcons had other plans, as BGSU chipped away at the Kent State lead and got to within one at 21-20 on back-to-back kills from Kovacic and Sunjic.

After a Kent State timeout, the Golden Flashes picked up a kill and an ace from Bittinger to take a 23-20 lead over the home team.

A Sunjic spike kept BGSU alive at 23-21, before a Hutchison slam gave match point to the Golden Flashes at 24-21.

A solo stuff from Brandewie, a Kent State attack error, and a Sunjic ace tied the set up at 24-24 and got the crowd to its feet.

A BGSU attack error gave the lead and the service back to Kent State at 25-24, as the Falcons again had to fight off another match point.

The Falcons did just that with two straight kills from Slimko to give the home team in orange set point at 26-25.

Defense took over, as Kent picked up a block from Norberg and Brittney Jakscht to tie the set up for a 12th time at 26-26, before back-to-back stuffs at the net by the Falcons, first from Maloney and Slimko and the second by Maloney and Kovacic, propelled the home team to the 28-26 set win and forced the match to a fifth and decisive set.

With the momentum clearly on the Falcons' side, BGSU soared out to a 4-0 lead to start the fifth set and extended it to 6-1 on a Kent State error to make the Golden Flashes use an early timeout.

The resilient young Falcons extended their lead to six at 8-2 on a solo block from Sunjic, before a kill from Kent State's Norberg started a 4-1 run by the visitors who cut the BGSU lead to three at 9-6 on a Hutchison kill.

Not to be deterred, the Falcons rose up to the occasion and blasted three straight kills from Brandewie, Slimko and Maloney to push its lead back to six at 12-6, only to see Kent State answer with a second 4-1 run to place the Golden Flashes down just three at 13-10.

Scholten and the Falcons went to the right arms of their two outside hitters, as Slimko and Sunjic put the match away with back-to-back kills to give the home team the 15-10 set win and the 3-2 match victory over the streaking Golden Flashes.

Bowling Green (6-18, 2-9 MAC) will look to continue its strong play tomorrow evening, as the Falcons will host the MAC East leading Ohio Bobcats at 5 p.m. inside the Stroh Center.

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