Falcons Fall in Straight Sets to NAU on Friday at the Indiana Invitational

Friday, September 11

Bloomington, Ind.

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-5

Northern Arizona

7-1

Bowling Green

Northern Arizona

Photo by: JD Pooley

Falcons Fall in Straight Sets to NAU on Friday at the Indiana Invitational

September 11, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

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Bloomington, Ind. – In the first of three straight road matches this weekend at the Indiana Invitational, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team fell in straight sets 25-16, 25-19 and 26-24 to the Lumberjacks of Northern Arizona on Friday night in Bloomington, Ind.

The loss drops the Falcons to 3-5 on the season, while the Lumberjacks improved to 7-1 on the year with the non-conference win.

"Unfortunately, we were not able to beat a very good Northern Arizona team. We again had a slow start and struggled with serve and serve receive early in the match. Once that improved, we had glimpses of how good we could be," head coach Danijela Tomic commented. "Our young team is still learning and maturing against really tough competition, but as long as we are seeing improvement, we know we are on the right track and that winning will come. As always, we have to learn from today, bounce back and get ready for two more quality opponents tomorrow."

Middle Alyssa Maloney had a strong performance for the Falcons, as the junior totaled a team-high 10 kills on a career-high .529 attack percentage in the three set loss. Setter Katie Scholten dished out a match-high 29 set assists, while outside hitters Nicole Slimko and Jelena Sunjic each tallied nine kills apiece.

NAU used a balanced attack in the win, as four different players posted six kills or more on the night led by a team-high nine kills from Janae Vander Ploeg. Libero Jordan Anderson had a match-high 10 digs, as the Lumberjacks as a team hit .277 overall for the match.

Errors haunted the Falcons all night long, as BGSU had a total of 19 attack errors, 11 receiving errors and eight service errors. NAU had just 10 attack errors, but kept the Falcons in the match with 10 service errors of their own over the three sets of play.

Bowling Green struggled to get into any type of rhythm in the opening set, as NAU started the match off with a 4-1 lead which included three service aces.

Battling back to cut the NAU lead to two at 7-5 on an Isabel Kovacic ace, the Falcons appeared to have grasped ahold of the momentum when three straight errors kick started an 8-3 run for the Lumberjacks who chopped their way out to a seven point lead at 15-8 on a Falcons' service error.

Back-to-back Falcon points pushed the Orange and Brown to within in five at 15-10, yet the Lumberjacks refused to relinquish the lead as BGSU again got to within five again at 19-14 on kills from Sunjic and Slimko.

NAU closed the set out on a 6-2 spurt to take a 25-16 first set win and an early 1-0 match lead.

Following back-to-back kills from Slimko to start the second set, the Falcons saw a service error and an NAU service ace knot the frame up at 2-2. The BGSU service error was the first of five straight points for the Lumberjacks, who split out to a 5-2 lead on yet another service ace.

The Falcons continued to struggle to put a string of consecutive points together, as the Lumberjacks remained out in front at 15-9.

Midway through the set, Sunjic posted two straight spikes to help the Falcons get to within three points at 15-12.

BGSU was able to get to within three on two more occasions during the set, however, again the Lumberjacks held off the Falcons for a 25-19 second set triumph.

With their backs against the wall down 2-0 in the match, the Falcons stormed out of the break to take a 9-1 lead to start the third set on nine straight points, highlighted by two service aces from Maloney and two kills from Kovacic.

After an NAU block ended the BGSU scoring explosion, the Lumberjacks seized the momentum to double up the Falcons over the next 24 plays with a 16-8 advantage to tie the set up at 17-17 on a kill by Lauren Jacobsen.

Northern Arizona added another kill by Jacobsen to take the lead for the first time in the set at 18-17, only to see the Falcons answer back to use kills from Slimko and Maloney to tie the set up at 19-19.

Looking to stay alive and send the match to a fourth set, BGSU retook the lead at 21-20 on a Scholten kill and another Slimko spike. However, NAU answered with two straight points to retake the lead at 22-21.

Two straight points by the Falcons pushed BGSU back in front by one at 23-22, yet the back-and-forth scoring trend continued with an NAU point, followed by a Slimko kill, and another Lumberjack point to put the score at 24-24.

An NAU block and a kill by Payton Bock propelled the Lumberjacks to the 26-24 third set win and handed them the 3-0 match victory.

BGSU hit under .100 in both the first and third sets, yet posted a strong team attack percentage of .393 in the second set to give them an attack percentage of .152 overall for the match. On the other side of the net, the Lumberjacks hit over .300 in both the first and second sets for the match.

The Falcons (3-5) will not have long to regroup, as BGSU will turn around to play two Power 5 conference teams tomorrow on day two of the Indiana Invitational. BGSU will have a rematch with Indiana at 12 p.m. ET and will wrap up the weekend tournament with a neutral site contest against Virginia Tech at 5 p.m. ET.

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