Falcons Claim Battle Of I-75 With 3-1 Win Over Toledo

Saturday, October 22

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

16-7 (6-4MAC)

Toledo (Dig Pink)

12-10 (5-5MAC)

Toledo

Bowling Green

October 22, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Coach Tomic Post-Match Interview
Photo Gallery (Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications)
Final Statistics: NCAA Box/Play-By-Play | HTML

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team claimed Battle of I-75 bragging rights by beating the University of Toledo, 3-1, Saturday (Oct. 22) evening inside of the Stroh Center. The Falcons won the match by a score of 25-9; 22-25; 25-13; 25-15. After dropping the second set, the Orange and Brown won the final two sets by double digits en route to the victory.

Bowling Green owns an overall record of 16-7, and the Falcons are now 6-4 in Mid-American Conference play. With the loss, Toledo falls to 12-10 (5-5 MAC).

"When a team loses the night before, and then how we lost – we just didn't play well in any area. But to bounce back within 24 hours, it shows the character of the team and I'm really, really proud of them," said head coach Danijela Tomic, who is now 3-2 in matches against Toledo. "This was completely a team effort. We had everybody play well. Everybody fulfilled their role."

The Falcons, statistically, completely dominated the match. Bowling Green hit .328 compared to Toledo's .112. The Orange and Brown had more kills (54-36), more assists (52-34), more digs (69-44), and BGSU had just 15 attack errors compared to Toledo's 21. The Falcons also racked up 12 services aces, while the Rockets recorded just two.

In the first set of the match, Bowling Green held Toledo to nine points, while also holding the Rockets to a .000 attack percentage. The Falcons hit .556 across the first set, and scored the first eight points of the match. After dropping a tight second set by a score of 25-22, the Falcons rallied out of the intermission, and won the third and fourth sets by 12 points and 10 points, respectively.

Freshman setter Isabelle Marciniak stuffed the stat sheet, and picked up the first double-double of her career, which was also Bowling Green's second double-double of the season. Marciniak had 43 assists, 12 digs, four service aces, two blocks, and also had three kills while hitting .600 (3-0-5).

Madeline Garda continues to lead the country in digs per set (6.40) and total digs (512). Garda had a solid match with 19 digs, six assists and three service aces. Paulina Iacobelli chipped in with eight digs and three aces, while Kallie Seimet had seven digs.

Jelena Sunjic led the offensive attack, as she had 19 kills and hit .395 (19-4-38). Sunjic also helped out with eight digs, three blocks and two aces. Isabel Kovacic was next in line with 11 kills. She hit .320 (11-3-25) for the match, and also had five digs.

For the second night in a low, Jessi Holly was very efficient, as she had seven kills and hit .312 (7-2-16). Alyssa Maloney had six kills for the Orange and Brown. Madeline Brandewie, who hit .273 (5-2-11), had five kills.

The Falcons will now prepare for a very difficult match in Oxford on Thursday (Oct. 27) night against the Miami RedHawks. Miami has won 17 straight matches, and haven't lost since Sept. 2. After the match against Miami, Bowling Green will return home to battle Western Michigan on Oct. 29.