Falcons Use Balance To Beat Portland State

Friday, September 7

Provo, Utah

4:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Portland State

September 07, 2012 | Volleyball

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Boxscore

Provo, Utah – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team rebounded from a slow start to use a balanced effort offensively and defensively in a 16-25, 25-19, 25-23, 25-17 win over Portland State in the team's opening match at the BYU Nike Invitational Friday night.

While Portland State entered the match with a 3-4 record, the Vikings had already recorded a three-set sweep of defending Mid-American Conference regular season champion Northern Illinois. By hitting a season-high .264, the Falcons improved to 2-0 this year when reaching at least .200.

Three players had at least 14 kills for Bowling Green, led by Danielle Tonyan with 15. Paige Penrod added 14 and Lindsey Butterfield had a career-high 14. Leah Shaw added a career-best nine kills and hit .600 without a single attack error.

“After a very slow start we were able to refocus and execute our game plan,” BGSU head coach Danijela Tomic said. “The main adjustment we made was reducing unforced errors, especially serving errors, and our outside hitters started finding ways to score. In order for us to win, we have to have at least three hitters with double-digit kills. We did that today and almost had a fourth.”

Tomic got production up-and-down the lineup. Shaw added six blocks, while Kaitlyn Skinner had six kills and three blocks. Laura Avila directed the offensive attack with 49 assists to go with 11 digs. Ashley Dunn added 18 digs from her libero position and Libby Dachenhaus came in to add eight digs as a defensive specialist as the Falcons had three more digs than Portland State. Cassie Berning added five digs and a pair of aces in a critical support role, marking the first multi-ace match of her career.

After a poor start in the first set, the Falcons quickly turned things around in the second. BGSU had no aces or blocks in the first set but had improved immensely in the second set, posting three aces and four blocks. The Falcons also hit .353 in the second set to turn the match around.

Bowling Green jumped out to a 13-8 lead in the third set but Portland State stormed back with six straight points and the Falcons still trailed 21-20 late. But Penrod had three kills and a block down the stretch to lead Bowling Green to the 25-23 victory.

With Portland State reeling in the fourth, Bowling Green put the match away by hitting .406, the second-best single-set attack percentage for the Falcons this year. BGSU never trailed in the final set and led by a comfortable margin throughout.

Coming into the match, Bowling Green led the MAC in aces and the Falcons added to their total with seven, six more than Portland State. The Vikings hit just .198 and BGSU ended with 9.5 blocks, 1.5 more than Portland State.

Portland State falls to 3-5 with the loss and Bowling Green improves to 2-4. The Falcons will play No. 21 BYU Saturday at 2 p.m. EST and Utah at 7 p.m. EST.