Bowling Green State University
UIC
Falcons Bounce Back, Douse Flames
September 21, 2002 | Volleyball
Sept. 21, 2002
MADISON, Wis. - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team bounced back from Friday night's loss, with a three-game victory over the University of Illinois at Chicago Saturday morning (Sept. 21). The Falcons downed the Flames by game scores of 30-22, 30-27, 30-27 in the match, part of the Badger Invitational at the UW Field House.
With the victory, Bowling Green improves to 4-7 on the season. UIC falls to 11-3 on the campaign, and sees a five-match winning streak come to an end.
In the first game, BGSU jumped out to an early 13-7 lead, which forced a UIC time out. The Flames cut the lead to 16-13 behind a pair of Gina Caneva kills and kills by both Meghan Keck and Kristi Herrington.
The Falcons, however, however, countered with three consecutive unassisted kills from Kristin Gamby and a kill by Susie Norris to extend the lead to 20-13 and put the Brown and Orange in control. Gamby led all players with 15 kills in the match, and she hit .448 to post another match high.
The second game was hotly contested as neither team led by more than three points during the contest. The Flames led, 25-23, but BGSU countered with three unanswered points behind a kill from Samantha Rennau, block assists from Sara Sikorski and Bridget Protas along with a hitting error from Keck to take a 26-25 lead.
UIC bounced back and took the 27-26 lead behind kills from both Caneva and Lindsey Filkins. Bowling Green, however, answered back immediately with block assists from Rennau and Protas, two UIC hitting errors and a kill by Laura Twyman to capture the game and the 2-0 lead.
Game three proved to be much of the same as the margin was narrow all the way, but the Falcons again posted a three-point victory.
In addition to Gamby's performance on offense, Falcon coach Denise Van De Walle got production from several other players. Twyman had 13 kills and hit .276, while Protas hit double digits in the kills department, with 10 kills and a .348 hitting percentage. Nadia Bedricky had eight kills and a .316 hitting pct.
Defensively, the Falcons' lone freshman, Emily Manser, came off the bench to post a career-high 21 digs, while Bedricky added 11.
Protas had a match-best six blocks, all assists, while Twyman added four. Sikorski had 49 set assists and seven digs in the win.
Caneva led the Flames with 13 kills, while teammate Teaha Shepperd added 10 kills and 12 digs.
The Falcons will return to action Saturday evening, completing play in the Badger Invitational with a contest against Tulane University. The match will be BGSU's last non-conference contest of the regular season, as the Brown and Orange will begin Mid-American Conference play next weekend.
