Bowling Green State University
Eastern Michigan
Falcons End Season With Loss At EMU
November 18, 2003 | Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2003
YPSILANTI, Michigan - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team ended their 2003 season after falling victim to Eastern Michigan Tuesday night in the first round of the Mid-American Conference tournament inside the Convocation Center 24-30, 26-30, 30-28, 21-30. In the loss four Falcons reached double digit kills.
"We fought hard all the way to the end," said head coach Denise Van De Walle. " Eastern Michigan was just better then us tonight. The way they played tonight they should beat a lot of teams in the tournament. They played great defense and made it so hard for us to get a kill all night."
After falling behind 2-0 to begin game one the Falcons put together a 6-1 run to take an early 6-3 lead. The Eagles countered with a 5-2 run to tie the score at 8-8, with the help of several BGSU errors. EMU scored eight of the next 12 points to take a 16-12 lead. The Eagles maintained that four-point advantage at 22-18, before a 3-0 run got BGSU to within one at 22-21. EMU answered with a 4-1 run to force a BGSU timeout at 26-22 after back-to-back EMU kills. The timeout did little to slow down the Eagle offense as they finished game one on a 4-2 run and earning a 30-24 game one victory.
The Falcons (12-19, 4-12) got out to a 6-2 lead with the help of back-to-back kills by junior Taylor Twite to begin game two. EMU answered back with a 5-1 run to knot the score at 7-7. EMU scored 10 of the next 15 points, taking a 17-12 lead, forcing a BGSU timeout. Bowling Green took full advantage of the stoppage, ripping off three of the next four points to get within three at 18-15. The Eagles regained their large lead with a 5-1 run to take a commanding 23-16 lead, forcing another Falcon timeout. BGSU was able to put together a 5-3 run following the timeout, but fell short in game two 30-26.
EMU (21-9, 8-8) doubled up the Falcons 10-5 to begin game three. Bowling Green answered back with a 7-1 run on the back of senior Samantha Rennau who registered three kills in the rally to take their first lead of the match at 12-11 forcing an Eagle timeout. The Brown & Orange run continued following the break with a 5-2 run by the Falcons, to take a 17-13 lead. The two teams exchanged the next 12 points with the Falcons retaining the four point lead at 25-21, before head coach Denise Van De Walle called a timeout. BGSU came out of the timeout committing back-to-back attack errors allowing EMU to get within two at 25-23. After several point exchanges BGSU led 28-26, before EMU scored the next two points to tie the score at 28. Susie Norris and Melissa Mohr blocked the next ball and was followed by a Dana Chapman kill to win game three 30-28.
Eastern Michigan began game four with a 7-2 run with two EMU blocks, and ran their lead to 10-5, with an EMU kill. BGSU tallied a 4-1 to get within two at 11-9, before an Eagle kill placed the lead back to five at 14-9. BGSU scored the next three points, only to allow Eastern Michigan to score the next four, increasing the lead to six at 18-12, forcing a Falcon timeout. The Eagles offense continued to roll stretching the lead to nine at 25-16 following the timeout. BGSU began to chip away at the lead scoring three of the next four points to get within seven at 26-19. EMU ended the match with a kill down the middle, capturing game four 30-21.
For the match four Falcons record double-digit kills. Norris led the way with 15 and was followed by Chapman, Rennau and Twite, all earning 13 kills.
On the defensive side of the ball five Falcons recorded 10+ digs. Freshman Chrissy Gothke and Norris had a team-high 22 digs, while Amber Mareski established a new career-high with 18 digs. Mohr, 11 and Nadia Bedricky, 10 also posted double-digit digs.
The Falcons will say goodbye to the 2003 season as well as six Falcon seniors. Nadia Bedricky, Bridget Beers, Dana Chapman, Susie Norris, Samantha Rennau,Libby Voshelland Sara Sikorski ended their Falcon career's tonight.
"When you have so many seniors, you never want a season to come to an end," said Van De Walle. "There are a lot of tears tonight."
