Bowling Green State University
EASTERN MICHIGAN
Falcons Drop Heart Breaker To Eastern Michigan
October 30, 2004 | Volleyball
Oct. 30, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team dropped a five-set heart breaker Saturday afternoon to Eastern Michigan (30-22, 23-30, 25-30, 30-16, 8-15) inside Anderson Arena. Junior Ashlei Nofzinger led the Falcons to the near upset with 19 kills and 22 digs, both career-highs.
Despite the loss the Falcons poured out a season high 73 kills and 90 digs, en route to three Falcons recording double-doubles (Nofzinger, Amber Mareski and Emily Manser).
"We played great volleyball today in spurts," said head coach Denise Van De Walle. "In the first and fourth sets we were hard to stop at the net. Then in the final set we went soft and tipped too many balls. Both teams looked tentative in their hitting until Busch got to the front row for Eastern. She was tough to stop."
Eastern Michigan (15-8, 10-2 MAC) began the opening game on a 14-8 run with the help of several Eagle kills, but the tide was turning the Falcons way. BGSU pulled even at 14-14 on a 6-0 run behind two of Nofzinger's team high 22 kills. The teams exchanged the following 10 points for a 19-19 tie, but BGSU closed game one on an 11-3 run for a 30-22 game one victory.
The Falcons (13-11, 6-6 MAC) carried the momentum from game one into game two, opening with an early 8-3 spurt, but the Eagles dominated from there on out. EMU used a .318 hitting percentage to capture game two, 30-23, concluding with a 27-15 run.
The teams battled to a 13-13 tie midway through game three, but five straight attack errors was to much for the Falcons to overcome. The Eagles won game three 30-25.
Behind 21 kills and only two errors (.452 hitting percentage) the Falcons controlled game four from the outset. BGSU stormed out to a 19-9 advantage and never looked back. Red-shirt freshman Corrie Mills recorded seven kills in game four alone.
Game five saw three early lead changes, but with the score knotted at 4-4, EMU pounded out three kills in four points for a 7-5 lead. BGSU got within one at 8-7, before two more Eagle kills pushed the lead back to three. Eastern Michigan won the fifth and decisive set, 15-8.
For the match Nofzinger led the team 19 kills, but she was not the only Falcon to record double figure kills. Melissa Mohr (15), Emily Manser (12) and Taylor Twite (10) also had impressive offensive numbers.
Defensively, the Falcons were led by Chrissy Gothke. Gothke recorded a season-high 28 digs (had nine digs in game five alone). Nofzinger (22), Manser (12) and Mareski (11) also surpassed the 10+ mark.
Mohr led the team with five total blocks.
"The bright spots were Noffy, Mills, and Gothke," said Van De Walle. "This was the best I have seen Noffy play. She took some pretty big time swings today in critical situations. She carried us at times. Today had to be a season best for her. Mills came in off the bench in crunch time and did an outstanding job again. Chrissy does so much for us in the backrow. It's hard for people to really understand the value of her position. 28 digs is great."
"In a five gamer, it always comes down to what you do in that last set," explained the coach. "The first four really don't matter. It's about who is tougher at the end and today it happened to be Eastern."
The Falcons return to the road for the next three matches as they will face Kent State (Oct. 6), Akron (Oct. 7) and Oakland (Oct. 10) before returning home to host Marshall and Buffalo on Oct. 12-13.
