Bowling Green State University
MARSHALL
Falcons Drop Heart Breaker To Thundering Herd
November 12, 2004 | Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team dropped a five-set match Friday evening to Marshall (30-23, 30-22, 23-30, 21-30, 11-15) inside Anderson Arena. The loss now forces the Falcons into a must win situation tomorrow night if they want to host a first-round Mid-American Conference Tournament match on Tuesday, Nov. 16.
"I am very disappointed in tonight's match," said Van De Walle. "We had complete control after the first two games, but came out of the locker room and just did not have the fire."
The match was a tale of two completely different halves. The Falcons nearly dominated the first two games, hitting .227 and .311, compared to Marshall's .125 and .237, but in the final three games Marshall out hit BGSU, most notably in game four where the Herd hit .304 compared to .171 for the Brown and Orange.
Game one was a block party for senior Taylor Twite and freshman Stephanie Swiger. They teamed a formidable defensive force as they sent back four attacks, and helped the Falcons race out to a 19-9 advantage. Marshall got as close as 27-22, but three Herd errors ended the opening stanza, 30-23.
The Falcons once again stormed out to an early advantage, this time, BGSU led 20-15, but MU was not done. A 4-0 spurt put the Herd within one at 21-20, but three kills by Twite and two kills apiece by junior Emily Manser and Swiger, allowed the Falcons to finish on a 9-2 run and head to the locker room with a comfortable 2-0 advantage.
Marshall turned the tables on the Falcons in games three and four. MU captured game three 30-23, with two separate 5-2 runs, and never trailed in game four, capturing it 30-21.
The final stanza was the most competitive of the night. Game five saw 10 tied scores and eight different lead changes. BGSU used a 3-0 run to take an early 7-5 advantage, but Marshall used a 3-0 run of their own, to take an 8-7 lead. The Herd closed game five with a 7-4 run, stealing a win from inside Anderson Arena, 15-11.
For the match Twite led the Falcons with 19 kills, followed by Emily Manser (12) and Melissa Mohr (9). Twite also had four solo blocks and five block-assists.
Defensively, Chrissy Gothke recorded 26 digs, and now has 99 digs in her last four matches combined. Maggie Karges posted 18 digs, Madeline Means, making her first start of the season, recorded 17, while Manser also added 10.
Gothke had a near triple double, posting 37 assists, 26 digs and six kills.
"We now are in a must win situation," said Van De Walle. "We have one more regular season game left and we need to win it to host on Tuesday." The Falcons host Buffalo tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. inside Anderson Arena.
