Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Improve To 2-0 In MAC With Win Over Huskies
September 25, 2004 | Volleyball
Sept. 25, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, behind a balanced offensive attack, improved to 9-4 overall and 2-0 in conference play with a four game win over Northern Illinois Saturday night in Anderson Arena (30-20, 30-18, 26-30, 30-22). BGSU opens MAC play 2-0 for the first time since 1998.
The Falcons controlled game one from the outset. They began on a 9-3 run and stretched the gap to 21-8 behind several Emily Manser kills. BGSU walked home with game one, 30-20.
Game two looked much like game one. The Falcons raced out to a 14-7 lead following a Melissa Mohr kill and pulled away with a service ace by sophomore Chrissy Gothke to extend the lead to 21-10. The Huskies got as close as 27-17, but back-to-back kills by Stephanie Swiger closed the door on game two, 30-18.
NIU came out of the locker room determined to begin game three. With the score knotted at 14, the Huskies scored 11 of the next 17 points and opened a 25-20 advantage. BGSU closed the gap to one at 25-24, but could get no closer, falling in game three 30-26.
The Brown and Orange got back to business in game three, with an early 13-8 spurt. BGSU stretched the lead to six with kills by Manser and Mohr for a 21-15 lead and allowed the Huskies to get no closer, capturing game four 30-22.
For the match four Falcons recorded double figure kills. Manser and Mohr led the team with 15 apiece with Swiger and Taylor Twite each recording 12.
Helping the team to a season-high 74 kills was senior setter Amber Mareski. With her 54 assists in the win over the Huskies she became only the seventh Falcon to record 2,500 assists for a career, and now has2,508 career assists.
Defensively five Falcons surpassed 10 digs. Manser led the group with 16, followed by Mareski (15), Gothke (13), Mohr (12) and Maggie Karges (11).
Twite led the team with eight total blocks. Mohr recorded six and Manser and Swiger each chipped in with four apiece.
Up next for the Falcons is a weekend trip to Miami (Oct. 1) and Ball State (Oct. 2). There they will welcome back their head coach Denise Van De Walle, who will be returning from Athens, Greece after coaching the USA Sitting Volleyball team for the last month. Both matches are set to begin at 7:00 p.m.
