Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Denver
Volleyball Begins Tournament With a Sweep
September 02, 2006 | Volleyball
Sept. 2, 2006
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team began the weekend with a 3-0 sweep over the Denver Pioneers. The fans in Denver got their money's worth as the thrilling first two sets weren't settled until after the 30-point mark (32-30, 33-31, 30-18).
Birthday girl, Madeline Means led the Falcons to victory by hitting .360 with 11 kills, four blocks and nine digs.
"Tonight was a really good win,"said head coach Denise Van De Walle."Denver is a physical team that is tough to beat at home. They handled us pretty easily last year and we didn't let the team forget that."
Things looked bad early as the Falcons dug themselves an 8-0 deficit to start game one. However, the Brown and Orange climbed back into the match and knotted the score at 27-27 after a kill by Senior Chrissy Gothke. A block by the duo of Junior Corrie Mills and Freshman Corey Domek later handed BGSU a 31-30 advantage. The Pioneer setter was then called for a ball handling error, giving Bowling Green the 32-30 win.
"We came back in game one after being down nearly 10 points," said Van De Walle. "We never gave up. Our hitting and blocking finally came alive."
The Falcons trailed much of game two as well, but like game one the Brown and Orange surged at the end to take the second stanza 33-31. Back-to-back kills by Domek and Means closed out the game. Domek paced BGSU with 13 total kills on the night.
Game three was all Falcons as they rolled to a 30-18 win. Junior Stephanie Swiger was a wall in the clincher, racking up three rejections in game three.
"The third game was all us," said Van De Walle. "We had some great, long rallies tonight that we ended up winning. Chrissy, Swiger. Madeline and Domek all had a great night at the net. Tonight was the best Chrissy has set thus far. I thought she really made a difference."
Bowling Green is scheduled for a pair of matches Saturday. An 1 PM matchup against UC-Riverside will be followed by match against Northern Arizona at 7 PM.
