Falcon Offense Crushes RedHawks, 3-0

Thursday, October 30

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

MIAMI (OH)

October 30, 2008 | Volleyball

Oct. 30, 2008

Final Stats

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Falcons' offense was firing on all cylinders as they crushed the Miami RedHawks, 3-0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-20) this evening (Oct. 30). The BGSU netters hosted Pack the House, Pink Out Night, to help create awareness for breast cancer and gave nearly 700 fans a spectacular match to watch. The Falcons' victory moved them to 19-7 overall and 8-3 in Mid-American Conference play, now tied for first in the MAC East Division with Miami and Ohio.

The Falcons' posted a season high .411 hitting percentage averaging 16 kills per set three kills more than their season average while stifling the RedHawk offense posting a .143 hitting percentage, their fourth lowest of the season and lowest in the MAC play, way below their .239 season average.

The first set started off evenly matched with the set going back and forth point for point, until a kill from Shari Luther led to the first big run of the match. The Falcons scored three straight points to take a 10-9 lead, which BG would maintain the rest of the set. The set remained close with Falcons holding onto a slight lead, but a kill from Meghan Mohr led to six unanswered points for the Orange and Brown taking a seven point lead over Miami, 22-15. The Falcon run included two kills from Mohr, two kills from Luther, a kill from Kaitlin Jackson and a double-block from Luther and Jackson. The Falcons secured set point off of a kill from Kendra Halm. The RedHawks were able to fight off one Falcon set point but a kill from Jackson gave the Falcons the first set, 25-18. The Falcons dominated the first set terminating 18 kills posting a .455 hitting percentage, their best of the night, compared to the RedHawks .265. The Falcons had five players hit a .330 or better in the first set, all recording no fewer than two kills a piece.

The Falcons carried their momentum from the first set into the second set as they took an early lead, 3-0. Miami answered back with their own three-point run to tie the set up 3-3. The set remained close once again until a kill from Corey Domek sparked a four-point Falcon run to give BG a 14-9 lead. The RedHawks continued to fight but the Falcons stayed aggressive stringing together five straight points to secure set point. Once again the RedHawks were able to side-out to stay alive but another kill from Luther ended the set, 25-18 in favor of the Falcons. The Falcons once again owned the net as they out hit Miami for the second straight set recording 13 kills and a .355 hitting percentage compared to the RedHawks -.026. The Falcon middle hitters, Halm and Luther were unstoppable in the second set as they both recorded perfect performances terminating four kills a piece. Halm posted a 1.000 hitting percentage while Luther posted a .571 hitting percentage to go along with three blocks. Luther was key at the end of the set recording five of the last six Falcon points.

With a 2-0 lead in the match the Falcons came out even more fired up in the third set jumping out to an early 9-3 lead, which included a BG three-point and four-point run. The RedHawks once again didn't give up as they answered back with a three-point run to cut BG's lead to three, 9-6. The Falcons held their lead but the RedHawks slowly began to chip away at it. A three-point RedHawk run tied the set up 14-14 forcing a BG timeout. After the timeout Mohr terminated play to side-out for the Falcons. The set remained close but the Falcons were able to score points in row to keep their advantage. With the Falcons up by one, 21-20 Mohr once again sided-out for BG to stop the RedHawks, which lead to a four-point run and the win, 25-20. The last four Falcon points included three kills from Mohr and huge double-block from Halm and Jackson. The Falcons posted another great performance on offense hitting a .419 compared to Miami's .200 hitting percentage. Mohr led the way for the Falcons in the third set with a perfect performance terminating seven kills with no errors in 10 attempts (.700).

The Falcons had five players hit a .500 or better on the night. Leading the way with another near perfect performance was Mohr terminating a match-high 13 kills with only one error posting a .444 hitting percentage. The Orange and Brown middle hitters, Luther and Halm where both just shy of double digits each recording nine kills. Luther had a perfect performance against the RedHawks with her nine kills coming from 15 attempts and no errors good for an impressive career high .600 hitting percentage. Luther also matched her career high six blocks against Miami. Halm posted a high efficiency against the RedHawks with .429 hitting percentage.

Chelsey Meek led the Falcon defensive attack with 17 digs recording her 83rd straight match of double-digit digs. Also in double-digits on defense was Sam Fish picking up 15 digs to go along with the 36 assists she dished out, recording her sixth double-double of the season.

"Tonight was the best we've played all year," said head coach Denise Van De Walle. "To hit over .400 against the East Division leader tells you just how good we were. It was the first time in a long time that we had all our hitters hitting well at the same time. Sam did an excellent job of spreading the ball around which made us hard to block. Sam's defense tonight was better than ever. She made some plays that were exceptional."

"Luther played very big tonight at the net and put up some big time numbers. She was error free on her hitting which is hard to do and she led us in blocking with six. Meghan didn't have a hitting error in the third set at all going 7-0-10 which unbelievable. This is the third match in a row that Meghan has hit .360 or better."

"Rob did a great job with the scouting report to prepare us. Miami is a hard team to scout because they move their players around so much and they play several positions."

"I could go on and on about each and every player. It was a total team effort to get the win. The crowd was fantastic. They were loud and enthusiastic. It was our first PINK OUT and I thought the fans supported the Breast Cancer awareness by wearing lots of pink. Next year we'd like to make it an even bigger night."

The Falcons will return to action as they host Western Michigan, leader of the MAC West Division, on Saturday (Nov. 1) at 7:00 p.m. The match-up between the Falcons and the Broncos will be another crucial match in the race for the MAC and the East Division.