Bowling Green State University
BUFFALO
Falcons Down Bulls, 3-1
November 18, 2008 | Volleyball
Nov. 18, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Bowling Green State University volleyball head coach Denise Van De Walle and the Falcons downed the Buffalo Bulls, 3-1 (25-15, 20-25, 25-18, 25-14) tonight (Nov. 18) to move onto the Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinals. The Falcons will head to the SeaGate Centre Friday (Nov. 21) to take on Central Michigan at 11:00 a.m.
The Falcons' continued their history of dominating Buffalo recording their third win of the season and ninth straight win over the Bulls, remaining undefeated 11-0 against them in Anderson Arena.
The Falcons came out firing in the first set and took an early 8-4 lead after a three-point Falcon run, which included back-to-back service aces by Meghan Mohr. The Falcons maintained their lead scoring points in a row blowing the set apart after scoring seven straight unanswered points extending their lead to 10, 19-9. The Falcon run was started by a kill from Mohr and included three kills from Mohr, two from Kaitlin Jackson and one from Shari Luther. The Falcons stayed aggressive only allowing the Bulls six more points in the first set. A kill from Corey Domek ended the first set for the Falcons 25-15. The Falcons dominated the first set with their best performance of the night terminating 15 kills with only one error nearly twice as many as the Bulls' eight kills and recorded a .538 hitting percentage. The Falcons also posted three blocks stifling the Bulls to a mere .071 hitting percentage.
The Orange and Brown struck first in the second set off a kill from Mohr, but the Bulls were able to score points in a row early taking a 7-4 lead. The Falcons then answered backed with their own three-point run to tie the set up, 8-8. The Falcon run included back-to-back kills from Luther. However the Bulls came right back with two more three-point runs to recapture the lead, 16-12 over the Falcons. BG once again fought back as a kill from Jackson stopped the Bulls and led to three straight points for the Falcons. The Falcons continued to fight keeping the set close but both teams were able to score points in a row. The Falcons fell 25-20 to the Bulls in the second set.
After dropping the second set to the Bulls the Falcons came out of the locker room ready to play. Domek put the Falcons on the scoreboard first, off of a kill, which gave the Falcons the lead that they wouldn't let go of the rest of the set. The Falcons put together their first run of the third set with a kill from Domek to take a 4-1 lead. Only two rotations later the Falcons once again posted three straight points this time sparked by a kill from Kendra Halm to give BG an 8-4 lead. The Bulls answered back with their first big run of the set with four straight points to cut the Falcons lead to two, 13-11. The Falcons kept scoring points in a row and were able to extend their lead to six, 19-13 after stringing together three straight points started by a Mohr kill. The set continued to go back and forth with the Falcons holding their lead. A kill from Domek secured set point for the Falcons, which Sam Fish followed up with a service ace to give the Falcons the third set, 25-18.
BG took their momentum from their win in the third set and used it to propel them in forth set as they went on to score five straight unanswered points taking a 5-1 lead over the Bulls. The five point run that even a Buffalo timeout couldn't stop was all Mohr and Luther as the run included two double-blocks from Mohr and Luther, two kills from Mohr and a kill from Luther. The Falcons stayed aggressive striking once again with two three-point runs to extend their lead to eight over the Bulls, 15-7. The set once again went back and forth as the Falcons kept the Bulls from scoring points in a row. The Falcons put together one more run before the night was over scoring three straight points to give them set point, 24-13. The Bulls were able to fight off one set point but a kill from Domek gave the Falcons the fourth set, 25-14 and the match as BG now moves on to the MAC Tournament quarterfinals at the SeaGate Centre. The Falcons once again dominated the net in the fourth set terminating 17 kills and a .400 hitting percentage nearly twice as many kills as Buffalo's nine kills and .054 hitting percentage for the second time of the night.
"I thought we played great at times tonight," said Van De Walle. "The first and fourth sets were aggressive and hard hitting. We made very few errors during those sets. Meghan put on a hitting clinic tonight during the match. I thought she was great. Offensively, we were hard to stop. We had all our hitters on fire: Meghan, Kaitlin, Kendra, Domek, and Luther. Sam was effective with her attack on two. Meghan and Susie served very well. It was good to leave Anderson Arena with a win tonight. We've played very well at home this season. We haven't lost a match since our home tournament way back in Sept. A more impressive thing is that we didn't lose a MAC match all year on this floor. I don't know when we've done that before. Too bad the MAC tournament isn't played here!"
The Falcons owned the net on both ends of the court out hitting the Bulls with 57 kills and a .357 hitting percentage compared to Buffalo's 43 kills and .172. On defense the Falcons recorded six blocks to Buffalo's three.
The Falcons' offensive attack was led by Mohr for the second straight match as she once again terminated a match high 18 kills with a mere two errors in 34 attempts good for a .471 hitting percentage. Mohr not only recorded double-digit kills but dished out 10 assists as well for her 10th double-double of the season. Also in double-digits was Domek as she recorded 12 kills for BG. Just shy of double-digit kills were Halm with nine kills with only one error in 16 attempts, hitting a .500 hitting percentage and Jackson with eight kills. Fish ran the offense handing out 40 assists.
On defense the Falcons had two players in double-digits as Chelsey Meek led the way with 15 digs recording her 89th consecutive match of 10-plus digs, while Susie Isphording picked up 10. Defensively at the net Luther led the Falcons putting up five blocks along with Mohr adding three.
Now 24-8 overall, the Falcons will return to action on Friday (Nov. 21) in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals at the SeaGate Centre against Central Michigan with the first serve taking place at 11:00 a.m.
"I want to give a big shout out to our fans this season," said Van De Walle. "Thank you for all your support this fall. You've been great. Please come see us this Friday at 11:00 a.m. at the SeaGate center. We'd love it if we saw a sea of orange up there when we play Central. It's a huge match. CMU is coming off their most successful season in a while and they beat us earlier this year. We'd love to see you there."
The Falcons will make their ninth appearance in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals with an overall record of 3-6. The Falcons are 3-0 against Central Michigan in MAC Tournament history but have never met the Chippewas in the quarterfinals.
