Falcons Rally Past Ball State In Five Sets

Friday, October 23

Muncie, Ind.

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

Ball State

October 23, 2009 | Volleyball

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Boxscore

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team rallied from a two-set deficit to defeat Ball State Friday night 25-27, 18-25, 25-22, 25-23, 15-9. The victory was the Falcons second five-set win in the last three matches.

Bowling Green won after losing the first two sets since defeating Western Michigan in five on Nov. 1, 2008. Since an 11-match losing streak and an 0-6 start to conference play, the Falcons have won two of their past three matches. Head Coach Denise Van De Walle picked up her 496th career victory.

Corey Domek led the way for Bowling Green with 19 kills and she added a career-high 15 digs for her third career double-double. She had eight of those kills in a critical 25-23 fourth set win the evened the match. Setter Allison Kearney handed out 39 assists and added nine digs and a career-best five blocks. Shari Luther added 16 kills and improved her MAC-leading attack percentage to .379 by hitting .484 on the evening.

Bowling Green led the opening set 20-12 and had three chances to win the frame with a 24-21 lead but Ball State's Charde' Phillips had three consecutive kills to tie the score and the Cardinals eventually pulled out the 27-25 win. After Ball State rolled to a 25-18 second set win, the Falcons easily could have rolled over but that wasn't the case.

With the match on the line in the third set, Ball State clung to a 21-19 lead but Domek and Emily Kauth combined for a block and Luther posted a kill to tie the score. With the score tied at 22-22, Ball State came unglued with a service error and two attack errors to swing momentum in favor of the Orange and Brown.

Bowling Green used that stretch to springboard into a 14-9 lead in the fourth set and still held onto a 22-17 advantage late. Ball State chipped away and eventually got to within one at 24-23 but Domek had her eighth kill of the set to give the Falcons the 25-23 win.

In the deciding fifth set, Bowling Green scored five of the first six points and never looked back, building a 13-4 lead behind aces from Alex Zlabis, Kearney and Sam Fish to roll to the win. Ball State hit -.059 in the final stanza, posting five attack errors.

Ball State falls to 10-12 overall and 3-6 in conference play with the loss. Bowling Green improves to 9-15 overall and 2-7 in the MAC. The Falcons will play at rival Toledo Saturday at 3 p.m. as the team begins to battle for seeding for the MAC Tournament.