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Friday, August 27
East Lansing, Mich.
7:00 p.m.
Bowling Green State University
0
at
3
Michigan State
Danielle Tonyan led BGSU with seven kills in her first collegiate volleyball match.
Falcons Find Rhythm But Come Up Short Against Michigan State
August 27, 2010 | Volleyball
Boxscore
East Lansing, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team was unable to overcome a slow start in its 2010 season opener Friday night, losing to Michigan State in three sets 25-11, 28-26, 25-14. Michigan State is receiving votes in the AVCA Coaches Top 25 poll and the Spartans' offense never faltered throughout the match.
The Falcons, which are the youngest team in head coach Denise Van De Walle's 28 years at the helm of BGSU volleyball, showed their inexperience early with first-match jitters and Michigan State rolled to a 25-11 first set victory. The Spartans dominated at the net by hitting .400 and totaling 5.0 team blocks in the opening set. Bowling Green, on the other hand, hit -.115 and had just four kills and two digs.
But BGSU began to make things happen midway through the second set. Michigan State jumped out to a 15-9 lead but a Danielle Tonyan kill started the Falcons on a 6-2 run that got the Orange and Brown back within two. Michigan State still led by two, 23-21, when Van De Walle called a timeout. Tonyan added another kill and Michigan State was called for a ball handling error that tied the score at 23-23.
Becca Zlabis' kill gave MSU a match point but Bowling Green answered back as setter Sam Fish came up with a kill to tie the score. Zlabis then had an attack error, giving the Falcons their first set point of the season but Michigan State scored four of the next five points, capped off with a Natalie Emro kill to escape with the 28-26 win.
Bowling Green hit a more respectable .229 in the second set, led by Tonyan's four kills during the stanza but Michigan State continued to work with an efficient offense, hitting .367. BGSU outdug the Spartans 8-6 in the set and served up two aces, while holding Michigan State to just 2.0 team blocks.
In the third set, Michigan State continued to hit well, posting a .391 attack percentage, while the Falcons dipped to .069. Emro was particularly effective for the Spartans, handing out six assists and coming up perfect in five attack attempts.
For the match, four freshmen saw action for Bowling Green and Tonyan led the squad with seven kills and added three digs. Paige Penrod had three kills and two blocks in her first collegiate match, while Ashley Dunn had three assists and three digs. Laura Avila added seven assists and three digs as well. Senior Sam Fish had a team-high 14 assists and was perfect in four attack attempts, while the team's other senior, Noelle Spitler, led the squad with a .250 attack percentage (four kills on 16 attempts).
Michigan State improves to 1-0 on the season and Bowling Green falls to 0-1. The Falcons will be in action two times Saturday to complete play at the MSU Showcase, beginning with a 10 a.m. match against Evansville. BGSU will finish the weekend with a 4:30 p.m. contest against IUPUI.
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