Falcons Sweep Cornell In Home Opener

Friday, September 10

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Cornell

September 10, 2010 | Volleyball

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

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Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green volleyball team held Cornell to .077 hitting as the Falcons swept the Big Red 25-15, 25-21, 27-25 in the team's home opener, which also served as a first round match in the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational.

Paige Penrod had 13 kills and Noelle Spitler added 11 and five blocks as the Falcons dominated at the net. Bowling Green had 29 more kills than Cornell, 50-21, and hit .238 for the match. The Falcons are now 2-0 when hitting at least .200 and 0-5 when failing to reach that threshold.

Cornell never really threatened during the first two sets but looked as if it would pull out the third after building a 24-20 lead. Lindsey Butterfield, Danielle Tonyan and Ashley Dunn recorded consecutive kills, forcing the Big Red to call a timeout. Coming out of the break, Spitler had a kill to tie the score and a Cornell attack error gave the Falcons a 25-24 lead. After a Cornell block tied the score, the Big Red were called for a ball handling error and Butterfield closed out the match with a kill.

Spitler was particularly effective in the third set, recording six of her 11 kills in that pivotal stanza. She hit .455 in the third and had a pair of blocks.

Playing in front of a raucous home crowd for the first time in 2010, Bowling Green came out on fire, winning the first set 25-15. With the score tied at 7-7, the Falcons went on an 11-4 run that put Bowling Green on top early.

In the second set, Cornell jumped out on top 4-1 but the Falcons used a 6-1 stretch to take a lead they would never relinquish. The Big Red did get within one at 18-17 but Cassie Berning and Spitler had back-to-back kills, followed by a block from the pair and another kill from Spitler to make it 22-17 and build all the cushion the team needed.

Along with a huge advantage in kills, Bowling Green held a 59-44 edge in digs behind a career-high 20 from freshman libero Ashley Dunn. Penrod added 13 digs for her second career double-double and freshman Laura Avila had 23 assists and nine digs.

Bowling Green will host four matches in the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational Saturday, beginning with BGSU playing IPFW at 11:30 a.m. The Falcons will play Oakland Saturday evening at 7 p.m.