Falcons Rebound For Five Set Win Over Eastern Illinois

Saturday, September 18

Pittsburgh, Pa.

11:00 a.m.

Bowling Green State University

Eastern Illinois

September 18, 2010 | Volleyball

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

Boxscore

Pittsburgh, Pa. – For a young team like the Bowling Green State University volleyball squad, showing lessons learned can be critical for success down the road. The Falcons showed that they learned a lesson Saturday morning by defeating Eastern Illinois in five sets 25-17, 13-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-12.

A night after Bowling Green lost its first five-set match of the 2010 season in a marathon match with Pittsburgh, the Falcons won the last two sets against Eastern Illinois to pick up a five-set victory. Bowling Green hit .275 in the fourth and .333 in the fifth to bounce back from a shaky sets in the second and third.

Bowling Green played well in the opening set, hitting .321, but after being outscored by 12 and seven points in the next two sets, it appeared the Falcons would go down to defeat against Eastern Illinois. In fact, the Panthers built a five-point lead at 15-10 and looked ready to finish off the Falcons but the hitters came alive.

Emily Kauth, Danielle Tonyan, and Paige Penrod had consecutive kills as Bowling Green scored five in a row to get back in the match. With the match tied at 22-22, Penrod had a kill and the Falcons followed with a pair of blocks to push it to a fifth set.

Much like the match against Pittsburgh Friday night, Bowling Green jumped out on top early in the fifth set. Two Lindsey Butterfield kills gave the Falcons a 7-4 lead but Eastern Illinois battled back to tie the score at 10-10. But this time, the Panthers folded. Two bad sets sandwiched around a Butterfield kill made it 13-10 and another Butterfield kill put the match away with the 15-12 win.

In all, Butterfield had five kills in that crucial fifth set, which was two more than she had in the first four sets combined. Penrod ended the match with 16 kills but Bowling Green won a match for the first time this year when hitting below .200, attacking at a .193 clip. Laura Avila posted a double-double with 29 assists and 10 digs, while Ashley Dunn had a team-high 16 digs. Danielle Tonyan and Noelle Spitler had four blocks each.

Eastern Illinois falls to 5-5 on the year and Bowling Green improves to 4-9 on the season. The Falcons will play Robert Morris at 7 p.m. tonight to complete the Blue and Gold Invitational.