Penrod, Tonyan Shine Despite Loss To Miami (Ohio)

Thursday, September 30

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Miami (Ohio)

September 30, 2010 | Volleyball

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

Boxscore

Bowling Green, Ohio – Bowling Green State University freshmen Paige Penrod and Danielle Tonyan both posted season highs in kills but the Falcons lost a wild match to Mid-American Conference foe Miami (Ohio) 25-20, 25-21, 11-25, 25-23 Thursday night in volleyball action.

Playing in front of 360 people in Anderson Arena, Penrod had 22 kills and Tonyan added 17 as Bowling Green outkilled Miami 58-49 and outdug the RedHawks 62-44. Despite those lopsided totals, the RedHawks came away with a stunning victory, in particular in a mind-boggling fourth set.

After dropping the first two sets, Bowling Green stormed back to completely control the third in a 25-11 win. Despite holding all the momentum heading into the fourth, Miami scored seven of the first nine points to take a 7-2 lead. But a Penrod kill started an amazing run of 14 consecutive Falcon points that gave BGSU a comfortable 16-7 lead. Penrod and Tonyan combined for six kills and the Falcons had three blocks during the stretch.

But Cassie Farrell's kill stopped the run and Miami began to claw back. Bowling Green led 18-10 when Miami scored four in a row to make it 18-14. Noelle Spitler had a kill but Miami came back with five more in a row to tie the score at 19-19. The RedHawks finally took the lead back for good on a Lisa Treadway kill that made it 22-21 and forced BGSU coach Denise Van De Walle to burn a timeout. Coming out of the break, Miami built the lead to 23-21 and to 24-22 before Penrod's final kill of the match cut the deficit to one. But Miami's Amy Raseman put the match away by hammering a set through a BG block attempt for the win.

Penrod hit .462 for the match and Tonyan hit .367 as the Falcons hit .281 as a team, holding Miami to .223 hitting. The RedHawks actually hit .365 during the first two sets but only .105 in the final two stanzas.

Ashley Dunn had 24 digs as Bowling Green had 18 more as a team than Miami. Laura Avila added 10 to her 33 assists for a double-double. BGSU also doubled up Miami with 8.0 team blocks, seven coming from Spitler.

Miami jumped out to an 11-4 lead in the first set but Bowling Green battled back to get within one point at 17-16, 18-17, and 19-18. But at that point, Miami scored four straight on a BG service error followed by an ace, a Treadway kill and a Raseman kill that put the set away.

In the second set, Miami again built an early lead at 8-4 and Bowling Green never got closer than two points the rest of the way. But momentum shifted in the third set when the Falcons scored the first seven points and then added another seven-point run later in the set to cruise to victory.

Miami improves to 6-10 on the year and 1-2 in MAC play with the win. Bowling Green falls to 6-11 overall and also is 1-2 in league action. The Falcons will host Western Michigan Saturday evening at 7 p.m. as the program recognizes the All-Anderson Team – the 14 best volleyball players of the Anderson Arena era – in celebration of the final season of Anderson Arena for “Closing The Doors Of The House That Roars.”