CMU Volleyball Hands Falcons Five-Set Defeat

Friday, October 14

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Central Michigan

Photo by: Brad Phalin, BGSU Marketing and Communications

October 14, 2011 | Volleyball

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

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Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team played its third five-set match in the last four contests but came up on the short end of a 26-28, 26-24, 25-20, 23-25, 15-12 defeat Friday night in the Stroh Center.

The Falcons got 15 kills from Danielle Tonyan and ten from Emily Kauth on just 17 swings but Bowling Green was unable to pull out the victory late.

Central Michigan had 17 more kills than the Falcons to overcome having seven more service errors and three more attack errors. Bowling Green recorded 10.0 blocks for just the fourth time this year as Kauth led the way with five.

After winning close sets in the first and fourth, Bowling Green took momentum into the fifth and capitalized early. Paige Penrod and Kari Galen had back-to-back kills to put the Falcons ahead 4-2 and a Tonyan kill gave the team an 8-5 lead midway through the final frame. But Central Michigan used a 4-1 run to tie the score and force a Bowling Green timeout.

Kauth had a kill coming out of the timeout to put the Falcons back on top and Bowling Green led 12-11 on a Penrod kill later. But Kaitlyn McIntyre had three kills down the stretch for the Chippewas as Central Michigan scored the final four points for the win.

Bowling Green got to a fifth set by staving off two set points in the first. Down 26-25, the Falcons tied the opening stanza on a bad set and then took the lead when Kauth and Laura Avila paired up on a block. Kauth added a kill on the next point for the 28-26 win.

The Falcons again led late in the second, taking a 22-20 edge but Central Michigan scored six of the final eight points to even the match. The third set was the only one that did not come down to the wire as the Chippewas led by as many as seven points and won 25-20.

With their backs against the wall in the fourth, the Falcons came back from down 17-15 with a four-point run to take the lead. With the score tied at 23-23, a Central Michigan service error followed by an attack error sent the match to a fifth set.

Ashley Dunn finished with a match-high 17 digs and Avila had 31 assists. Erica Fullenkamp had a double-double with 14 assists and 11 digs.

Central Michigan improves to 11-7 on the year and 4-3 in conference play with the win. Bowling Green falls to 16-4 overall and 3-4 in league action. The Falcons will host Eastern Michigan Saturday night at 7 p.m. looking to get back to .500 in MAC play.