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Thursday, October 6
Bowling Green, Ohio
7:00 p.m.
Bowling Green State University
3
vs
2
Miami (Pink Out)
Falcons Come Alive Late To Beat Miami In Five
October 06, 2011 | Volleyball
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Bowling Green, Ohio – After playing three below-average sets, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team came alive in the fourth and dominated the fifth to beat Miami (Ohio) 26-28, 25-23, 18-25, 25-22, 15-9 Thursday night at the Stroh Center.
With the win, Bowling Green moves into a tie with Miami for second place in the Mid-American Conference East Division. Both teams are 3-2 and trail only Ohio in the standings.
Through three sets, Bowling Green was hitting just .119 and was struggling to find consistency. The Falcons had led 9-3 in the third frame but Miami used a 16-4 run to roll to a 25-18 win. But that's when everything changed.
Bowling Green hit .364 in the fourth and a remarkable .556 in the fifth, posting a perfect 100 percent side-out percentage. The Falcons were able to come back from a four-point deficit in the fourth and finally broke free with a 6-1 run to close out the fifth.
“The fourth and fifth sets were two intense teams battling it out,” BGSU Head Coach Denise Van De Walle said. “Laura Avila and Danielle Tonyan were great all night, but when Ashley Dunn and Paige Penrod came alive in the fourth set, it gave us the spark we needed.”
From her libero spot, Dunn had nine digs in the fourth set as the Falcons worked to keep Miami's balanced attack from doing too much damage. Penrod, on the other hand, rebounded from a rough start of the match to post eight kills and hit .533 in the fourth. She had eight attack errors on the night but all of those came in the first three sets.
In that pivotal fourth, Miami jumped out to an 8-4 lead but the Falcons tied it up with a 5-1 run that featured two Penrod kills and an ace. The set remained tight throughout and Van De Walle used a timeout with her team clinging to a 23-22 lead. Penrod and Tonyan came out of the break with back-to-back kills to force the fifth set.
In the fifth, the two teams shared sideouts for the first 11 points. Bowling Green led 6-5 at that point but Kari Galen broke the stretch with a block of Christina Menche to give the Falcons a bit of breathing room. It was still just 9-8 in the Falcons' favor when Tonyan had a kill and Emily Kauth posted a block that just caught the end line for an 11-8 lead. After a Miami kill cut the deficit to two, Bowling Green closed out the match with four consecutive kills, two from Lindsey Butterfield and one each from Penrod and Tonyan.
Penrod and Tonyan each had 20 kills, marking the second consecutive match that the duo both reached at least that total. Kauth and Galen added eight kills and Avila distributed the ball to the tune of 45 assists. Dunn ended with 21 digs and Erica Fullenkamp had a double-double with 14 digs and 12 assists.
“Tonight we beat a very good Miami team,” Van De Walle said. “We knew coming in that it would be tough, so to get the win feels great. I was impressed with Miami's balanced attack, but I'm more impressed with our never-quit attitude.”
With the victory, Bowling Green improves upon its MAC win total from a year ago when the Falcons went just 2-14. With 16 overall wins on the year, Bowling Green has doubled its overall win total on the year. Miami fell to 12-7 with the loss.
Bowling Green will face another 3-2 MAC team Saturday as the Falcons play at Western Michigan at 7 p.m.
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