Falcons Drop Final Regular Season Road Match

Thursday, November 10

Oxford, Ohio

7:00 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

Miami

Photo by: Doug Sampson

November 10, 2011 | Volleyball

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

Boxscore

Oxford, Ohio – Despite hitting .281 for the match, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team lost to Miami Thursday evening 25-19, 25-23, 20-25, 25-18. The loss put a damper on the Falcons' postseason hopes but BGSU is still in position to earn a berth to the MAC Tournament during the final two days of the season.

With the loss, Bowling Green falls to 6-9 in conference play, an identical record with Miami. The two teams are tied for seventh in the MAC standings with the top eight teams advancing to the conference tournament. At 4-10 in league play, Buffalo still has an outside shot of knocking the Falcons out of the postseason, but the Bulls would need to win both of their final two matches, including a contest against East Division leader Ohio, and BGSU would need to lose Saturday against Northern Illinois.

Bowling Green hit 40 points higher than Miami Thursday night and had six more kills, but the RedHawks overcame the disparity with six more aces and three more blocks. Danielle Tonyan had her seventh career 20-kill match for the Falcons, finishing with exactly 20 and hitting .417. Paige Penrod added 11 kills and Emily Kauth had 10.

After Miami won the first two sets, Bowling Green bounced back with a strong third frame, hitting .389 and getting four kills each from Tonyan and Kauth. The Falcons led most of the way and pulled away after clinging to a 17-15 lead late. Kauth had two of her kills down the stretch to help Bowling Green battle back into the match.

The fourth set was close early but Miami broke open a 7-7 tie with three straight points and the set was never tied again. The RedHawks extended the lead throughout for the final 25-18 win.

Two Falcons finished with double-doubles as sophomore Laura Avila recorded the 10^th of her career and freshman Erica Fullenkamp added her fifth of the year. Avila had 32 assists and 17 digs to go with five kills, while Fullenkamp had 14 assists and 11 digs. Junior Kari Galen had five kills and a team-high four blocks.

Miami improves to 15-14 overall and Bowling Green falls to 19-10. The Falcons will hold Senior Day Saturday at 2 p.m. as the team hosts Northern Illinois. Kauth and Madison Nitta will be honored for their four-year careers at Bowling Green.