NCAA Bound! Falcons Win MAC Championship Over NIU

Sunday, November 18

Geneva, Ohio

1:00 P.M.

Bowling Green State University

Northern Illinois

Photo by: Brad Phalin, BGSU Marketing and Communications

November 18, 2012 | Volleyball

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

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Geneva, Ohio – The Bowling Green volleyball team is returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 21 years as the Falcons fought back from a two-set deficit and fought off two match points to defeat Northern Illinois 20-25, 24-26, 26-24, 25-20, 15-4 Sunday afternoon at the SPIRE Institute.

After dropping the first two sets, Bowling Green trailed 24-22 in the third, leaving Northern Illinois just one point shy of the MAC Tournament. Northern Illinois' Meghan Romo had an attack error and then BGSU's Lindsey Butterfield tied the score with a kill. After a Northern Illinois timeout, Butterfield added another kill and one more attack error by the Huskies gave the Falcons a 26-24 win.

That four-point stretch propelled the Falcons forward and BGSU capitalized. The Falcons jumped out to an 11-5 lead in the fourth and never looked back to send the match to a deciding fifth set.

Heading into the fifth, Bowling Green had all the momentum and confidence that it would win. The Falcons had won a fifth set in the semifinals just one day earlier and had won seven consecutive matches that went five sets. The Huskies never stood a chance.

Bowling Green scored the first four points of the fifth just a day after scoring the first six points of the fifth against Western Michigan in the MAC Tournament Semifinals. NIU temporarily stalled the Bowling Green attack with two straight points but a Paige Penrod kill started an eight-point run in which the Falcons recorded four blocks. Once the dust cleared, the Falcons led 12-2 and got the championship-clinching point on a Butterfield kill from the left side for the 15-4 win.

One of the critical coaching decisions in the match came when BGSU Head Coach Danijela Tomic decided to insert senior Kari Galen and sophomore Kelsey Bates into the rotation in the middle. Neither had played as much as a point in the first two matches of the tournament, but both came up big. Bates posted a career-high six kills on a .500 attack percentage and added a career-best three blocks. Galen added three blocks of her own, one of which came early in the fifth set to help the Falcons to the quick lead.

As usual, the team's three first team All-MAC hitters were the leaders. Butterfield tied her career-high with 21 kills and added 14 digs to be named to the all-tournament team. Penrod was named MAC Tournament Most Valuable Player after posting 17 kills and a career-best 28 digs. Danielle Tonyan added 15 kills, eight digs and four blocks.

As a team, the Falcons had eight more kills than Northern Illinois and 15 more digs. But NIU dominated in the service game with eight aces and added 13 blocks, four more than the Falcons.

The improbable comeback marked just the second time in MAC Tournament history that a team had come back from two sets down in the championship to win the match. That happened in 1980, the first year of the tournament.

Bowling Green returns to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1991, which is also the last time the Falcons won the MAC Tournament. BGSU had lost in the MAC Championship on five other occasions. The defeat marked the third consecutive year that Northern Illinois lost in the MAC Championship.

The win also avenged a number of heart-breaking defeats at the hands of the Huskies. A year ago, Northern Illinois ended Bowling Green's season in the first round of the MAC Tournament, sweeping the Falcons. Just a week ago, NIU beat Bowling Green in the final match of the regular season, costing the Falcons a MAC regular season championship and the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament. Instead, the Falcons had to battle through as the No. 2 seed, sweeping No. 7 seed Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinals before defeating No. 3 seed Western Michigan and No. 4 seed Northern Illinois in five sets.

Bowling Green will now play in the NCAA Tournament against an opponent to be determined. The Falcons will find out their fate during the NCAA Selection Show Sunday, Nov. 25 at 4 p.m. on ESPNU. The first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament take place Nov. 29-Dec. 1 at 16 campus sites (the top 16 seeds), while the NCAA Regionals will follow Dec. 7-8. The NCAA Semifinals take place Dec. 13 in Louisville and the championship is Dec. 15 at the same location.

Follow BGSUFalcons.com for all the latest information regarding the Falcons' run to the NCAA Tournament.