Falcons Beat Kent State On Senior Night

Saturday, November 9

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

13-13, 9-5MAC

Kent State (Senior Night)

12-15, 6-8MAC

Kent State

Bowling Green

November 09, 2013 | Volleyball

Box Score

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

Boxscore

Bowling Green, Ohio – On a night that the Bowling Green volleyball program honored eight seniors, the Falcons hit a season-high .301 and beat Kent State in four sets for a season sweep of the Golden Flashes. Bowling Green won 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 25-22 for its sixth consecutive win in the series against Kent State.

As has been the case for each of the past four years, the Falcon senior class played a key role in the win. Danielle Tonyan had a team-high 15 kills and five blocks and Laura Avila handed out 44 assists. Paige Penrod served up three aces and Ashley Dunn had 20 digs, her fourth consecutive match with at least that amount. Kaitlyn Skinner had a team-best .556 attack percentage with 10 kills. Lindsey Butterfield posted a double-double, finishing with 10 kills and 12 digs. Libby Dachenhaus added four digs in four sets as a defensive specialist. The lone other senior, Allison Papenfuss, did not play.

The team had its most efficient night of the season in large part due to the distribution of Avila, who got multiple hitters involved in the offense. Five different players had at least 10 kills and each of them hit at least .243. Along with Skinner's .556 attack percentage, Kelsey Bates hit. 333 with 10 kills and Jelena Sunjic was at .280 on 11 kills.

Bowling Green hit a remarkable .516 in the first set but Kent State actually held the lead through much of the first half of the stanza. The Golden Flashes led 17-15 before the Falcons scored four straight points on kills from four different players to take the lead. Kent State battled back to tie the score at 20-20, but Penrod and Tonyan had back-to-back kills. Penrod then added an ace and Bowling Green closed out the 25-21 win.

In the second set, Bowling Green led by as many as seven at 19-12 but Kent State rallied with a 9-3 run to get within one. The two teams traded points until the Falcons led 24-23, when Butterfield had a kill to put Bowling Green well in front.

Kent State used a late 8-3 run to win the third set 25-19 but the Falcons bounced back, scoring eight of the first 11 points in the fourth. Bowling Green held onto a 19-13 lead before the Golden Flashes made one last run with a 7-2 spurt. At 21-20, Sunjic sandwiched a Kent State point around two kills and Tonyan added another for a 24-21 lead. Sunjic closed out the match with one last kill.

For the match, Kent State hit a respectable .221 but the Golden Flashes were not nearly as efficient as Bowling Green. Kent State did outdig BGSU 72-71 but the Falcons had 9.0 blocks, three more than the Golden Flashes. Both teams had six aces as well.

Kent State falls to 12-14 overall and 6-8 in MAC play with the loss. Bowling Green improves to 13-13 and 9-5 in the MAC. The Falcons remain tied with Northern Illinois and Western Michigan for fourth place in the conference standings with one weekend of play remaining. The Falcons will be on the road to place Akron Friday night and Buffalo Saturday night.