Slimko, O’Connor Provide Spark In Win Over RMU

Saturday, September 20

Rochester, Mich.

10 AM

Bowling Green State University

2-9

UC Irvine

9-4

Bowling Green

UC-Irvine

September 20, 2014 | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

Paige O'Connor named to the all-tournament team

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

Rochester, Mich. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team got 20 kills each from freshmen Nicole Slimko and Paige O'Connor to overcome a 2-1 deficit and salvage a victory against Robert Morris at the Golden Grizzly Invitational, hosted by Oakland University, Saturday night. The Falcons won 25-21, 15-25, 27-29, 25-20, 15-8 for their third five-set victory of the year. That came on the heels of a three-set loss to UC Irvine earlier in the day, 25-15, 25-21, 25-22.

Bowling Green's .213 attack percentage was its second-best of the year in the win over Robert Morris and the Falcons improved to 3-0 on the season when posting a hitting percentage of at least .200. O'Connor recorded the first 20-kill match of her career and Slimko posted her second such performance. BGSU overcame a lull during the middle portion of the match to get the win.

The Falcons, in fact, hit .395 in the first set as O'Connor and Slimko combined for 13 kills in the frame. Senior setter Erica Fullenkamp handed out 17 assists as BGSU scored 21 of its 25 points directly off of kills. The Falcons trailed by as many as five points early but Bowling Green stormed back to tie the score at 13-13 and took the lead for good on a Kelsey Bates kill that made it 15-14. Down the stretch, the Falcons led by at least two points throughout.

Robert Morris dominated the second set by hitting .407 and then jumped out quickly in the third, building a 19-12 advantage. The Falcons rebounded with seven straight points to tie the score at 19-19, but BGSU could not put the stanza away despite having opportunities with 24-23 and 25-24 leads. Eventually, Robert Morris was able to string together enough points to earn the 29-27 victory.

With the match hanging in the balance, Bowling Green scored eight of the first 10 points in the fourth set and never relinquished the lead. Robert Morris did climb back within one at 20-19 but Bates posted a kill that started a 5-1 run to force a fifth set.

In the fifth set, Bowling Green took Robert Morris out of any offensive rhythm with four blocks, holding the Colonials to -.143 hitting. The Falcons trailed 4-2 early but BGSU got three kills from Slimko and two blocks during a five-point spurt and BGSU never looked back.

Along with the 20 kills from O'Connor and Slimko, BGSU got 16 kills from Bates. Bowling Green had 14.0 blocks, nine from Alyssa Maloney, to hold Robert Morris to just a .133 attack percentage. Madeline Garda had 21 digs and Fullenkamp distributed 49 assists.

The win gave the Falcons a victory to conclude their pre-conference slate and helped the team improve to 3-2 in five-set matches this year.

Earlier in the day, Bowling Green lost to UC Irvine in three sets. Bates had eight kills and hit .533, while O'Connor recorded a team-best nine kills, but the Falcons hit only .111 and posted just 31 kills as a team, 14 fewer than UC Irvine.

BGSU's 6.0 blocks were one more than UC Irvine but the Anteaters held a 42-39 advantage in digs and hit .298.

"This weekend showed us again that we have a lot of work to do," BGSU head coach Danijela Tomic said. "I hope that fact is painfully apparent to everyone on our team. We had a tough preseason and did not perform as well as expected. I hope that we learned from our wins and our losses and will make the necessary adjustments as our focus shifts to the MAC season."

Following the tournament, O'Connor was named to the all-tournament team, her first such recognition of her career.

At 3-9 on the season, the Falcons open conference play on the road during the upcoming weekend, competing at Buffalo Friday at 7 pm and at Akron Saturday at 5 pm.