Falcons Get First Win With Five-Set Victory Over Bakersfield

Friday, September 5

Dayton, Ohio

7 PM

Bowling Green State University

1-3

CSU Bakersfield

2-2

Bowling Green

Bakersfield

September 05, 2014 | Volleyball

Box Score

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

Boxscore

Dayton, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team played almost flawlessly in the first two sets before allowing Cal State Bakersfield to rally, but the Falcons rebounded in the fifth to open the second weekend of the volleyball season victoriously Friday night. BGSU won its opening match of the Flyer-Raider Invitational 25-23, 25-14, 25-27, 17-25, 15-7 in its first ever meeting against Bakersfield.

During the first weekend of the volleyball season, Bowling Green struggled with unforced errors and Friday night's match once again swung on the Falcons' mistakes. In the three sets that BGSU won, the Falcons played in remarkably clean fashion, posting just two attack errors and three service errors. But in the third and fourth sets, Bowling Green recorded 21 attack errors and seven service errors.

"We are thrilled to earn our first victory of the season," head coach Danijela Tomic said. "Our young team was outstanding in the three sets that we won, but also showed inexperience in the other two sets. We showed a lot of heart and composure in the fifth set, which speaks volumes about the character of our team. We are pleased with the progress we are making and tonight's match taught us many valuable lessons that will make us better."

The Falcons hit .370 in the first set and .517 in the second to roll to the lead, but in the third and fourth sets, BGSU had more errors than kills. Bowling Green corrected those mistakes for the fifth set and once again hit .500 with nine kills on 18 attempts without an attack error.

Senior Kelsey Bates was a critical cog Friday night, recording a career-high in both kills (14) and blocks (10) and posting her first collegiate double-double. Two freshmen added more offensive punch as Nicole Slimko finished with 15 kills and Paige O'Connor posted 14. For Slimko, it is the third time in her first four collegiate matches that she recorded at least 14 kills. Redshirt freshmen Desi Klaer was also a force at the net defensively, posting eight blocks. Sophomore Madeline Garda added 21 digs from her libero position.

Things did not go smoothly out of the gate for the Falcons and Bowling Green found itself behind 13-8 in the opening set. But BGSU used a 12-2 run to flip the score at 20-15. O'Connor had three kills and Bates added three blocks during the run, while Garda served eight consecutive points in the stretch. Bakersfield rallied, though, with five consecutive points of its own to tie the set at 20-20. Bakersfield had two attack errors and a service error in the clutch and Slimko closed out the frame with a kill for the 25-23 win.

In the second set, O'Connor posted five of her 14 kills as Bowling Green built a quick 13-8 lead and then Bates took over. She had kills on five of BGSU's next six points as the lead ballooned to eight and the Falcons eventually closed it out with back-to-back blocks for the 25-14 win.

After such efficient play over the first two sets, things began to spiral downward in the third. Despite the struggle to find rhythm, Bowling Green was still tied 23-23 late in the frame looking for the sweep. BGSU twice fought off set points but Bakersfield began to claw back into the match by recording back-to-back kills for a 27-25 win.

Bakersfield quickly put the fourth set away, scoring the first five points and never allowing Bowling Green to get back into the stanza. The Roadrunners led by as many as 11 points but the Falcons gained just a bit of momentum late with a mini 5-2 run heading into the fifth.

In the fifth and final set, Bowling Green played the role of frontrunner, never trailing and never allowing Bakersfield to even be tied after the score was 1-1. BGSU had a pair of blocks and a Slimko kill to go ahead 4-1 and the Falcons extended the lead to five points at 10-5 before Bakersfield used its final timeout. After a Bakersfield kill, BGSU answered with three points in a row and the Falcons closed out the match with a Bates kill.

For the match, Bowling Green hit a season-high .211 and held Bakersfield to just .113 attacking. The Falcons were a force at the net, posting 17.0 blocks to just 11.5 for the Roadrunners. Both teams had 65 digs and the Falcons added seven aces, one more than Bakersfield.

With the loss, Bakersfield falls to 2-3 on the season. BGSU improves to 1-3 and will play two more matches tomorrow. The Falcons will face IPFW, at 4-0 on the season, at 3 pm and Wright State, at 2-3 on the season, at 8 pm.