Volleyball Falls at Home to Buffalo 3-1 on Saturday Night

Saturday, October 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-12, 1-3MAC

Buffalo (Youth Sports Night) (Findlay Night)

3-13, 2-2MAC

Buffalo

Bowling Green

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

October 03, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (HTML)
Box Score (PDF)
Video: Post Match Interview with Coach Tomic
Photos: Photo Gallery (Ruben Kappler, BGSU Marketing & Communications)

Bowling Green, Ohio – Despite a career-high in digs from freshman Kallie Seimet and a double-double from junior outside hitter Jelena Sunjic, the Falcons struggled with its offensive consistency and rhythm in a 3-1 loss to the Buffalo Bulls in MAC East play on Saturday night at the Stroh Center.

Buffalo defeated the Falcons 25-19, 21-25, 25-18 and 25-18 to drop BGSU to 5-12 on the year and 1-3 in the MAC.

"It's a disappointing loss. You never want to lose at home and we thought that we had a good shot at Buffalo. I have to give credit to Buffalo – to their team, their girls played very hard and it seemed like they just wanted it a little bit more and played a little bit harder to win. It is just disappointing," commented head coach Danijela Tomic. "There are no excuses. We were just really flat in those three sets that we lost."

Seimet tallied a career-high 28 digs, while defensive specialist Madeline Garda added 14 digs defensively for the Falcons who also totaled 10.0 team blocks on the night. Sunjic posted her third double-double of the season with 16 kills and 15 digs, while fellow junior Alyssa Maloney added seven kills and four block assists. Setter Katie Scholten passed out 39 assists, while Nicole Slimko and Isabel Kovacic finished with nine and eight kills apiece, respectively.

Buffalo had four players in double figures led by Megan Lipski's match-high 17 points. Lipski also finished with 18 digs on the night. Cassie Shado chipped in with 12 kills, while Valisha Watkins and Megan Wernette recorded 11 and 10 kills each.

The Falcons registered seven less attack errors (27-20) than the Bulls for the match, however Buffalo had 18 more attacks (164-146) and totaled 12 more kills as a team overall.

Both teams struggled out of the opening serve, as each team posted an attack error to start the set and traded points back-and-forth until a Sunjic kill and a block from Madeline Brandewie and Scholten pushed the Falcons in front by two at 6-4.

Buffalo bulled its way back into the set to tie the frame up at 6-6, 7-7 and 8-8, before two straight slams from Sunjic and Slimko again propelled BGSU in front by two at 10-8.

BGSU held a two point lead at 11-9 and 12-10 on kills from Kovacic and Maloney, only to see the Bulls retie the set up at 13-13 and then again at 14-14 before three straight attack errors by the Falcons allowed Buffalo to retake the lead at 17-14.

Out of a BGSU timeout, the Bulls extended its lead to five at 19-14 and held off the Falcons to close out the set with a 25-19 win on an ace from Tessa Ooyama.

The second set proved to be much like the first, as the two teams went point-for-point to start the set until a kill from Scholten sparked a 6-0 surge for BGSU who ran out to a 10-4 lead on a Kovacic ace and a Buffalo error.

The two teams went back and forth with the Falcons holding on to a six point lead at 12-6 on another Slimko spike when the Bulls strung together eight straight points to pull in front by two at 14-12 on a Watkins kill.

After a Garda service ace tied the set up at 15-15, BGSU was able to retake the lead at 18-17 on a bad set by the Bulls.

The tight match continued with the Bulls knotting the set back up at 18-18, before a kill from Sunjic jump-started a 5-1 run to give the Orange and Brown a 23-19 lead on a Maloney spike.

Buffalo trimmed the BGSU lead to two at 23-21, yet the Falcons refused to relinquish the lead, as a Sunjic kill and a Scholten ace sealed the 25-21 victory for BGSU and tied the match up at 1-1.

The Falcons would struggle with their offensively efficiency for the remainder of the match, as BGSU fell behind at the start of the third set 8-4 on a Wernette kill.

Following a Falcons' timeout, the home team got to within one of the Bulls at 9-8 on a UB error, at 11-10 on a Slimko kill, at 12-11 on a Slimko stuff at the net, and at 13-12 on a Kovacic kill.

However, BGSU couldn't overtake the Bulls on the scoreboard and after a Sunjic slam put the Falcons down just one point once again at 14-13, the visitors in blue used an 8-3 scoring run to power their way out to a 22-14 lead on a Watkins spike.

BGSU would narrow the gap to five at 23-18 on a kill from Slimko, but saw back-to-back errors hand the Bulls the 25-18 set win.

In the fourth set, BGSU flew out to a 4-1 lead on a block from Sunjic and Maloney, only to see a service error give side out to Buffalo who took advantage with a 7-1 run to take an 8-5 lead on an ace from Ooyama.

The Falcons picked up a kill from Kovacic, a block from Sunjic and a point from a UB service error to get to within one at 9-8, but again was unable to grasp the lead from the visitors in blue.

Buffalo pushed its lead out to as much as five at 15-10 until a Niki Bozinoski ace and a Lipski kill extended the Bulls' lead to seven at 18-11.

A kill from Sunjic ended the run and was one of four straight points for BGSU who refused to quit and cut the Buffalo lead to three at 18-15.

BGSU would get to within three once again at 19-16, yet couldn't put together a series of points which allowed Buffalo to pull away for the 25-18 set win and the 3-1 match victory.

After posting 13 service aces in the win over Akron on Friday, BGSU tallied just five aces to seven errors in the service area on Saturday night.

Bowling Green will return to the road to continue MAC East Divisional play on Thursday, Oct. 8, at Miami at 7 p.m.

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