RedHawks Defeat the Falcons in Straight Sets in MAC East Play

Thursday, October 8

Oxford, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

5-13; 1-4

Miami

12-6; 4-1

Bowling Green

Miami

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

October 08, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF)
Box Score (HTML)

Oxford, Ohio – Freshman Kallie Seimet and junior Madeline Garda each posted double digit digs, while Jelena Sunjic registered double digit kills as the Falcons fell on the road at Miami in straight sets 25-21, 25-20 and 25-15 in MAC East play on Thursday night in Millett Hall in Oxford, Ohio.

Despite posting more attacks than the RedHawks for the match at 124-121, BGSU committed eight serve receive errors and 19 attack errors overall. The Falcons also struggled on side outs, as Miami tallied a side out percentage of 63 percent over the three set match compared to BGSU's 48 percent.

"Our team did a lot of things well in the first two sets. We created opportunities, but unfortunately not converting those opportunities and having a breakdown in serve receive in a couple of rotations cost us both sets. Miami did not allow us to get in any kind of rhythm in the third set by running a very efficient offense and playing relentless defense," commented head coach Danijela Tomic. "We will have to learn from this match, bounce back quickly and get ready to play another tough match on the road against Western Michigan on Saturday."

Behind Sunjic's 12 kills and eight digs was Katie Scholten with a career-high seven kills on an attack percentage of .429 overall, 26 assists, one ace and three digs and fellow sophomore Nicole Slimko with seven kills of her own. Junior Alyssa Maloney recorded four total blocks at the net, while Seimet and Garda finished with 18 and 13 digs apiece, respectively.

Miami had a balanced attack on Thursday night, as five different players totaled six kills or more for the match led by Katie Tomasic's team-high eight kills. The setter combo of Mackenzie Zielinski and Krista Brakauskas combined for 31 assists, while Zielinski had four service aces and Brakauskas finished with a match-high 18 digs.

BGSU opened the match up with kills from Sunjic and Isabel Kovacic to take an early 2-0 lead in the first set and then used two more kills from Sunjic over the next five services to hold on to a slight 4-3 lead over the RedHawks.

Following an Annie Reiswig kill to tie the match up at 4-4, the home team in white outscored the Falcons 7-3 over the next 10 serves to take an 11-7 lead and force a BGSU timeout. During that Miami run, all three BGSU points came by way of three Scholten kills.

Out of the timeout, the Falcons fell behind by as much as five at 12-7, yet battled back with kills from Sunjic and Maloney, followed by a solo block by Maloney and an ace from Scholten to cut the RedHawks' lead to just one at 12-11 midway through the first set.

A Miami spike from Jenny Ingle thwarted the Falcons' attempt to retie the set up and jump-started four straight points from the RedHawks to push the home team back out in front by five at 16-11 on a BGSU error.

Bowling Green was able to get within two at 19-17 on a Madeline Brandewie kill and a Kovacic service ace and then again at 20-18 on a MU attack error before the RedHawks closed the set out on a 5-3 advantage to hold on for the 25-21 first set victory.

The Falcons erased an early 2-0 deficit with kills from Slimko and Sunjic to tie the second set up at 3-3 early.

Following a Miami spike to put the score at 4-3 in favor of the RedHawks, BGSU got three straight kills from Kovacic, Scholten and Sunjic to propel the visitors in orange in front by two at 6-4.

A 6-3 scoring spurt by the Falcons over the next nine serves, highlighted by blocks from Sunjic, Maloney and Scholten, helped the Falcons extend their lead to five at 12-7.

After the two teams traded points to put the Falcons in front by five at 13-8, the RedHawks took advantage of a BGSU service error for the first of eight straight points to fly past the Falcons and pull back out in front by three at 16-13 and force a Falcons' timeout.

Back-to-back points out of the break on a Slimko slam and a block from the duo of Kovacic and Maloney put the Falcons down just one at 16-15.

BGSU closed the gap to one at 19-18 on a Kovacic ace and at 21-20 on a Slimko kill, yet couldn't wrestle the lead away from the home standing RedHawks who finished the set out on a 4-0 run to defeat the Falcons 25-20 in the second set.

The start of the third set did not go the way BGSU had planned, as Miami ran out to a 7-1 lead on three service aces and a kill from Paige Hill.

The Falcons clawed back into within five at 13-8 on a Sunjic kill, but struggled to find any type of offensive rhythm in the third set and fell behind by eight at 16-8 on another Miami service ace.

The two teams then traded points back-and-forth for the majority of the set until two consecutive kills by Miami gave the home team a double digit lead on the way to a 25-15 set victory and a 3-0 sweep.

BGSU had 6.0 total team blocks on the night, however, Miami totaled 9.0 blocks overall.

The Falcons (5-13, 1-4 MAC) will remain on the road to take on the Western Michigan Broncos on Saturday night, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m. ET in Kalamazoo, Mich.

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