Scholten Eclipses 1,000 Career Assists Mark, as BGSU Wins on the Road at Akron, 3-2

Saturday, November 7

Akron, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

7-20, 3-11MAC

Akron

8-19, 2-12MAC

Bowling Green

Akron

Photo by: Bianca Garza, BGSU Marketing and Communications

Scholten Eclipses 1,000 Career Assists Mark, as BGSU Wins on the Road at Akron, 3-2

November 07, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, BGSU Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Final Stats: Box Score (PDF)
Final Stats: Box Score (HTML)

Akron, Ohio – Sophomore setter Katie Scholten surpassed the 1,000 career assists mark on Saturday night, as the Falcons went on the road to defeat Akron 3-2 in another five set thriller at the James A. Rhoades Arena in Akron, Ohio.

Bowling Green defeated the Zips by the scores of 25-20, 23-25, 25-13, 23-25 and 15-5 to complete the season sweep of Akron and improve to 5-3 overall in five set matches overall on the season.

"Our young team showed a lot of character today. We were able to put yesterday's loss behind us, learn from our mistakes and show a lot of fight and resilience in today's win," head coach Danijela Tomic commented. "The keys for our success were reducing our errors and winning the serve and pass game, so we can side out much faster and not allow Akron long scoring runs. We did all that really well in the sets we won, especially in the fifth set when it mattered the most."

After hitting just .096 in a loss to Buffalo last night, the Falcons offense was much more efficient on Saturday evening, as BGSU posted a team attack percentage of .250 over the five set match and totaled just 19 attack errors compared to 33 a night ago at UB last time out.

The Falcons also tallied seven service aces and registered 72 digs overall for the match, 10 more digs than the Zips recorded on the night.

Scholten passed out a total of 47 assists on the night to eclipse the 1,000 career assists mark in her first year as the setter during her two seasons at BGSU. The sophomore, who ended the match with 1,019 career assists, also picked up 13 digs to give her six double-doubles on the season.

BGSU outside hitter Jelena Sunjic matched her career-high in kills with 25 spikes, as she posted an attack percentage of .400 overall for the match. Fellow outside hitter Nicole Slimko chipped in with 13 kills, while defensively, the Falcons were led by Kallie Seimet's match-high 27 digs and defensive specialist Madeline Garda's 13 digs.

Akron had two players with double digit kills in Kayla Gwozdz with 18 and Anna Wenger with 16 spikes, as the Zips were held to an attack percentage of just .119 overall for the match. Setter Karley Kusan finished with a double-double of 39 assists and 17 digs, while libero Brenna Mack totaled 13 digs overall over the four set match.

The start of the match saw errors dictate the score early, until kills from Sunjic and Alyssa Maloney, followed by an Akron attack error, gave the visitors an early 6-3 lead in the first set.

BGSU pushed its lead to four on several occasions at 8-4, 10-6 and 11-7, before a Slimko spike increased the Falcons' lead to five at 12-7 in the opening set.

An Isabel Kovacic kill extended the visitors' lead to six at 14-8 and forced Akron to call its first timeout of the match.

After BGSU took a 16-11 lead on a Seimet service ace and Akron took its second timeout of the set, the Zips took advantage of back-to-back Falcon miscues to close the gap to three at 16-13.

That would be as close as the Falcons would allow the Zips to get for the remainder of the set, as BGSU answered each Akron run with one of its own to stay on top of the home team and score the final two points of the set to hold on for the 25-20 first set win.

The Falcons scored first to take a 1-0 lead to start the second set and then flew out to a 9-4 lead on back-to-back Akron offensive mistakes.

The Orange and Brown continued to hold on to the second set lead for the next several rallies in the set until a timeout from Akron seemed to shift the momentum over to the side of the home team.

With a 16-10 lead on a Sunjic kill, BGSU watched as the Zips came out of their timeout with a kill from Wenger to start an 8-1 scoring surge and take an 18-17 lead on a Falcon attack error.

BGSU scored the next three points, which included a solo block by Scholten, to give the Falcons the lead back at 20-18.

The end of the set saw ties at 20-20, 21-21, and 23-23, before Akron picked up a kill from Kelsey Wilson and used a BGSU error to steal the second set win at 25-23 and tie the match up at 1-1.

With the match tied at 1-1, BGSU scored the first eight points to start the third set, including two kills apiece from both Sunjic and Kovacic, as well as two straight service aces from Garda, to take an early 8-0 lead.

Despite back-to-back points from the Zips, which ended the BGSU run, the Falcons did not look back and rather pushed its lead back out to eight at 16-8 on an Akron error.

A solo stuff at the net by Sunjic gave the Falcons a nine point lead at 18-9, before another Zips' mistake put the BGSU lead at double digits at 19-9.

The Falcons finished the set out with a 6-4 edge, including scoring five of the final six points, to take the 2-1 match lead with a dominating 25-13 third set win.

The fourth set proved to be the tightest set of the match, as the game saw 11 ties and seven lead changes overall.

BGSU opened the set up with a Kovacic kill, before six ties and five lead changes put the score at 7-6 in favor of the Akron Zips.

After Akron pushed its lead out to as much as three, the Falcons clawed back into the set to tie the game up at 10-10 on a 3-0 run, highlighted by a kill from Slimko.

However, the Falcons were unable to retake the lead, as the Zips zipped back out to a three point lead at 13-10 and then again at 18-15 to force a BGSU timeout.

Coach Tomic's squad answered out of the break with a 5-0 run, capped off by another Slimko spike, to take a 20-18 lead late in the set.

Back-to-back Akron points tied the set back up at 20-20, as the two teams went back-and-forth until a Falcon error gave the Zips set point at 24-22.

Following a Slimko kill to put BGSU down just one at 24-23, another Falcon error handed the 25-23 set win to the Zips and tied the match up at 2-2 heading into the fifth and final set.

That fifth set was dominated by the Falcons from start to finish, as BGSU flew out to a 5-1 lead on a Sunjic kill and then added two more points to take a 7-1 lead on two straight Akron miscues.

After a Kovacic kill gave the Falcons an 8-2 lead midway through the fifth set, BGSU refused to let Akron back into the game and cruised to the 15-5 fifth set win to take the 3-2 match victory.

The win was the Falcons first true road win of the season.

Bowling Green (7-20, 3-11 MAC) will be back in action on Thursday, Nov. 12, as the Falcons will host Miami (Ohio) at 7 p.m. at the Stroh Center.

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