Falcons Take Down Notre Dame for First Win of the Season

Saturday, August 29

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

11:00 AM

Bowling Green State University

1-2

Notre Dame

0-1

Bowling Green

Notre Dame

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

August 29, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF)
Box Score (HTML)

Murfreesboro, Tenn. – Led by a team attack percentage of .276 overall and a total of 12 team blocks for the match, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team knocked off the Notre Dame Fighting Irish out of the Atlantic Coast Conference 3-1 on day two of the Blue Raider Bash hosted by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

The win is BGSU's first of the young 2015 season, as the Falcons improve to 1-2 on the year. With the loss Notre Dame starts the season at 0-1.

BGSU took the match from the Irish in four sets at 25-27, 25-15, 25-17 and 25-20.

The win is the Falcons' first over a Power 5 Conference member since defeating Indiana in 2012 and is the first win over an ACC opponent since beating Maryland in 2001.

"This was a huge win for our young team!" stated head coach Danijela Tomic. "I am so proud of the effort, teamwork and resilience that we showed. We were able to put two losses from yesterday behind us, learn from it, and get on the court today with a mission to start the match strong and play to win."

Junior Jelena Sunjic totaled a match-high 18 kills, one off her career-high, and posted 10 digs for her first double-double of the season. Following Sunjic's lead, sophomore setter Katie Scholten tallied her first double-double as a Falcon with 43 assists, a career-high, and 12 digs, while fellow sophomore Nicole Slimko posted 12 kills and a .345 attack percentage in the win.

Junior Madeline Garda posted a match-high 25 digs, while Alyssa Maloney posted 12 kills and 10 block assists in the four set bout. BGSU freshman libero Kallie Seimet registered a career-high 19 digs in the win.

Notre Dame had two players in Katie Higgins and Sam Fry each post double digit kills at 13 and 11 spikes, respectively, while setter Maddie Dilfer totaled 42 set assists on the day.

"We showed that our team is maturing and improving from each match. Even though we lost a close first set, we kept our focus, made some necessary adjustments and won the next three," continued Tomic.

The Falcons as a team hit over .250 in all four sets and was able to capitalize on their attack attempts. Defensively, BGSU totaled 12 team blocks, compared to the Irish's 5.5 team blocks, and totaled 81 digs which helped force Notre Dame to hit only .128 as a team overall for the four sets.

For the third straight match, the Falcons got off to a slow start in the opening set, as Notre Dame jumped out to a 7-3 lead on a kill from Rebecca Nunge.

After a kill from Scholten put the score at 7-4, the Fighting Irish pushed its lead back out to five at 10-5 and forced the Falcons to use an early timeout.

The timeout worked for Coach Tomic's squad, as the young Falcons responded with a 9-2 spurt to take a 14-12 lead on a Maloney kill and force the Irish to call a timeout.

The set of runs continued in the opening set, as the Irish battled back to tie the frame up at 18-18 and then eventually retook the set lead at 21-20 on a Falcon error.

The rest of the first set saw the two teams go back-and-forth with BGSU answering every Notre Dame point until back-to-back kills from Higgins and Fry, followed by a Higgins service ace, gave the Irish the 27-25 opening set win.

Down 1-0 heading into the second set, the Falcons refused to roll over to the Power 5 foe, but rather ran off four straight points early in the frame to take a 4-1 lead over ND on a Garda service ace.

Notre Dame would answer with a 7-4 surge over the Falcons to tie the set up at 8-8, only to see the Falcons pick up two kills apiece from Madeline Brandewie and Slimko over the next several possessions to help propel BGSU back out in front by six at 17-11.

A Notre Dame timeout, sandwiched between two Sunjic kills, put the Falcons up by eight at 19-11.

Down the stretch BGSU continued to put pressure on the Irish's offense, as the Falcons finished the set out on a 6-4 edge to take the second set win at 25-15 on a kill from Scholten.

The break between the second and third sets did nothing to slow down the Falcons, as BGSU took an early 2-0 lead on a Sunjic kill and a Garda ace and never looked back, leading from start to finish for the entire third set.

After a kill from Sunjic put the Falcons up four at 6-2, Notre Dame was able to trim the Falcons' lead to three on four different occasions, however, would not get any closer as the Orange and Brown continued to execute its offense efficiently.

Out of a ND timeout, with the score at 15-9 in favor of BGSU, the Falcons pulled away to lead by as much as nine points en route to the 25-17 third set win.

With a 2-1 match lead, the Falcons looked to put the match away in the fourth set, as BGSU overcame a three point Irish lead to tie the set up at 11-11 on back-to-back kills from Sunjic.

A Maloney kill, a BGSU error, and another two Sunjic spikes gave the Falcons the lead at 14-12 and forced an Irish timeout.

Notre Dame cut the Falcons' lead to two at 15-13, yet BGSU was too much for the Irish as the Orange and Brown had an answer for every ND score and held on to come away with the 25-20 set win and the 3-1 match victory.

Bowling Green (1-2) will wrap up the opening weekend of play tonight, as the Falcons will take on Cleveland State at 8:30 p.m. ET in the final match of the day at the Blue Raider Bash.

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