Falcons Ground Vikings in Five Sets

Saturday, August 29

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

8:30 PM

Bowling Green State University

2-2

Cleveland State

3-1

Bowling Green

Cleveland State

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

August 30, 2015 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by Kevin Davis, Assistant Director for Athletic Communications

Box Score (PDF)
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Murfreesboro, Tenn. – Outside hitters Nicole Slimko and Jelena Sunjic each posted 20-plus kills to lead the Falcons to a 3-2 win over the Cleveland State Vikings on Saturday night at the Blue Raider Bash hosted by Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tenn.

BGSU defeated the Vikings by the scores of 26-28, 25-20, 20-25, 25-12 and 15-11 to move to 2-0 on the day and 2-2 overall on the season. The Vikings fall to 3-1 on the year with the loss.

Three different Falcons recorded an attack average of over .333 for the match, while sophomore Katie Scholten passed out a career-high 49 assists as BGSU dominated the fourth and fifth sets in the 3-2 match win.

"We took a huge step in our team development and growth with the way we performed today. To come back after a huge win against Notre Dame and beat an outstanding and undefeated Cleveland State team in five sets just speaks volumes about the character and mental toughness of our players," commented head coach Danijela Tomic.

Scholten, who posted her second straight double-double with 49 assists and 11 digs, was named to the Blue Raider Bash All-Tournament Team.

Slimko and Sunjic combined for 48 kills out of the 69 that the Falcons registered in the win, as Slimko tallied a match-high 26 spikes and Sunjic posted a career-high 22 kills overall. Freshman Kallie Seimet once again set a new career-high in digs with 20 on the evening, while fellow newcomer Madeline Brandewie had seven block assists on the night.

Cleveland State, who suffered its first loss of the season, had a trio of players with double digit kills led by Christina Toth's 17. Setter Gina Kilner totaled 44 assists and 12 digs, while Dayna Roberts led the Vikings with 18 digs on the night.

The first set would set the tone for the rest of the night, as both teams went back-and-forth in the opening frame.

Bowling Green got on the board first with a kill from Slimko, but fell behind at 7-3 on a kill from CSU's Alexis Middlebrooks. However, the Falcons used spikes from Scholten, Alyssa Maloney and Slimko to tie the set up at 9-9 and then eventually retake the lead on a block by the duo Brandewie and Isabel Kovacic.

Pushing its lead out to as much as four at 19-15, the Falcons were unable to put the set away as the Vikings took advantage of two BGSU errors, a service ace from Shannon Grega and back-to-back kills from Grace Kauth to tie the set up once more at 21-21 on a block by Rachel Stove and Kilner on a BGSU attack.

The Falcons fought off not one, but four set points late in the frame yet couldn't stop the Vikings from taking an opening set win at 28-26 on a kill by Toth.

In familiar territory down 1-0 in the match, the Falcons fell behind early to start the second set at 7-4, but used three kills from Sunjic and a spike from Scholten to fly back and tie the set up at 8-8 and force a CSU timeout.

The two teams traded points over the next seven serves until a back-to-back kills from Kovacic and Sunjic kicked off a 7-2 run by the Falcons who flew out to a four point lead at 17-13 on a block from Maloney.

Following a second CSU timeout, the Falcons pushed their lead out to as much as four and refused to give it back to the Vikings to take a 25-20 set win on a service ace from Madeline Garda.

The third set proved to be much like the first, as CSU took an 6-3 lead on a kill by Toth only to see the Falcons claw back to retake the lead at 9-8 on a service ace from Maloney.

The two teams would tie the set up four more times over the next several rallies until three straight kills from Toth gave the Vikings the lead for good at 15-12.

BGSU struggled to find its rhythm over the remainder of the set as the Vikings led by as much as seven points en route to the 25-20 set win.

With their backs against the wall down 2-1 heading into the fourth set, the Falcons swapped points to start the game, but then watched as Slimko and Sunjic took over, combining for nine kills over the next several plays to push the Orange and Brown out to a 15-8 lead and force a Cleveland State timeout.

The Falcons added a block from Kovacic and Maloney, as well as a kill from Maloney, Scholten and Sunjic to double up the Vikings at 20-10 before finishing the fourth set off on a 5-2 run to win in dominating fashion at 25-12 and send the match to a fifth set.

The fifth set saw three lead changes and eight ties, as the two teams went back-and-forth in the final frame.

BGSU fell behind 2-0 early, yet ran off three straight points to take a 3-2 lead on a block from Brandewie and Sunjic. However, CSU tied the set up at 4-4 and then again at 5-5 on two Kauth kills, before retaking the lead at 6-5 on a block by Toth and Middlebrooks.

Sunjic and Maloney answered with back-to-back kills to put BGSU in front at 7-6 only to see the two teams tie the game up at 7-7, 8-8, 9-9 and 10-10.

The Orange and Brown would not be deterred from a win, as the Falcons ended the match out on a 5-1 run, highlighted by two kills from Sunjic, to come away with the 15-11 set win and the 3-2 match victory.

"It was a fun match to play and to coach because of the quality of both the teams that left everything on the court tonight," Tomic stated.

The Falcons were once again strong at the net, as BGSU tallied 12 total team blocks and posted an attack average of .284 overall as a team. Cleveland State hit just .170 as a team for the match, yet stayed in the contest with the help of 12 BGSU service errors.

Bowling Green (2-2) will next be in action on Sept. 4-5 when the Falcons will host the Hampton Inn Invitational at the Stroh Center.

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