Falcons Win Fourth-Straight Match With Sweep Over Valparaiso

Tuesday, September 13

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

7-3

Valparaiso

6-5

Valparaiso

Bowling Green

September 13, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Coach Tomic Post-Match Interview / Match Highlights
Photo Gallery (Bianca Garza)
Statistics: NCAA Box/Play-By-Play (.PDF) | HTML

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team swept Valparaiso, 3-0, Tuesday (Sept. 13) night at the Stroh Center. Bowling Green has now won four-straight matches to improve to 7-3 on the season. BGSU's seventh win equals its total from the 2015 season.

The Falcons won the match by a score of 25-8; 25-23; 25-21. The Falcons handled the Crusaders in the opening set, erased a 7-2 deficit in the second set, and won a third set that saw 17 ties and five lead changes.

"It's great to see our team finding a way to win," said head coach Danijela Tomic. "It's not always pretty. We can look very good like we did in the first set, but then we find a way. We don't give up no matter what the difference is in the points. We fight, and we found a way."

Madeline Garda, who leads the entire country in digs/set, bumped her total from 6.09 to 6.24 with 24 digs. Isabelle Marciniak posted 29 assists and added seven digs. Kallie Seimet also posted seven digs.

Isabel Kovacic led BGSU in kills with 13, and also hit a team-best .393 (13-2-28). Jelena Sunjic totaled 11 kills and hit .269 (11-4-26). Holly, who racked up double-digit kills for the fourth-straight match, picked up 11 kills and hit .222 (11-3-36).

Alyssa Maloney hit .267 (6-2-15) and tallied six kills. Victoria Iacobelli saw action and chipped in with two digs, while Katie Scholten added six assists.

The Falcons absolutely dominated the opening set. BGSU scored the first eight points of the match, and owned leads of 14-1, 17-3 and 20-7 before taking the set, 25-8. Holly and Maloney got off to quick starts offensively, recording five kills apiece. Marciniak picked up 10 assists, and Seimet led the team in digs with six, but Garda was close behind with five.

Bowling Green trailed in the second set, 7-2, only to score seven of the next nine points to even things up at 9-9. But the Crusaders seized control of the set once again, racing back out to a 19-14 lead. Following two Valparaiso attack errors, two Kovacic kills and a Holly service ace, however, the Falcons tied the score once again at 19-19.

The Crusaders scored the next two points, but BGSU refused to go away, and evened the second set up, 21-21, following a Kovacic kill. With the score later tied, 23-23, Sunjic and Holly recorded consecutive kills to give the Falcons a commanding 2-0 lead at the intermission.

Garda had a big set with eight digs, running her total for the match to 13. She finished the match with 11 more digs in the third. Kovacic picked up six kills in the second set, while Sunjic notched five.

Both schools virtually traded points the entire third set. But with the set tied at 21-21, the Falcons proceeded to score four-straight points to secure the sweep. Holly gave BGSU a 22-21 advantage with a kill, and later wrapped up the match with a service ace.

The Falcons will conclude the non-conference portion of their schedule this weekend at the UIC Invitational. BGSU will face UMass-Lowell on Sept. 16 at 4:30 p.m. The Orange and Brown will then conclude the invitational on Sept. 17 with matches against SIUE (1:30 p.m.) and Illinois-Chicago (6 p.m.).