Falcons Fall On The Road To Northern Illinois

Saturday, September 24

DeKalb, Ill.

8:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

10-5, 0-2MAC

Northern Illinois

10-4, 2-0MAC

Bowling Green

NIU

Photo by: JD Pooley

September 24, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Final Statistics: NCAA Box/Play-By-Play | HTML

DeKalb, Ill. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team lost, 3-1, Saturday (Sept. 24) evening to the Northern Illinois University Huskies in DeKalb, Illinois. The Huskies won the match by a score of 14-25; 15-25; 25-16; 16-25. The Falcons fell behind, 2-0, stayed alive by claiming the third set, before NIU secured the victory with a fourth-set victory.

Bowling Green is now 10-5 (0-2 MAC) following the defeat, while Northern Illinois, who was picked to win the MAC West according to the preseason poll, improved to 10-4 (2-0 MAC) with the win.

"I am proud of our team for bouncing back after losing the first two sets, and playing the way I know our team can play," said head coach Danijela Tomic. "Unfortunately, we made too many hitting and serving errors to have a chance to beat a very physical NIU team.

"The positive from this is that some of our young players got very valuable playing experience and our four seniors were true leaders, and overall played well. We will get back to the gym next week and continue working on getting better in the areas that we were exposed in playing two of the toughest teams in the MAC."

Jelena Sunjic led the way offensively for the Falcons, as she posted 19 kills and hit .348 (19-3-46). Alyssa Maloney also posted double-digit kills for the Orange and Brown. Maloney hit .250 (11-5-24) while registering 11 kills.

Isabel Kovacic chipped in with nine kills of her own, and added four digs. Celena Kanagin notched three kills, Nicole Slimko picked up two, while Katie Scholten, who had 10 assists in the match, recorded one kill.

Madeline Garda, who leads the nation in digs per set (6.47) and total digs (343), posted a team-high 21 digs. Garda has picked up at least 20 digs in eight of Bowling Green's last nine's matches. The only match Garda did not hit 20 digs, she picked up 19 in a three-set victory Illinois-Chicago on Sept. 17.

Isabelle Marciniak served the majority of the game as the Falcons' primary setter. Marciniak notched 28 assists. The freshman has now eclipsed the 20-assist mark four times in her young career.

Kallie Seimet added 11 digs for the Orange and Brown. Seimet has now posted double-digit digs in seven matches in 2016. Delaney Arkeilpane aided the cause with five digs, while Paulina Iacobelli and Kovacic had four digs each.

The Orange and Brown will return to the Stroh Center next week for matches against Ohio on Sept. 30 and Kent State on Oct. 1.

After playing three of its first four MAC matches in Bowling Green, the Falcons will play four-consecutive matches on the road, starting with matches at Akron (Oct. 7) and Buffalo (Oct. 8), before rounding things off with trips to Eastern Michigan (Oct. 14) and Central Michigan (Oct. 15).