Falcons Finish BGSU Invitational With 2-0 Record After Victory Over NKU

Saturday, September 3

Bowling Green, Ohio

5:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-2

Northern Kentucky

3-2

Northern Kentucky

Bowling Green

Photo by: Christine Nelson, BGSU Marketing & Communications

Falcons Finish BGSU Invitational With 2-0 Record After Victory Over NKU

September 03, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

Caoch Tomic Post-Match Interview
Statistics: NCAA Box/Play-By-Play | HTML

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team defeated Northern Kentucky, 3-0, Saturday (Sept. 3) night inside of the Stroh Center. With the victory, the Falcons finished the BGSU Invitational with a perfect 2-0 record. Northern Kentucky went 1-1, while Fort Wayne went 0-2. The Falcons won tonight's match – 32-30, 25-9, 25-14.

"This was one of the best matches I think that any of my teams have played, besides winning the MAC Championship in 2012," said head coach Danijela Tomic. "We had a lot of respect for Northern Kentucky. When we scouted them, we thought that they were very dangerous. We didn't know how we were going to match up with their style of play. We felt confident that if we executed our game plan, set the tone and played the way we believe our team can play, that we would win."

Bowling Green is now on a two-match winning streak, having earned sweeps in both victories. The last time BGSU won two-consecutive matches – with both matches being sweeps – was in September of 2012. The 2012 MAC Championship squad swept Ohio (Sept. 21) and Kent State (Sept. 22) in MAC play.

All three of BGSU's wins in 2016 have been sweeps. Since sets were played up to 25 points, which started in 2001, BGSU has never won its first three matches via the sweep.

After the match, Madeline Garda was named the MVP of the BGSU Invitational. Garda posted 17 digs and 15 digs, respectively, in the two matches. Jelena Sunjic, who had 15 kills last night and seven more tonight, was also named to the All-Tournament Team.

Isabel Kovacic had a huge match, as well, as she posted 12 kills and hit .632. She notched seven kills in the final set, and hit a perfect 1.000. Isabelle Marciniak made her Falcon debut in last night's match, but played nearly the entire match tonight. She came on in the first set, and served as the Falcons' primary setter for the rest of the match. She picked up 25 assists, and four digs.

Alyssa Maloney hit very efficiently, as she hit .588 with 12 kills. Jessi Holly registered eight kills.

Bowling Green and Northern Kentucky played a thriller of a first set, with BGSU ultimately taking it by a score of 32-30. After going up, 6-1, NKU tied things up at 9-9. The rest of set was back-and-forth, and there were 18 ties and four lead changes. The two teams traded points from 22-22, all the way up to 30-30. Finally, a team scored two-straight points, as a Holly kill and an NKU attack error gave the Falcons a first-set triumph.

From there, the Falcons rolled. Bowling Green took the next set, 25-9, and the third by a score of 25-14. In the second set, BGSU led, 12-4, 18-6 and 22-8 before scoring four-consecutive points to take a commanding two-set advantage. Offensively, Sunjic (three kills, hit .500), Maloney (four kills, hit .600) and Kovacic (four kills, hit .667) led the Falcons in the second set.

Bowling Green carried that momentum into the third set, and finished off the sweep. After storming out to a 6-2 lead, NKU trimmed it to three points at 12-9. But eight points later, the Orange and Brown led by seven points at 18-11. From there, NKU scored just two more points, as the Falcons notched eight of the remaining 10 points.

The Falcons will play their seventh-straight home match to open the season on Wednesday, Sept. 7, versus Marshall. After three matches at the EIU Panther Classic over Sept. 9-10, BGSU will return to the Stroh Center on Sept. 13 to face Valparaiso.