Marshall Defeats Bowling Green At Stroh Center Wednesday Night

Wednesday, September 7

Bowling Green, Ohio

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

3-3

Marshall

5-3

Marshall

Bowling Green

September 07, 2016 | Volleyball

Box Score

By: by James Nahikian, BGSU Athletic Communications

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

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team was defeated by Marshall University, 3-0, Wednesday (Sept. 7) evening inside of the Stroh Center. The Thundering Herd won the match in straight sets – 25-14, 25-23, 25-21.

The Falcons had won two-straight matches heading into tonight's action, but drop to 3-3 on the season with the defeat. Marshall improves to 5-3. The contest wraps up a stretch in which the Falcons played six-consecutive home matches to open the 2016 season.

"The credit goes to Marshall. They executed their game plan really well. They are a really good team," said head coach Danijela Tomic. "I knew that after we scouted them, and we had a scouting session this morning with the team, and we told them exactly what they were going to do. And that's what happened – unfortunately we couldn't stop their game."

Overall, the Falcons' attack struggled throughout the evening. Bowling Green hit .214 (36-15-98) as a team, posted 29 digs to Marshall's 40, and committed nine service errors. The Thundering Herd hit .369 (49-11-96). MU's Ally Kiekover tallied 16 kills and hit .714, while Madison Hill hit .692 with nine kills.

Seniors Alyssa Maloney and Jelena Sunjic played extremely strong in the loss. Maloney hit .600 (13-1-20). Sunjic added 10 kills and hit .400 (10-2-20). Katie Scholten registered 30 assists and recorded five digs. Madeline Garda led the team in digs with eight. Isabel Kovacic chipped in with six kills, while Kallie Seimet contributed with six digs.

After Marshall stormed out of the gates with a 25-14 opening set victory, the Falcons had their chances to climb right back into the match, but dropped a close second set, 25-23. Bowling Green even led the set early on, 12-8.

Marshall would fight back, however, to claim a 17-15 lead, before a Sunjic kill gave BGSU a 23-22 advantage. With BGSU on the brink of tying things up at one set apiece, the Thundering Herd scored three-straight points to take a commanding lead into the intermission.

MU then scored the first five points of the third set, but the Falcons did not quit. BGSU pulled within one at 9-8 after a set error, and stayed within a point over the next few rallies, but Marshall again jumped out in front by a score of 15-11.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, Marshall maintained a multiple-point lead for the duration of the set. Bowling Green made things interesting after a Jessi Holly kill made the score, 23-20, but Marshall closed things out by scoring two of the final three points.

Bowling Green will travel to the EIU Panther Classic this weekend for three matches, beginning with a Sept. 9 match at 5 p.m. versus Louisiana Tech. The Orange and Brown will then battle Eastern Illinois and Drake on Sept. 10.