Falcons Open 2018 Season At Purdue For Mortar Board Premier

Friday, August 24

West Lafayette, Ind.

12:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

0-1

Tulsa

1-0

Bowling Green

TLS

August 24, 2018 | Volleyball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

By: by Jason Knavel, Assistant Athletic Director for Athletic Communications

Muncie, Ind. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team opened the 2018 season Friday with a pair of matches at the Purdue Mortar Board Premier. The Falcons lost their opening match to Tulsa 25-21, 25-12, 25-22 before dropping the finale to No. 23 Purdue 25-16, 25-15, 25-20.

TULSA
Highlights

After trailing for the entirety of the opening set, BGSU fell behind 2-0 in the second. But the Falcons rallied with four straight points to take a brief lead.
The match was mired by two long delays midway through the second set with Tulsa clinging to a 10-8 lead. The Golden Hurricane scored seven of the next eight points, weathering the storm of the long delays to take the lead for good.
The Falcons led by as many as six points, at both 10-4 and 11-5, in the third set. The Falcons still led 18-14 before a four-point swing tied the score. The final BG lead came at 20-19 after a Katie Kidwell kill but Tulsa scored the next five points to win the match.

Individual Leaders

Senior Kallie Seimet, the defending NCAA digs leader, finished with 24 digs, an average of 8.0 per set. No other player on either team had more than 18.
Freshman Katelyn Meyer had nine kills in her debut, adding seven digs.
Sophomore Katie Kidwell led the Falcons with 11 kills and a .360 attack percentage.
Redshirt freshman Taylor Haberland debuted with the two service aces, the only Falcon aces of the match, and nine digs.

In Her Words

"Tulsa is a very good team and played well against us. In contrast, we played out of character and not as well as we know our team can play. We struggled offensively and our hitters could not terminate the ball and score despite our solid serve receive and defense. We will use this as a learning experience, put it behind us, and focus on our next opponent and opportunity to grow as a team." – Head Coach Danijela Tomic

PURDUE
Highlights

While there was not a whole lot that went right for the Falcons in the first two sets, BGSU bounced back quickly in the third set.
BGSU won the first two points before Purdue answered with a 3-0 run. The Falcons then scored three in a row of their own and led for the majority of the first half of the set.
An Isabel Kovacic kill gave the Falcons a 14-11 lead and forced the Boilermakers to call a timeout.
Purdue came out of the stoppage and scored six of the next eight points to take a lead and the Falcons never fully recovered.

Individual Leaders

Katelyn Meyer led the team with 11 kills and hit .206 for the match, better than the team's .057 attack percentage.
Paulina Iacobelli had all three of the team's service aces.
Kallie Seimet finished with a match-high 16 digs.

UP NEXT

Bowling Green closes out the Purdue Mortar Board Premier Saturday against Wofford at noon.
The Falcons will then play their home opener Tuesday night against Oakland at 6 pm as the team unveils their MAC Championship and NIVC qualifier banners.