Falcons Advance! BGVB Sweeps Buffalo To Move On To MAC Championship

Monday, November 21

Muncie, Ind.

7:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

21-9,15-3MAC

No. 6 Buffalo

19-13,10-8MAC

Buffalo

Bowling Green

Photo by: Mallory Hiser, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Advance! BGVB Sweeps Buffalo To Move On To MAC Championship

November 21, 2022 | Volleyball

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By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

MUNCIE, Ind. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball program completed the 3-0 sweep over the Buffalo Bulls in the MAC Tournament Semifinals Monday night (Nov. 21) to advance to the MAC Championship. The Falcons battled the Bulls to a 25-22 score in the first set before capturing a 25-16 set score in both the second and third sets to complete the sweep. With the win, the Falcons advance to their fourth consecutive MAC Championship, facing Ball State Tuesday (Nov. 22) for a 4:30 p.m. start on ESPN+.

The Falcons were paced by yet another efficient attack, finishing the match with a .407 attack percentage. Bowling Green started with a .432 attack percentage in the first set and logged a .500 mark in the third set. As a team, BGSU had just three attack errors in the first set, two in the second and one in the third. Lauryn Hovey paced the attack with 13 kills on a .550 attack percentage while Petra Indrova and Mia Tyler each added 10 kills.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 25, Buffalo 22

The Falcons quickly broke out to a 4-1 lead in the first set, started by a Lauryn Hovey kill and capped off by two from Mia Tyler.
A 3-0 run by Buffalo later in the set evened the score at 7-7, but the Falcons were able to move back ahead with kills from Petra Indrova and Hovey.
The two teams began trading points before two Buffalo points tied it up at 11-11. The trading of points resumed from there, alternating between a one-point BGSU lead and a tie.
The Falcons were able to tally two points just before the media timeout, taking a 15-13 lead into the break.
Bowling Green added to their lead with back-to-back points soon after the media break, forcing Buffalo to take a timeout with the score at 18-15 BGSU.
BGSU maintained the lead and added a point to the advantage on an ace by Hovey before Buffalo burned their second timeout of the set, trailing the Falcons 23-19.
Buffalo made a late push, but the Falcons were able to stay in front for the 25-22 first set score.

Set 2: Bowling Green 25, Buffalo 16

The Falcons logged the first point of the second set, but Buffalo answered with a 4-0 run to move out in front 4-1.
Bowling Green put together a 7-1 stretch of their own, including a 5-0 run, to move out in front 9-6 in the set and prompt an early Buffalo timeout.
The run continued through the timeout for the Falcons, logging the first two points to bring the run to 7-0, the stretch to 9-1 and the lead to 11-6.
The Bulls answered with a 3-0 run, bringing the score to 11-9, but the Falcons responded with a 4-0 run to increase the BGSU lead to 15-9 and force another Buffalo timeout.
The advantage remained for the Falcons, stretching to 23-14 with a 4-1 stretch late in the set.
Bowling Green stayed in front to capture a 25-16 second set score to go up 2-0 for the match.

Set 3: Bowling Green 25, Buffalo 16

The third set began close as well before a 3-0 BGSU run created space at 7-5 Falcons, but the Bulls rattled off two points to tie it back up at 7-7.
Bowling Green responded with another 5-0 run to swing the score back in favor of the Falcons at 12-7.
The lead held for BGSU going into the media timeout of the set, leading 15-10.
Out of the media break, the Falcons went on a 3-1 stretch to increase the score to 18-11 and force a timeout from the Bulls.
The Falcons pushed through to the end of the set, taking a score of 25-16 to complete the sweep.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Lauryn Hovey (13)
Assists: Jaden Walz (13)
Digs: Yelianiz Torres (20)
Aces: Yelianiz Torres (2)
Blocks: Jessica Andrews (4)

Falcon Stat Facts

Yelianiz Torres logged her 12th 20-dig match of the season, ending with exactly 20 digs. Torres is now up to 537 digs this season, tying her for 10th in program history for the most digs in a single season. Torres also landed two of BGSU's five team aces.
Coming off her MAC Freshman of the Year recognition, Lauryn Hovey led the Falcons in kills with 13, having just two errors on 20 attacks for a team-high, and career-high, .550 attack percentage.
Petra Indrova and Mia Tyler each landed 10 kills for the Falcons while both finished with an attack percentage north of .400. Indrova came one dig shy of a double-double and surpassed 300 kills on the season while Tyler recorded a team-high 23 attacks.
Katelyn Meyer registered 16 attacks for the Falcons, bringing her career total to 4,999 career attacks. Meyer is just one attack shy of becoming the program's first player to reach 5,000 career attack attempts.
Jessica Andrews led the team in blocks with four, recording one solo and three assists. Andrews added three kills on six attacks for an efficient .500 attack percentage.
Jaden Walz paced the BGSU attack with 13 assists while adding seven digs to her stat line. Hanna Laube added 10 to the effort as well.
The Falcons have now hit .400 or higher in two straight matches and have finished with an attack percentage of .333 or higher in four of the last seven matches.
With the win, the Falcons advance to the MAC Championship for the fourth consecutive season and the third time facing Ball State over that stretch.

Coach Tomic's Take
"Tonight's win showcased not just lots of talent that we have but more importantly the teamwork and love that we have for each other. That was best displayed in the relentless team defense which created opportunities for our offense to shine, and on the sidelines where everyone was as encouraging and engaged as those on the floor playing.

We are thrilled to earn the opportunity to play for a championship tomorrow. Accomplishing that four years in a row is not easy to do and the credit goes to all of our past and current players who have helped us build a second-to-none championship culture at BGSU."

Up Next
The Falcons will advance to the MAC Championship against Ball State on Tuesday (Nov. 22) with a 4:30 p.m. start in Muncie. The game will be available to stream on ESPN+.

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