Bowling Green Tops Tennessee For First Victory Of 2022 Season

Saturday, August 27

Knoxville, Tenn.

11:00 AM

Bowling Green State University

RV Tennessee

Photo by: Luke Allen, BGSU Athletics

August 27, 2022 | Volleyball

Box Score BGSU-Tennessee Box Score Support Our Student-Athletes

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball program topped the Tennessee Lady Volunteers in four sets on Saturday (Aug. 27) to tally the Falcons' first win of the 2022 season. The Falcons and Volunteers, who entered the weekend receiving votes in the national rankings, needed extra points to settle the first set before BGSU took the second set to go up 2-0. A close and hard fought third set went to the Volunteers after more extra points were needed, but the Falcons closed the door in the fourth set for the 3-1 victory.

On the attack, the Falcons were led by Katelyn Meyer and Petra Indrova who landed 17 and 16 kills, respectively. As a team, BGSU swatted down a total of 12 blocks. Indrova and Jaden Walz chipped in double-doubles in the effort as well. The Falcons, now 1-2, will return to the Stroh Center for their next set of matches, hosting the Falcon Invitational presented by Hampton Inn on Sept. 1-3, facing Northern Kentucky, Western Kentucky and DePaul over the three days.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 26, Tennessee 24

The Falcons and Lady Volunteers traded points early in the set before a 4-1 run gave BGSU a lead at 12-11. The Orange and Brown were able to hold a 15-14 lead going into the media timeout, including Katelyn Meyer starting the contest with five kills on seven attacks.
The Lady Vols used a 3-0 run to jump ahead 17-16, but a pair of points for the Falcons, including an ace by Alexis Mettille, put BGSU back in front 18-17, resulting in a Tennessee timeout.
The points continued to sway between the two teams until a Bowling Green timeout down 22-21. Two points out of the timeout for BGSU pushed the Falcons back in front 23-22.
The trading of points forced extra points in the set. After a 24-24, Bowling Green rallied for two straight points to take the first set of the match.

Set 2: Bowling Green 25, Tennessee 16

The Falcons came out firing in the second set, jumping out to a quick 6-1 lead, including five straight points, with momentum on their side after taking the first set. The lead extended out to 9-3 for Bowling Green.
The Lady Volunteers worked their way back into the set, but a 3-0 run for the Falcons pushed the lead back to 16-11, resulting in a timeout for Tennessee.
BGSU was able to maintain the lead, scoring four of the last five points of the set to secure the set win at 25-16.

Set 3: Tennessee 28, Bowling Green 26

The Falcons continued to carry the momentum to start the third set, beginning with back-to-back aces by Jaden Walz before a Katelyn Meyer kill put Bowling Green up 3-0.
A 3-0 run for the Lady Vols tied the set up at 5-5. After a few points were traded, Tennessee had another 3-0 run to forge ahead 8-6.
Just a few points later, BGSU had a 3-0 run of their own to get back in front 12-10 and force a Tennessee timeout.
Out of the timeout, Tennessee went on a 4-0 run to take a 14-12 lead with Bowling Green taking a timeout of their own.
Tennessee continued to slowly add to their lead with BGSU taking another timeout with the score 20-15.
The Orange and Brown were able to go on a run of their own out of the timeout, narrowing the gap to 21-19 before Tennessee used a timeout. BGSU logged three of the next four points after the timeout to tie it up at 22-22 before another tie at 24-24.
Needing extra points, Tennessee squeaked past with a 28-26 set score to force a fourth.

Set 4: Bowling Green 25, Tennessee 22

The fourth set began with two-point runs. The Falcons tallied the first two, followed by two from the Lady Vols before five points for BGSU put the Orange and Brown up 7-2.
The Falcons were able to hold the lead before adding on a 4-0 run that included another pair of back-to-back aces from Jaden Walz. Tennessee answered with a timeout, seeing the score at 14-8.
Tennessee started to work their way back, but a 3-0 run pushed the score back to 18-11 in favor of BGSU.
A 4-0 run for the Lady Volunteers drew the score close at 21-17 with the Falcons calling timeout.
The Falcons pulled out to a 24-18 lead, but four straight points for Tennessee closed the lead to 24-22 and forced another BGSU timeout. The timeout proved useful as a service error on the next point gave the Falcons the victory.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Katelyn Meyer (17)
Assists: Jaden Walz (29)
Digs: Yelianiz Torres (16)
Aces: Jaden Walz (4)
Blocks: Jessica Andrews, Alexis Mettille (3.5)

Falcon Stat Facts

Jaden Walz tallied a team-high 29 assists along with 10 digs for one of two BGSU double-doubles in the match. The double-double marks the third of Walz's career, having one each season as a Falcon thus far.
Petra Indrova logged a double-double for BGSU as well, landing 16 kills in addition to 10 digs. Indrova had 14 double-doubles during the 2021 campaign for the Orange and Brown.
Walz was also able to land a team-high four aces for the Falcons. Walz not only broke her single-match-high with the four aces, but matched her career-high for aces in a season, having four in all of 2021.
Freshman Lauryn Hovey was dominant at the net for Bowling Green, tallying six block assists for the Orange and Brown.
Alexis Mettille tallied one solo block and five block assists for the Falcons as well, setting a new single-match career-high. Mettille also had four kills on seven attack attempts for a hitting percentage of .571.
The Falcons saw three players reach double-digit kills with Katelyn Meyer leading the way with 17. Indrova was close behind with 16 and Kat Mandly added 12 to the team's efforts.

Quote From Coach Tomic
"We are so proud of our team's performance today and the BG Warrior mindset that was on display today. We showed how relentless and tough we are when we play in the present moment, one point at a time. We showed that we learned from yesterday's setbacks and are a hard team to beat when we play together, and with joy and enthusiasm. Our aggressive serving helped us play better defense, and the improvement was especially visible in blocking. Our setters did a great job running offense after our defense and serve receive created opportunities for us. I loved our attack mentality which combined with efficiency gave us the outcome we wanted."

Up Next
The Falcons will open up the home portion of their schedule with their next match, set to host Northern Kentucky at the Stroh Center on Sept. 1. The match will serve as the starting point for the Falcon Invitational presented by the Hampton Inn and is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. The Falcons will also face Western Kentucky and DePaul over the course of the weekend.

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