Falcons Open Mo and Jon Stansbery Court With Sweep Over Chicago State

Friday, August 30

Bowling Green, Ohio

6 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

1-0,0-0MAC

Chicago State

0-1,0-0NEC

Chicago St.

Bowling Green

Photo by: Avery Zuercher, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Open Mo and Jon Stansbery Court With Sweep Over Chicago State

August 30, 2024 | Volleyball

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BGVB Wins Home Opener For Sixth Straight Season

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

Ziggyville Population: 184
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team opened up the 2024 campaign at home, claiming a 3-0 sweep over the Chicago State Cougars Friday night (Aug. 30). The win comes in the first match on the new state-of-the-art Mo and Jon Stansbery Court for the Falcons, which was officially dedicated prior to the match. The win also marks six straight seasons that Bowling Green has won the home opener, dating back to the 2019 season.

BGSU came out swinging efficiently, registering a .464 hitting percentage in the first set. In the second set, defense showed strong for the Falcons, holding the Cougars to a negative hitting percentage a -.108. In the third set, Chicago State jumped out to an early lead, but the Falcons battled back to take the set and claim the sweep.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 25, Chicago State 20

The Falcons opened the set, and the season, with a 3-0 run against Chicago State, beginning with a kill by Mia Tyler and two attack errors from the Cougars.
Chicago State battled back early to tie the match at 4-4. From there the two teams traded points with ties at 5-5, 6-6, 7-7 and again at 9-9 and 10-10.
A pair of BGSU points swung the score to them at 12-10, but a 4-0 run for Chicago State pushed them in front, 15-14, at the media break.
Out of the timeout, the Falcons went on a 5-2 burst, including a 3-0 run, to reclaim the lead at 19-17, forcing a timeout from the Chicago State bench.
After the timeout, the Falcons kept the pressure on with two more points to stretch the run to 5-0 and the burst to 7-2.
A pair of points for Chicago State chipped away at the BGSU lead, 21-19, but the Falcons closed out the set with a 3-0 run for the first set win. BGSU capped off the set with back-to-back Lauryn Hovey kills, two of six for her in the set.

Set 2: Bowling Green 25, Chicago State 18

Chicago State opened the second set with a pair of points, but the Falcons quickly answered with a 6-0 run, forcing five consecutive attack errors including two blocks by the duo of Alexis Mettille and Hovey. The 6-0 run forced a CSU timeout, trailing 6-2.
Bowling Green added two more points after the timeout, including a block by Jordan Newblatt and Mettille, stretching the lead to 8-2. After the Cougars ended the run, BGSU added two more for a 10-3 advantage.
Chicago State worked their way back into the set with a 3-0 run, cutting the lead to 10-6, but BGSU answered with a 3-0 run of their own to regain the 13-6 lead.
The Cougars battled back with a 5-1 run soon after to trim the lead to 15-12, forcing a Bowling Green timeout.
The Orange and Brown responded out of the timeout with a 4-1 stretch to rebuild the lead to 19-13, forcing a timeout this time from Chicago State.
The points went back-and-forth from that point through the end of the set, ending with a 25-18 score in favor of the Falcons.

Set 3: Bowling Green 25, Chicago State 23

Like the second set, Chicago State opened the third set with two points before the first BGSU point, however this time it was the Cougars who built a 6-2 lead to force a timeout.
The Falcons chipped away at the lead out of the timeout. A 3-0 run cut it down to 7-5 before closing the gap completely at 11-11 with back-to-back points.
Chicago State moved back in front, 13-11, but a 4-0 BGSU run pushed Bowling Green in front 15-13 to force a Chicago State timeout.
From there the teams traded points until an 18-18 tie. The tie carried to 19-19 before a pair of BGSU points forced a Chicago State timeout with the score at 21-19.
The Cougars put together a 3-0 run out of the timeout to take a 22-21 lead with the Falcons taking a timeout.
The timeout sparked a 3-0 run for the Falcons, taking a 24-22 lead. Chicago State added a point, but a Hovey kill clinched the 25-23 set score and 3-0 match sweep for Bowling Green.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Lauryn Hovey (13)
Assists: Amanda Otten (23)
Digs: Jordan Newblatt (8)
Aces: Lauryn Hovey, Alexis Mettille (2)
Blocks: Alexis Mettille (7)

Falcon Stat Facts

Alexis Mettille tallied a team-high seven block assists for the Falcons, bringing her career total blocks total to 229. The total moves Mettille up to 10th on the Rally Scoring Era career list, passing Laura Twyman (2000-02).
Coming to the Falcons as a fifth year transfer, Jordan Newblatt immediately made an impact. Newblatt led Bowling Green with eight digs and added eight kills, flirting with a double-double.
Amanda Otten tallied 23 assists for the Falcons, coming just two shy of matching her career-high from a season.
Sydnie Hernandez, Avery Anders and Anna Sitek all made their BGSU debuts as freshmen for the Falcons. Hernandez registered four digs, Sitek tallied three assists and Anders was perfect on three serve receives.
Isabelle Laube registered a career-high three digs for the Falcons, all coming in the first set.
The win pushes BGSU to 1-0 to start the season for the second consecutive year. BGSU is also 1-0 at home for the sixth straight season, going back to the 2019 campaign.
Bowling Green is now 69-20 at home since the start of the 2017 season and 41-7 since the beginning of the 2020-21 campaign.
The Falcons are now 2-0 all-time against Chicago State with both matches being played in Bowling Green.

Up Next
The Falcons will continue the Best Western Invitational on Saturday (Aug. 31) with a home match against Illinois. The match is set for a 6 p.m. start and will be a White Out. The invite will conclude on Sunday (Sept. 1) with BGSU taking on Cincinnati with a 1 p.m. start and a "Paint the Town Brown" theme.

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