BGVB Boasts MAC Opener Victory For Eighth-Straight Season With Four-Set Finish Over Ohio

Thursday, September 25

Bowling Green, Ohio

6 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

7-6,1-0MAC

Ohio

2-11,0-1MAC

Ohio

Bowling Green

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

BGVB Boasts MAC Opener Victory For Eighth-Straight Season With Four-Set Finish Over Ohio

September 25, 2025 | Volleyball

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Falcons Hit Season-Best .333, Including .560 Mark In Fourth Set

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

Ziggyville Population: 148
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team kicked off the MAC portion of their schedule Thursday night (Sept. 25) with a four-set victory over Ohio. The Falcons utilized a season-best .333 hitting percentage to best the Bobcats in the 3-1 final. With the win, the Falcons have now won eight-straight MAC openers as well as six-straight MAC home openers. The win also goes down as the first MAC win of Alex DelPiombo's head coaching career.

For BGSU, Amanda Otten led the way with her team-leading fourth double-double of the season, finishing with 30 assists and 13 digs. Sydnie Hernandez nearly joined her with a team-leading 18 digs and seven assists. Avery Anders landed a career-high three aces while adding a season-high 12 digs as well. As for the attack, Avery Hobson landed a team-high 15 kills while both Edyta Waclawczyk and Helen Wilford hit .600 or better in the match with a minimum of 10 attack attempts each.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 25, Ohio 17

The Falcons and Bobcats went back-and-forth in the early going to a 2-2 tie before a 3-0 BGSU run extended the lead to 5-2.
Ohio battled back with a 3-0 run of their own to tie it up at 5-5. The tie carried to 6-6, but a 4-0 run for the Falcons, including an Avery Anders ace, made it a 10-6 advantage with a Bobcat timeout.
The run continued through the timeout with two more Falcon points for a 12-6 lead. OU responded with a 3-0 run to cut the score down to 12-9.
Another 4-0 run for the Falcons soon followed, pushing their advantage to 17-10 with the second Bobcat timeout of the set.
Ohio landed a point out of the break, but another 3-0 BGSU run followed to make it a 7-1 stretch in favor of the Falcons for a 20-11 lead.
The Bobcats challenged with a 3-0 run of their own, closing the gap to 20-14. However, Bowling Green registered two points for every one Ohio point down the stretch, carrying to the 25-17 set score.

Set 2: Ohio 25, Bowling Green 22

Ohio opened the second set with a 4-0 run, moving into a 5-1 advantage. Two BGSU points followed, but Ohio registered another 3-0 run for an 8-3 lead.
The Falcons soon put together a 5-0 run, including back-to-back aces by Anders, to knot the score up at 9-9.
Ohio was able to reclaim the lead with a 3-0 run, moving out to a 13-10 advantage. The score moved to 15-11 to force the media timeout.
A 6-1 stretch, including a 4-0 run, for the Falcons pushed Bowling Green to an 18-17 advantage, forcing a timeout from the Ohio bench.
After the timeout, Ohio took the lead back, starting a back-and-forth before back-to-back Ohio points made it 22-20 Bobcats with a Bowling Green timeout.
The trading of points continued after the break, carrying the score to 24-22 with the second BGSU timeout.
Ohio added a point after the break to take the set and even the match.

Set 3: Bowling Green 25, Ohio 15

The two teams battled early with ties at each point all the way to 5-5. Consecutive Bowling Green points, including an ace from Kendall Williams, pushed BGSU out to a 7-5 lead.
The Falcons later recorded a 3-0 run to push their lead to 11-7 with the Bobcats calling a timeout.
The teams went back-and-forth out of the timeout, but a 4-1 stretch later in the set extended the Bowling Green advantage to 18-11 with OU taking their second timeout of the set.
The back-and-forth resumed until a 4-0 run for the Falcons made it a 23-14 score. OU landed a point, but two more followed for the Orange and Brown to take the set, closing with a 6-1 stretch.

Set 4: Bowling Green 25, Ohio 23

Ohio jumped out to a lead in the fourth set, adding points here and there in the back-and-forth for a 9-5 advantage.
Bowling Green answered with a 5-0 run to take the lead with a 10-9 score, forcing a timeout from the Ohio bench.
Ohio tied it after the timeout with ties following from 11-11 all the way to 20-20. From there, the Falcons used consecutive points to take a 22-20 lead with the second Ohio timeout of the set.
The Falcons added another point after the timeout for a 3-0 run and 23-20 advantage. Ohio worked to close the gap to 24-23 with a BGSU timeout, but the Falcons took the match on the next point after the break, 25-23.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Avery Hobson (15)
Assists: Amanda Otten (30)
Digs: Sydnie Hernandez (18)
Aces: Avery Anders (3)
Blocks: Helen Wilford (7)

Falcon Stat Facts

With the win, the Falcons have now started MAC play 1-0 in each of the last eight seasons as well as winning their first home MAC match in each of the last six seasons.
The win will mark the first MAC win as a head coach for Alex DelPiombio. Going back to her time as an assistant with BGSU, the Falcons are 8-2 in MAC openers with DelPiombo on staff.
As a team, the Falcons hit a season-best .333, landing 47 kills on 111 attacks with just 10 errors. BGSU is now 3-0 when hitting above .300 this season. This is the second match in a row the Falcons have hit a season-best mark after hitting .314 against Binghamton last Saturday (Sept. 20).
Jessica Andrews tallied five block assists for the Falcons, giving her 333 blocks in the Orange and Brown. The total moves her up two more spots on the all-time career block assists list, passing both Tammy Schiller (1988-91) and Lori Hilton (1993-96) for sixth all-time. On the attack, Andrews added seven kills for the Orange and Brown while maintaining a .429 hitting percentage.
Amanda Otten registered her team-leading fourth double-double of the season, logging 30 assists and a season-high 13 digs. She added four kills and three blocks, including a key solo block late in the match.
Sydnie Hernandez led the team in digs with 18 and came close to a double-double, logging seven assists to match her season-high. Hernandez's assist total brings her season mark to 55, matching her career high after having 55 during the 2024 season.
Avery Anders led the team in aces with a career-high three. Anders is now the fifth different Falcon to solely lead the team in aces this year and the seventh different to at least hold a share of the team-lead. Anders added a season-high 12 digs to her stat line, matching her career-high as well.
Avery Hobson led the Bowling Green attack with a team-high 15 kills. Hobson has led the Falcons in kills in five of the last six matches with BGSU holding a record of 4-1 in those five.
Entering the match in the third set for the Falcons, Edyta Waclawczyk made a strong impact on the attack .Waclawczyk landed nine kills on 14 error-free attacks, hitting an impressive .643 for the match, the best mark by a Falcon this year with at least 10 attack attempts.
Helen Wilford led the team in blocks, registering a solo and six block assists for seven total. Wilford added six kills on 10 error-free attacks with a .600 hitting percentage.
Anastasija Bozic tallied a season-high seven digs for BGSU. Bozic has now set a new career-high in digs in back-to-back matches.
Bowling Green held Ohio to a -.057 hitting percentage in the first set. After holding Oakland to a mark of -.054 in the home opener, the Falcons managed to hold their opponent to a negative cumulative attack percentage through the first four home sets of the season.
For the all-time series against Ohio, Bowling Green has won 13 of the last 15 meetings as well as an eight-match win streak when hosting the Bobcats.

Up Next
The Falcons will continue their homestand Friday night (Sept. 26) with a 6 p.m. start against Kent State at the Stroh Center. The match will be Teal Attack to raise awareness for Ovarian Cancer.

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