Bowling Green Blocks Way To Reverse Sweep For First 2-0 Start In Six Years

Saturday, August 29

Columbus, Ohio

1 p.m.

Bowling Green State University

2-0,0-0MAC

Northern Kentucky

1-1,0-0Horizon

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Northern Ky.	28	25	22	24	12	2
Bowling Green	26	20	25	26	15	3

BGSU @ OSU
BGSU Athletics
Aug. 28 2026
Drake Harlett | BGSU Athletics

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

Bowling Green Blocks Way To Reverse Sweep For First 2-0 Start In Six Years

August 29, 2026 | Volleyball

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

Waynar Matches Program's Rally Scoring Era Record For Solo Blocks In A Five-Set Match

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team continued their strong start to the season with a reverse sweep win over Northern Kentucky in five sets. After falling in the first two sets, the Orange and Brown stormed back to rally for the win, moving to 2-0 on the season for the first time since the historic 18-0 start in 2020-21.

Anastasija Bozic led the attack for the Falcons with a career-high 24 kills on a .306 hitting percentage. Amanda Otten set the attack with 47 assists to go along with 14 digs for her second double-double in as many matches. On the defensive side, Cecily Waynar tallied 10 blocks, including a Rally Scoring Era record four solo rejections while Sydnie Hernandez recorded 25 digs, just one shy of her career-high.

How It Happened
Set 1: Northern Kentucky 28, Bowling Green 26

Northern Kentucky tallied the first point of the match, but the Falcons responded with a 3-0 run to move out in front. Another 3-0 run later in the set pushed the score to 7-3 before the teams began trading points with the score carrying to 11-7 before a 4-1 stretch for NKU cut the lead down to 12-10. BGSU extended the lead back to 15-11 at the media timeout.
Out of the timeout, Northern Kentucky tallied two points, but the Falcons answered with two of their own to extend the score to 17-13, forcing an NKU timeout.
Soon after the timeout, the Norse utilized a 3-0 run to pull within one, 19-18, with a BGSU timeout. NKU added three more after the timeout to push their lead to 21-19. The Falcons ended the run, but the score moved to 23-21 with the second BGSU timeout.
Coming out of the break, the Falcons were able to put together a 3-1 stretch to knot it up at 24-24, including an ace from Anastasija Bozic, to force the second Norse timeout.
The Falcons tallied the next two points, but a challenge reversed a point for a 25-25 score. From there, the Norse finished out the set deep into extra points, 28-26.

Set 2: Northern Kentucky 25, Bowling Green 20

Northern Kentucky opened the second set with a 5-0 run before the first BGSU tally. The Falcons soon tallied a 5-1 stretch with aces from both Sydnie Hernandez and Avery Anders, to narrow the gap to 8-7.
The teams traded points before a 3-0 Bowling Green run tied it up at 13-13. Northern Kentucky added a pair of points for a 15-13 lead at the media timeout.
The run for NKU after the media break reached 4-0 for a 17-13 lead, but the Falcons answered back with a 3-0 burst to pull back within one, 17-16.
Northern Kentucky added to their lead periodically, growing to 22-19 to force the second BGSU timeout. The Falcons tallied a point out of the break, but a 3-0 run for the Norse ended the set, 25-20.

Set 3: Bowling Green 25, Northern Kentucky 22

The Falcons turned the page into the third set, going on a 6-0 run to open play before the first NKU point. Bozic added two more kills after the NKU point for an 8-1 lead with the Norse taking a timeout.
A 4-1 span for Northern Kentucky cut into the Bowling Green lead, 10-5. Another run later in the set pulled the score to 14-10 before an Amanda Otten kill made it 15-10 for the media timeout.
The two teams resumed going back-and-forth through the set until back-to-back points for the Orange and Brown made it 21-15 with an NKU timeout.
The Falcons added a kill out of the break for a 3-0 run, but the Norse answered with a 3-0 run of their own to narrow the score to 22-18 with a BGSU timeout. Northern Kentucky continued to chip away, closing it to 24-22 with a Bowling Green timeout. Out of the break, a kill from Karli Molnau sealed the set for the Falcons.

Set 4: Bowling Green 26, Northern Kentucky 24

In the fourth set, Northern Kentucky opened the set with a 3-1 lead, but the Falcons worked to tie it at 4-4 with the tie moving to 5-5. However, a 4-0 run for NKU pushed them out to a 9-5 lead with a BGSU timeout pausing the action.
Soon after the break, Bowling Green tallied a 3-0 run to close the deficit to 11-9, but a 3-0 run for NKU followed to rebuild their lead before the score reached 15-11 in favor of the Norse at the media timeout.
After the media timeout, Bowling Green used a 4-1 stretch to bring the score to one-point difference, 16-15. The Norse added a tally, but another 3-0 BGSU run followed for a 7-2 stretch to take an 18-17 lead, resulting in a timeout from Northern Kentucky.
Out of the timeout, NKU tied the set with back-to-back points before extending the run to 3-0 to force a BGSU timeout with the score at 23-22.
The timeout sparked a 4-1 stretch for the Falcons, including another Waynar ace, to claim the fourth set in extra points to force a fifth.

Set 5: Bowling Green 15, Northern Kentucky 12

The fifth set opened close with ties stretching out to a 3-3 score before back-to-back BGSU tallies made it a 5-3 Bowling Green advantage.
The teams traded points again up to the media timeout with the score favoring the Falcons, 8-6.
Out of the timeout, NKU registered the next two points to tie the set at 8-8 before the Falcons ended the run to stay in front. The tie moved to 9-9 before back-to-back BGSU points made it 11-9 Falcons to force a Norse timeout.
Back-to-back kills from Molnau followed out of the break for a 4-0 BGSU run and 13-9 advantage. NKU worked for back-to-back points of their own, resulting in a BGSU timeout with the score at 13-11.
A pair of Bozic kills were separated by one NKU point down the stretch with the Falcons claiming the set, 15-12, for the reverse sweep.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Anastasija Bozic (24)
Assists: Amanda Otten (47)
Digs: Sydnie Hernandez (25)
Aces: Avery Anders (3)
Blocks: Cecily Waynar (10)

Falcon Stat Facts

Cecily Waynar etched her name in the BGSU record book with four solo blocks in the match. The total matches the program's Rally Scoring Era record for solo blocks in a five-set match, becoming the fifth player to do so, joining Taylor Twite, Amanda Otten and Katie Kidwell with Kidwell doing so twice.
Waynar finished with a total of 10 blocks while also landing the first two aces of her career. She completed her stat line with eight kills and three digs.
Winning via reverse sweep, it marks the first time during the DelPiombo Era that the Falcons have overcome a 2-0 deficit on the road with the last time for the program being on Dec. 14, 2025 at St. John's in the NIVC semifinals.
Over the course of the five sets, Bowling Green logged 20 total blocks, coming one shy of the team's Rally Scoring Era record for total blocks in a five set match. The record stands at 21 against Green Bay on Nov. 30, 2017.
As a team, the Falcons landed 10 aces with six different players logging at least one. Avery Anders led the way with three, matching her career-high. Anders added 13 digs as well, one shy of her career-high.
Otten tallied a team-leading 47 assists while adding 14 digs for the second-straight match, giving her two double-doubles through two matches after having a team-high 10 last year.
Anastasija Bozic led the way on the attack for the Falcons, landing a career-high 24 kills for her first match with 20+ kills in the Orange and Brown. Bozic maintained a .306 hitting percentage in the process while adding seven digs, four blocks, three assists and two aces for a complete stat line.
Sydnie Hernandez paced the team in digs, registering 25 over the course of the match, coming just one shy of her career-high of 26. Hernandez added six assists and an ace as well for the Falcons.
Helen Wilford matched her career-high for kills in a match with nine while adding seven blocks and two digs for the Orange and Brown.
Molly Beatty made her BGSU debut in the match, logging three assists and three digs for the Falcons. Ava Buddelyemer added two kills while Alivia Brown added a career-high seven digs in their season debuts.

Up Next
The Falcons will conclude the weekend series on Sunday (Aug. 30) at 11 a.m. against Fresno State at the Jim Stone Challenge hosted by Ohio State.

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