Falcons Sweep Fresno State For Undefeated Opening Weekend At Jim Stone Challenge

Sunday, August 30

Columbus, Ohio

11 a.m.

Bowling Green State University

3-0,0-0MAC

Fresno State

0-3,0-0Pac-12

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Fresno St.	23	13	20	0
Bowling Green	25	25	25	3

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

Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics

Falcons Sweep Fresno State For Undefeated Opening Weekend At Jim Stone Challenge

August 30, 2026 | Volleyball

Box Score BGSU-Fresno State Support Our Student-Athletes

BGSU Starts Season With Invite Sweep For First Time Since 2011

By: by Kyle Edmond, BGSU Athletics

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University volleyball team continued to stay in the win column to start the year, securing their first sweep of the season with a 3-0 win over Fresno State on Sunday (Aug. 30). The win completes the weekend sweep for the Falcons at the Jim Stone Challenge, the team's first invitational sweep to start a season since 2011 and the first of three or matches since 2009.

The Falcons utilized a team approach to capture the victory. Amanda Otten and Molly Beatty split the setting role for the Falcons, each with double-digit assists, while Avery Hobson and Anastasija Bozic logged double-digit kills. Avery Anders led the team in digs with 11 while Cecily Waynar topped the stat sheet in blocks with five.

How It Happened
Set 1: Bowling Green 25, Fresno State 23

The first few points of the set were back-and-forth, but a 4-0 run for Fresno State rolled into a 9-2 span to create a 10-4 advantage.
The Falcons began chipping away with a 4-0 span of their own, closing the gap to 10-8. The two teams traded a few points, but another 4-0 BGSU run swung the score in favor of the Falcons, 14-13. Fresno State answered for two to reclaim the lead, 15-14, at the media timeout.
BGSU and Fresno State went back-and-forth out of the break before a 4-0 Bowling Green run pushed the Falcons in front, 19-17, to force a timeout from the Bulldogs. The back-and-forth continued after the timeout, carrying to a 23-20 BGSU lead with the second Fresno State timeout.
Coming out of the break, a 3-1 span in favor of the Bulldogs closed the gap to 24-23 with the Falcons taking a timeout. BGSU secured the set on the next point out of the timeout, 25-23, on a Fresno State net violation.

Set 2: Bowling Green 25, Fresno State 13

The second set opened with the teams trading points to a 4-4 tie, but a 5-0 run for the Falcons pushed Bowling Green out to a 9-4 lead with the Bulldogs taking a timeout.
The run for the Falcons carried through the timeout, adding on to make it a 7-0 run to grow the lead to 11-5.
After the run, the back-and-forth resumed between the Falcons and Bulldogs with the score moving to 15-8 BGSU at the media timeout.
Fresno State landed the first point out of the timeout, but a 3-0 BGSU run resulted in an 18-9 advantage. The score stretched to 21-11 with the Bulldogs taking their second timeout of the set.
FSU tallied the first point out of the break, but a 4-1 stretch in favor of the Orange and Brown followed to close out the set, 25-13.

Set 3: Bowling Green 25, Fresno State 20

The Falcons opened the third set with a 3-0 run before the first Fresno State point of the set. From there, the teams traded points with BGSU adding to their lead periodically, reaching a 15-9 advantage at the media timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Falcons landed three-straight kills to create a 4-0 run spanning the break, extending the lead to 18-9.
Fresno State worked to answer with a 5-1 stretch, closing the deficit to 19-14 with the Falcons calling a timeout.
The Falcons ended the run out of the timeout, eventually stretching the score to 22-16 with Fresno State using a timeout.
The set closed out with the teams again going back-and-forth through the end of the match for a 25-20 score.

Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Avery Hobson (13)
Assists: Amanda Otten (17)
Digs: Avery Anders (11)
Aces: Sydnie Hernandez (2)
Blocks: Cecily Waynar (5)

Falcon Stat Facts

With the win, the Falcons advance to 3-0 to start the season with a weekend sweep at the Jim Stone Challenge. It marks the first invite sweep for BGSU since the 2019 Hampton Inn Invite in Bowling Green and the first road invitational sweep since the 2016 UIC Invite.
The invite sweep to start the season is the first for Bowling Green since winning two matches to start the 2011 season at the Kristen Dickmann Invite, hosted by Navy. As for invites of three or more matches, this is BGSU's first sweep to start a season since winning four straight at the 2009 Duquesne/Robert Morris Invite.
Over the course of the Jim Stone Challenge, the Falcons tallied wins in each number of sets possible, logging a 3-0 win over Fresno State, a 3-1 win over Ohio State and a 3-2 win over Northern Kentucky.
Avery Anders led the team in digs for the match with 11, adding an ace and an assist. Sydnie Hernandez followed closely with nine digs, five assists and two aces for the Orange and Brown.
Amanda Otten and Molly Beatty split the setting duties for the Falcons. Otten topped the assists chart with 17, adding six kills on a .500 hitting percentage as well as a block assist and a dig. As for Beatty, she tallied 13 assists for BGSU on top of three digs.
Avery Hobson paced the team in kills, landing 13 for the Falcons while adding three block assists and a dig. Anastasija Bozic followed closely with 11 kills, five digs and an assist.
On the block, Cecily Waynar led the way with five block assists. She added six kills in the match as well on nine attacks for a .444 hitting percentage.

Up Next
The Falcons will return home to the Stroh Center next weekend to host the Best Western Invitational. BGSU will host Arkansas State, American and Northern Kentucky over two days, beginning with Arkansas State and American on Friday (Sept. 4).

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