The BG volleyball team held off defeat for one night, but could not overcome the nation’s No. 1 team Penn State on their home floor. BG captured the school’s first ever NCAA tournament victory beating Yale 16-25, 25-15, 25-21, 13-25, 15-11 Friday night.
In the Yale match, BG managed to overcome a 9-7 deficit in the fifth set and go on an 8-2 run to close out the Bulldogs 15-11. With the win, the Falcons continued their expertise in five set matches as they have gone an impressive 9-1 in matches ending with a fifth set.
Leading the way for the Falcons was Paige Penrod, who had a team high 16 kills and 13 digs. The Falcons had three players (Penrod, Leah Shaw, Lindsey Butterfield) that finished with double-digit kills while libero Ashley Dunn led the team with 24 digs.
On Saturday, the Falcons had the pleasure of taking on the number one team in the nation in Penn State on their home floor. Although the Falcons had a lot of momentum riding from the previous nights’ matchup with Yale, Penn State proved to the Falcons why they are the nation’s best team.
The Falcons had just 18 kills for the match and hit .000 percent as a result of 18 attack errors. Penn State dominated BG in every statistical category as they had 19 more digs, six more kills and an advantage on blocks 6.5 to just 3 for the Falcons.
The final tally was Penn State 25-15, 25-12, 25-15. The only time the Falcons hung tight was in the first set when they trailed 17-14 and in the third when the match was tied at 10. The Falcons had just one player with double-digit kills as Danielle Tonyan had 11; The next closest was Penrod who added five.
Even with the loss to Penn State, the Falcons have much to be proud of in this 2011-2012 campaign. BG finished with a 22-11 record on the season and a 13-3 mark in the MAC which put them at second overall in the conference.
BG will also be known as MAC tournament champions as they beat Northern Illinois in five sets to capture the MAC tournament championship. They also set out this week under the mindset that they would be the first Falcon team to win an NCAA tournament game and they achieved their goal in beating Yale Friday night.
The Falcons again should be a force to be reckoned with next year as they return a bulk of their roster with players like MAC tournament MVP Paige Penrod and Ashley Dunn who led the team in digs.
The Falcons will lose four seniors in Kari Galen, Lauren Mizgalski, Cassie Berning and Leah Shaw who was a vital part of BG’s blocking attack this season with 119 on the year.
