After going on a five-game winning streak, the Falcons lost their streak after splitting the weekend’s matches, going 1-1. After rallying off wins against MAC Conference opponents such as Kent State, Akron, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan the Falcons were defeated by the Ball State Cardinals on Friday night. On Saturday night, Bowling Green bounced back to win the Battle of I-75 against arch-rival, the Toledo Rockets.
On Friday night, the Falcons lost in a three-set match against Ball State, with scores of 26-24, 25-16 and 25-15. It was a poor night all around for the Falcons, as the nation’s leader in digs, Madeline Garda, only posted eight digs in total. Totaling only 31 kills as a team, Nicole Slimko led the way with seven kills. Jelena Sunjic had six of her own, while Jessi Holly and Isabel Kovacic contributed with five each. The Falcons had a poor hitting percentage of .060, which troubled the team’s scoring ability the entire match.
Head volleyball coach Danijela Tomic was disappointed with her team’s performance, but gave credit to the opponent, Ball State, for the victory saying, “I have to congratulate Ball State – they played really well, and outplayed us in every aspect of the game, and they deserved this win. It’s disappointing. I don’t know what it is about us playing at home … We have to find a way to bounce back. We have another tough opponent tomorrow, and we have to find a way to bounce back and be better.”
On Saturday night, with motivation to bounce back after the disappointing loss on Friday night, the Falcons came out and looked like a better team on Saturday. The Falcons beat the Toledo Rockets in a four-set match, with scores of 25-9, 22-25, 25-13 and 25-15. Sunjic was posting a dominant performance with 19 kills. Kovacic had 11, while Holly had seven and Alyssa Maloney posted six. Garda had a bounce-back performance, as she posted 19 digs. She now has 512 digs on the season and averages 6.40 digs/set for the Falcons. Paulina Iacobelli has eight digs, but made her large contribution serving, where she posted three aces. Kallie Seimet had a good match as well, posting seven digs of her own. It was a great performance for Bowling Green, with the Falcons able to win the battle of I-75.
Coach Tomic was happy with her team’s bounce-back performance, stating, “When a team loses the night before, and then how we lost – we just didn’t play well in any area. But to bounce back within 24 hours, it shows the character of the team and I’m really, really proud of them, this was completely a team effort. We had everybody play well. Everybody fulfilled their role.”
The Falcons now improve to 16-7 overall, and 6-4 in MAC Conference action. Up next for the Falcons, a home match in the Stroh Center against the Miami University RedHawks on Thursday.
