On Tuesday night, the Falcon Volleyball team was home to play against the Valparaiso Crusaders after a successful weekend where the team finished 3-0, winning the Panther Classic.
Over the weekend, the Falcons succeeded at not only getting their first road win of the season, but a total of three victories on the road.
The Falcons were led by Jelena Sjunic, who won the Panther Classic MVP award, with 51 kills over the weekend. Along with dominating competition in the classic, Madeline Garda and Alyssa Maloney were both named to the all-tournament team.
Returning to the Stroh Center on Tuesday night, it was the first time the home crowd was able to watch the 6-3 Falcons live since last Wednesday. The teams last showing was a disappointing 0-3 loss to the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Right from the start, the Falcons looked like a much better team than they did in the Marshall defeat, opening the match with an 8-0 lead in set one. Once leading by 17, the confident Falcons were celebrating often during the match. The team finished set one with a dominating victory, winning 25-8.
Starting the second set better than the first, the Crusaders jumped out to an early 7-2 lead, causing Bowling Green to call a timeout. The Falcons came out of the timeout aggressive, winning the next four points of the set.
Bowling Green soon took a 9-8 lead but gave it right back to the Crusaders, as they took an 18-14 lead late in the set. A timeout after the lead change helped the Falcons, coming out to fight back to take a 19-17 lead. The up and down battle in set two continued as the set tied at 19, at 22 and at 23. The Falcons closed the set strong, finishing with a 25-23 win in the second set of the match.
As the third set began, the Crusaders and Falcons fought neck and neck, returning points all the way up to 12.
As the Falcons went on a three-point run, Valparaiso called a timeout to stop the momentum. The timeout paid off as the Crusaders fought back to tie the match at 15, resuming battle up until the Falcons took a 23-21 lead, forcing Valparaiso to take another timeout. The Falcons finished the set with another win, clinching the victory for the match.
A key component to the victory was the team’s great serving percentage. After the match, Cach Danijela Tomic stated, “Our serving is so much better and that’s a big part of the team’s success this year.” The Falcons improved to 7-3 after the match and head to Chicago this weekend for the UIC Invitational. There, the Falcons will play UMass Lowell on Friday and then both SIUE and UIC on Saturday to close out the event. This will be the final non-conference matchup of the regular season as Bowling Green starts conference play next week.
