By the sheer numbers alone, it didn’t appear to be the poised and passionate performance Bowling Green volleyball coach Denise Van De Walle had hoped for heading into last night’s match at Anderson Arena.
But it was a win, nonetheless, and the Falcons played well enough to muster up a 3-0 (30-24, 30-23, 30-21) victory against the Oakland Grizzlies, who fell to 5-25 with the loss.
“It wasn’t that pretty, but we’ll take it,” Van De Walle said. “Our fear was it was going to be slow paced and it was. It just seemed like we could never really generate any speed on our side of the night.”
BG improved its overall record to 16-12. Chrissy Gothke led the Falcons with 10 kills, to go along with 22 kills and six assists. Ashlei Nofzinger chipped in with nine kills of her own.
Chelsey Meek and Emily Manser added 15 and 11 digs, respectively.
BG out hit Oakland .195 to .111 and accounted for 13 more kills, 44-31. The Falcons also dug 53 balls and had eight assisted blocks at the net.
Van De Walle said she was pleased with the all-around performance of Gothke.
“Her serving was great in the game,” she said. “And I thought Noffy [Nofzinger] in game three had a really nice performance.”
With two home matches looming against Mid-American Conference opponents Ohio and Kent State on Friday and Saturday, Van De Walle said the match seemed like it was “in the way almost.”
“We were supposed to hit over .300 as a team, get a lot of digs, get our kills per game and that didn’t happen,” she said. “We just could not generate any rhythm.”
The best way for BG to begin preparing for its final regular season matches this weekend is to just move on, Van De Walle said.
“This match is over, we got the ‘W’, we’re at 16 wins, it was on TV,” she continued. “Now we just prepare and it won’t be hard, it’s too important.”
Gothke said the Falcons need to work on their block, among other things, to be ready for the weekend matches.
“I also think we need to work on our offense, because we don’t have a very good offense right now.”
