Bowling Green Volleyball fell to the Ohio Bobcats earlier Friday evening in four sets (16-25, 26-28, 30-28, 19-25), to fall to 1-6 in Mid-American Conference play and 7-11 overall.
The loss bumps BG’s losing streak up to six, with the last win coming back on Sept. 21 at the Stroh Center over Northern Illinois in four sets.
Coming into the contest, the Falcons were facing all sorts of adversity- losing streak, another road trip against a solid MAC opponent, as well as injuries.
My goodness the injuries.
For starters, middle blockers Gwen Crull and Jessica Andrews were both available for tonight’s game, but both are coming off their own ailments, with Crull coming back from a lower back issue, while Andrews had a heavily taped thumb due to a dislocation suffered last Saturday against Ball State.
Then we throw in the newest injury- Amanda Otten, who did not make the trip down with the team to Athens after suffering a lower body injury during practice on Thursday.
So yeah, things are not going so swell right now for the orange and brown.
But despite all of that, BGSU came in and gave themselves a chance to win in this match. After a slow first set, which featured Mia Tyler registering five of her overall 12 kills in the contest, the Falcons came back and battled hard in the second set.
At one point even in the second set, BG had themselves an 18-13 lead, but a 15-8 run by the Bobcats closed the set in deflating fashion.
You wouldn’t have noticed it though in the third, as after a crazy back and forth, BG ended up with a confidence-building 3-0 run to win set three 30-28.
However in the fourth, the Falcons were outmatched, giving up a 10-4 run, after being tied at 15, to lose the match in four sets.
Ohio came in red-hot right away offensively, registering a .522 hitting percentage in set one, while holding BG to .094. Senior middle blocker Caitlin O’Farrell led the way in kills overall in the match for the green and white with 18, while sophomore Anna Kharchynska added a dozen of her own.
For the orange and brown, Kat Mandly led the three double-digit kill getters with 17, while Lauryn Hovey added 15 and Tyler with 12. Jaden Walz, who was tasked with being the primary setter in BG’s 5-1 rotation, ended the night with 41 assists and eight digs.
BGSU is back in action Saturday, 10/14, at 4 p.m. for match two versus Ohio. Catch the Falcon Media Sports Network pregame show on 88.1 FM WBGU with Steve Iwanek beginning at 3:45.
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