The BG women’s volleyball team traveled to Omaha, Nebraska, this past weekend to compete in the Creighton Invitational where they fell in all three of their matches.
With the losses, the Falcons moved to 2-7 overall.
The team had a fierce battle in its first match against Wichita State, but the Shockers edged out BG in five sets, winning 25-22, 25-23, 28-30, 33-35 and 16-14.
This is the fourth time this year the Falcons have competed in a match lasting five sets.
BG battled back in every set against the Shockers, showing resiliency by fighting off two match points in the third set and four more in the fourth. Wichita State regrouped after a timeout and won the match.
BG finished with four players having at least 12 kills. Freshman Nicole Slimko and Sophomore Alyssa Maloney led with 16 kills each. Senior Kelsey Bates added 15 kills and freshman Paige O’Connor had 14. Sophomore Madeline Garda picked up 23 digs and Slimko had a career-high 17 digs. Bates tallied a match-best eight blocks. Senior Erica Fullenkamp had a double-double with 52 assists and 10 digs.
BG then followed with two more losses on Saturday; to Creighton where they lost 25-17, 25-18, 25-15 and to Pepperdine 25-15, 25-14, 25-15.
Against Creighton, BG only had a .067 attack percentage, whereas Creighton hit .270. Creighton also had seven aces, five more than the Falcons. However, BG had six blocks.
O’Connor had a team-leading eight kills while Garda racked in 10 digs. Bates had five blocks to go with her six kills and an ace.
The team then moved on to Pepperdine for their final match of the weekend, which proved to be a similar situation as the Creighton game.
Slimko and O’Connor both got nine kills in the match to lead BG. Alyssa Maloney added five kills and four blocks.
Pepperdine won three straight sets against BG, posting an attack percentage of .354. BG had an attack percentage of .140.
BG will now prepare for their last non-conference tournament before heading into conference play. The team will head to the Oakland Invitational next weekend in Rochester, Mich.
The University of Oakland will host the UC Irvine and Robert Morris with the Falcons. BG’s first game will be against Oakland on Friday at 5 p.m., followed by UC Irvine on Saturday at 10 a.m. and Robert Morris at 5 p.m.
