COLLEGE VOLLEYBALL: Bowling Green outlasts Oakland
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Not quite enough.
Meghan Bray earned 22 kills and 24 digs and Taylor Humm added 13 kills and 21 digs as the Oakland volleyball team (11-9) fell to Bowling Green State in five sets Tuesday night at Stroh Center. OU fell with set scores of 25-23, 22-25, 17-25, 25-23 and 7-15.
“Tonight we were outworked defensively and BGSU limited their unforced errors,” said head coach Rob Beam. “Those are two trademarks of our style of play and we need to return to those as we look forward to Fort Wayne on Friday.”
Alli Kirk tied for a team-high 24 digs and Mary Grassano added 12 more digs for Oakland (11-9-0). Brittany Holbrook gave OU 13 kills and three blocks, while Ciara Schultz earned 25 assists and Alissa Valentine added 19 assists. Bowling Green’s Laura Avila finished the match with 36 digs and Ashley Dunn added 25 more, while Kaitlyn Skinner earned 10 total blocks in the match.
In the final set, the teams were tied at 5-5, but the Falcons (11-7) would win 10 out of the final 12 points behind five kills by Paige Penrod to win the deciding set 15-7 and take the match.
Oakland took control of the first set early going up 8-4 but the teams battled from there combining for five ties with the set all square at 18-18. The Golden Grizzlies would not be denied as Bray earned two of her eight kills in the set to get seven out of the next 12 points to win 25-23.
After dropping the next two sets, Oakland once again led early but the Falcons fought to take a 17-16 lead. OU would go on a seven-point run led by two kills by Bray and a kill each by Amanda Baker and Schultz. The Golden Grizzlies used the momentum as Holbrook earned six out of her 13 kills in the set to send the match to the deciding fifth set with a 25-23 victory.
Oakland will be in action on Friday as they travel to Fort Wayne to take on The Summit League leading Mastodons at Gates Sports Complex starting at 7 p.m.
Category: Campus Clips, Colleges / Other, Oakland University
