LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Bowling Green State University volleyball 2022 season came to a close in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday night.
The Falcons faced Western Kentucky in the first round, marking the program’s fourth appearance all-time in the NCAA Tournament and second in the last three seasons. In the end, it was WKU on top with a 3-0 final.
Lauryn Hovey led the Falcon attack with 11 kills while registering her eighth double-double of the season with 14 assists and a .364 attack percentage. Petra Indrova was close behind with 10 kills on a team-high 29 attacks while Mia Tyler added seven kills. Jaden Walz recorded 20 assists in the match while Yelianiz Torres had nine digs, both team-highs over the three sets played.
How It Happened
Set 1: Western Kentucky 25, Bowling Green 20
The match began with Bowling Green and Western Kentucky trading points before a 4-0 run pushed WKU ahead with a 6-3 advantage.
The Falcons quickly responded with a 3-0 run of their own to knot it up at 6-6.
Another 3-0 run for the Falcons later in the set pushed BGSU out in front with an 11-8 score.
The Hilltoppers battled back in the set to reclaim the lead at 14-13, stretching to 15-13 at the media timeout in the midst of a 4-0 run.
The lead for Western Kentucky stretched to 21-17 and prompted the first team timeout of the match, being called by Bowling Green.
Coming out of the timeout, the Falcons put together a pair of points to bring the score to 21-19.
Western Kentucky responded with a 3-0 run to push their lead to 24-19. The Falcons landed a point out of the timeout, but WKU took the set 25-20.
Set 2: Western Kentucky 25, Bowling Green 23
The Falcons sustained an early 3-0 run in the set, highlighted by a Hovey ace, to move out in front 5-2.
Bowling Green put together another 3-0 run, making it a 7-2 stretch, to bring the score to 9-4 and force a WKU timeout.
Western Kentucky tallied the next three points out of the timeout to close the gap to 9-7.
The Hilltoppers continued to chip away, tying the set at 12-12 with a 3-0 run.
The Falcons answered with a 3-0 run of their own to move back in front 15-13.
The runs continued with a 3-0 spurt for the Hilltoppers putting them back in the lead at 19-18 and forcing a BGSU timeout.
The run for Western Kentucky stretched to 6-0 with the Falcons using their second timeout of the set trailing 22-18.
Bowling Green had a 3-0 run to close the gap to 24-23 and force the Hilltoppers to take a timeout.
Western Kentucky landed the next point, taking a 2-0 lead in the match.
Set 3: Western Kentucky 25, Bowling Green 20
The Falcons opened the third set with three straight points, coming from two Katelyn Meyer kills and a block from Meyer and Jessica Andrews.
The set remained close with a 3-0 WKU run moving the Hilltoppers in front 14-12. However, the Falcons had a 3-0 run of their own to reclaim the lead at 15-14 and bring about the media timeout.
The score remained close with a 3-0 WKU run prompting a BGSU timeout with the Falcons down 19-18.
Two more points out of the timeout stretched the Western Kentucky run to 5-0 with Bowling Green calling another timeout with the score at 21-18.
Western Kentucky was able to hold the lead for the 25-20 set score.
Falcon Stat Leaders
Kills: Lauryn Hovey (11)
Assists: Jaden Walz (20)
Digs: Yeliniaz Torres (9)
Aces: Lauryn Hovey, Lindsey LaPinta, Yelianiz Torres (1)
Blocks: Jessica Andrews (4)
Falcon Stat Facts
Hovey registered her eighth double-double of the season, landing a team-high 11 kills with a .364 attack percentage. Hovey added 14 assists to complete the double-double while tallying five digs.
With a team-high 29 attacks, Indrova brought her career total to 3,619 to move her into fifth all-time in program history. Indrova finished second on the team in kills with 10.
Torres recorded a team-high nine digs for the Falcons, bringing her season-total 579 digs to move into seventh all-time in program history for digs in a single season.
Walz set the Falcons attack with a team-high 20 assists.
Andrews led in blocks with one solo and three assists while landing two kills.
Mia Tyler ended the match with seven kills for Bowling Green and added six digs, two blocks and an assist to the BGSU effort.
Meyer entered in the third set and landed four kills for the Falcons with a .375 attack percentage while adding a block assist.
LaPinta landed her first career ace, one of three for BGSU in the match. LaPinta added five digs to her stat line.
