The Bowling Green State University volleyball team overcame a 2-0 deficit at home on Thursday to top Loyola Chicago, 3-2, in five sets at the Stroh Center.
After falling shy in the first two sets, the Falcons battled back to force the match into five sets and the fifth set into extra points, winning the final set 18-16 to complete the comeback over the Ramblers. The win moves BGSU to 3-1 with two more home matches to play this weekend.
Alex Laboy paced the Falcons with her first career double-double with Bowling Green, finishing with 19 digs and 11 assists.
On the attack, Mia Tyler landed a team-high 20 kills on a .309 hitting percentage, followed closely by Lauryn Hovey’s 19 kills on a .533 mark. Jaden Walz and Amanda Otten set up the Falcons, each finishing with 24 assists.
The match began close with the first run coming for Loyola Chicago with a 5-0 burst to move in front 8-5.
Bowling Green quickly responded with a 3-0 run to tie it back up at 8-8 before the team resumed trading points back-and-forth.
Another 5-0 run for the Ramblers later in the set propelled them in front 18-12, forcing a timeout from the Falcons.
The score remained until a 3-0 run late in the set for Loyola Chicago increased their advantage to 24-15, closing out the set 25-16.
The second set began similarly to the first set with the first sign of separation coming from a 3-0 BGSU spurt to move ahead 8-5 in the early going.
The deficit was closed by Loyola Chicago with a 4-0 run to narrow the gap to 14-13.
The Falcons kept the advantage with back-to-back points to get the score to 16-13 and a 4-0 run of their own later in the set to move the score to 20-14 and force Loyola Chicago to burn both of their timeouts.
Coming out of their second timeout, the Ramblers rattled off four straight points to decrease the deficit to 20-18. The Falcons tallied a point, but Loyola Chicago resumed their run with three more points to tie it up at 21-21 with a 7-1 stretch.
The tie increased to 22-22, but a pair of points for the Ramblers granted them the advantage, rolling into a 25-23 set score.
Like the first two sets, the third set began close before a 3-0 BGSU run created space with the score at 8-5. Loyola Chicago responded with a pair of points to draw the score to 8-7, but BGSU answered as well, this time with a 6-0 run to take a commanding 14-7 lead.
The lead remained until a 5-0 run for the Ramblers late in the set closed the gap to 19-16.
The two teams traded points before the Falcons increased their lead with a 3-0 burst to move ahead 24-18 before wrapping up the set at 25-20 and forcing a fourth set.
The fourth set carried through the theme of the match with the first separation coming from a 3-0 run, this one leaning to the Falcons with a 7-4 advantage.
Loyola Chicago soon answered with a 3-0 run of their own to tie the set at 8-8 early, but a 6-0 stretch in favor of the Falcons granted BGSU a 16-9 lead.
The Ramblers made a late push with a 3-0 stretch that narrowed the gap to 21-15 and another 4-0 run later to bring the score to 23-19, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the Falcons’ lead, ending the set at 25-21 to head to a fifth.
The fifth set followed suit by remaining close throughout. BGSU recorded the first two points of the set to go up 2-0, but Loyola Chicago quickly matched to tie it up, starting a trend.
The ties continued through the set, seeing it knotted up at 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6 and 7-7 before three Loyola Chicago points pushed them ahead 10-7 and prompted a Bowling Green timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Falcons quickly regrouped with a 3-0 run of their own to tie the set back up at 10-10, forcing a timeout from the Ramblers’ bench this time around.
The BGSU run stretched to 4-0 out of the timeout, taking an 11-10 lead, which sparked another line of ties, coming at 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, 14-14 and 15-15 to send the set into extra points to decide a winner in the five-set thriller.
The ties didn’t stop there, going to 16-16 as well, but the Falcons were able to land back-to-back points to secure the 18-16 set win and 3-2 match win to erase the two-set deficit.
