Sept. 24, 2004

Final Stats

Bowling Green, OH - Toledo (10-1, 0-1 MAC) dropped its first match of the season tonight with a 3-1 (30-25, 23-30, 30-24, 30-20) setback in its conference opener at Bowling Green (8-4, 1-0 MAC). The loss ended UT's school-record 10-match win streak.

Senior OH Rachel Mohler led the Rockets' offensive attack with 18 kills followed by sophomore OH Kate Bean (16 kills) and junior MB Corrie Magnus (14 kills).

The difference in the match was the Falcons ability to record a season-high .314 attack percentage and only commit 16 attack errors, while UT hit only .178 and had nearly twice as many attack errors (31).

Game one was the tightest of all four games. Toledo took the first two-point lead of game one at 16-14, only for BGSU to regain the lead, back at 18-17. The match continued to swing back and forth, seeing six different lead changes and 16 tie scores, more than the other three games combined. A kill by Ashlei Nofzinger, followed by a UT attack error and an Emily Manser service ace forced the Rockets to use their first timeout, falling behind 26-23. Kills by Melissa Mohr and Maggie Karges put away game one for good for the Falcons, 30-25.

Game two also saw several lead changes, but with the score knotted at 12-12, the Toledo onslaught began. The Rockets recorded the next 10 points with junior MB Kelsey Culver serving and walked home with game two, 30-23.

The Falcons held the upper hand over the Rockets in the final two games. BGSU used an 8-3 run in the middle of game three to take a 14-8 advantage heading into a UT timeout. The Rockets were able to put together a run to get the deficit to two at 23-21, but back-to-back kills by Karges and Taylor Twite sealed the deal in game three, 30-24.

BGSU stormed out to an 18-5 lead in Game four and never looked back. UT rallied to within as close as 22-16, but the deficit was just too much to overcome as Bowling Green won game four, 30-20.

"We needed to come out in Game Three and be prepared for whatever Bowling Green was going to throw at us and we just didn't respond," UT Head Coach Kent Miller said. "We didn't do a very good job of receiving serve and taking care of the ball tonight. That's what you need to do to allow yourself to perform well and it was a rough night for us. Bowling Green was prepared for us and they played hard in their own gym and came away with the victory."

Toledo will look to rebound tomorrow afternoon when it hosts MAC West Division preseason favorite Ball State (6-6, 0-1) in Savage Hall at 3:00 p.m. The Cardinals were defeated by defending MAC champion Ohio tonight in Athens in three games (30-25, 31-29, 31-29).