Bowling Green Moves into First-Place Tie with Ohio
Falcons rally for 15-17, 15-12, 15-7, 15-11 victory over Bobcats

ATHENS, Ohio (November 11, 2000) -- Bowling Green moved into a first-place tie with Ohio -- and prevented the Bobcats from claiming their first-ever East Division title -- with a 15-17, 15-12, 15-7, 15-11 victory Saturday night at the Convocation Center.

The teams are now tied in the Mid-American Conference with identical 11-6 records with just one match remaining. For tournament seeding purposes, Bowling Green holds the tiebreaker based on a head-to-head sweep if the teams remain even; however, the conference would declare co-champions.

JoAnna Papageorgiou keyed the Falcon victory with 15 kills, while Kristin Gamby and Susie Norris added 13 and 10 kills, respectively. Amber Merrill, who tied the school's single-season kills record at 464 by recording 18, led Ohio. Lori McColl tallied 15 kills and Kris Whitfield added 13.

Ohio rallied from a 14-13 deficit in the opening game to take a 17-15 decision. The Bobcats held a 10-6 lead midway through the game, but saw BGSU rattle off five straight points for an 11-10 advantage. After Ohio tied the score at 11, the Falcons tallied two more points for a 13-11 margin, but saw the score even again at 13.

The Bobcats responded from an early 2-0 deficit in the second game to forge ahead 9-6, but saw the Falcons even the score at nine and later at 10. The teams traded points twice, Bowling Green first each time, to make the score 12-12, before the Falcons tallied three straight points, all on the service of Nadia Bedricky, for a 15-12 victory.

Bowling Green opened the third game with a 7-0 run, before seeing Ohio trim the deficit to one with six straight points. However, the Falcons tallied the next five, and eight of the next nine, points to claim a 15-7 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

Ohio seemed on its way to forcing a deciding fifth game by tallying the first seven points, but saw the Falcons roar back six of the next seven points. Ohio held an 11-9 lead when BGSU made its final charge. The Falcons tallied six straight points, all on Norris' serve, to claim the match 15-11.

The Bobcats fall to 18-10 overall, while Bowling Green improves to 19-8 on the season.

Ohio travels to Morehead State Tuesday before hosting Marshall in the season finale on Friday. Bowling Green is at Cleveland State Wednesday before traveling to Buffalo for their final match.