.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons In Northeast Ohio This Weekend
January 05, 2000 | Volleyball
Oct. 18, 1999
TOP STORIES:
* - Bowling Green has won five matches in a row heading into Tuesday's (Oct. 19) contest at Oakland ... included in that streak, which is the team's longest since late September of 1997, are four consecutive Mid-American Conference victories.
* - The Falcons have moved into a tie for third place in the MAC's East Division ... BGSU now has a 5-3 record in conference play, heading into this weekend's matches at Kent and Akron ... seven of the Falcons' last 10 league contests will be played on the road.
* - Senior Lori Kemerer now is third on the school's career list in total blocks, with 467 in her Falcon tenure.
UP NEXT: The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, riding a five-match winning streak, takes to the road for three matches this week. The Falcons will step out of Mid-American Conference play for Tuesday's (Oct. 19) match at Oakland. BGSU then returns to the league schedule with matches at Kent Friday (Oct. 22) and Akron Saturday (Oct. 23). The matches -- held at OU's Athletics Center (3,000), KSU's M.A.C. Center (6,327) and UA's Rhodes Arena (5,942) -- all are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
DENISE VAN DE WALLE: Denise Van De Walle, the dean of MAC mentors, is in her 17th year with the Falcons. She is the second-winningest coach in MAC history with 307 career victories, and her 138 MAC wins also rank her second all-time. Van De Walle reached the 300-win mark for her career Sept. 10, when the Falcons swept Mississippi State at the Marquette Challenge.
Tom Hanna is in his fourth season as Van De Walle's assistant, while former Falcon setter Wendy (Watkins) Teaman is in her first year on the BG coaching staff.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: Bowling Green enters the Oakland match with an 11-8 overall record and a 5-3 MAC slate. The Falcons went 2-0 last week, winning a pair of three-game contests over visiting Toledo Friday (Oct. 15) and Central Michigan Saturday (Oct. 16).
Senior Melissa Lewis, who has led the Falcons in kills in 16 of the first 19 matches, has 298 kills (4.58 per game) on the season. Classmate Heather Greig has dished out 699 assists, an average of 10.75 per game. Another senior, Lori Kemerer, leads BG in blocks per game (1.48) and digs per game (3.16). Lewis (3.02 dpg) is a close second in the latter category.
Last season, the Falcons finished with an overall record of 11-21. BG finished in sixth place in the MAC's seven-team East Division with a 4-14 league record.
MAC STANDINGS:
Team (Overall)____________MAC East Division Akron (11-8)______________6-1 Marshall (12-7)___________6-2 Bowling Green (11-8)______5-3 Miami (10-8)______________5-3 Kent (6-11)_______________3-3 Buffalo 9-11)_____________2-6 Ohio (6-14)_______________0-8West Division Western Michigan (16-3)___8-0 Ball State (15-5)_________7-1 Eastern Michigan (12-8)___4-5 Northern Illinois (6-9)___2-5 Central Michigan (5-13)___2-6 Toledo (4-15)_____________1-8
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Oakland will bring a 4-15 overall record into Tuesday's match, and the Golden Grizzlies are 1-6 in the Mid-Continent conference. OU split a pair of weekend matches, downing Chicago State before losing at Western Illinois. OU has played four matches against MAC schools this year, losing to Eastern Michigan (twice), Central Michigan and Toledo. Last year, Oakland finished 8-19 overall and went 7-7 against Mid-Con opponents. Ed Tolentino is in his first year as a collegiate head coach.
Kent is 6-11 overall, and the Golden Flashes will bring a 3-3 MAC record into Wednesday's (Oct. 20) home match against Akron. KSU played just one match last week, a five-game win at Miami Saturday (Oct. 16). A year ago, Kent went 11-21 and placed fifth in the MAC's East Division with a 5-13 league ledger. Mora Kanim is 37-44 in her third year, all at KSU.
Akron is 11-8 overall, and the Zips sit atop the MAC's East Division with a 6-1 conference mark. UA plays at Kent Wednesday (Oct. 20), then hosts Wisconsin-Milwaukee in Friday non-league play before meeting the Falcons the following night. Last weekend, the Zips won a pair of four-game decisions on the road, beating Eastern Michigan and Toledo. Last year, UA finished 18-11, including a 13-5 MAC mark that was good for second place in the East Division. Mike Sweitzer is 158-123 in his ninth year as a head coach, all at UA.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead the all-time series with all three of this week's opponents. BGSU holds advantages of 2-0 over Oakland, 32-10 vs. Kent and 13-7 against Akron.
BGSU's series record vs. OU includes a three-game win (15-6, 19-17, 15-11) last year (Sept. 15, 1998). In that match, Shyann Robinson led the Golden Grizzlies with 12 kills, while Caty Rommeck had eight kills and a team-high four blocks. Both players transferred to BGSU prior to the 1999 season.
The Falcons' series mark vs. Kent includes an 11-6 record on the road. BGSU has won the last two meetings vs. the Flashes, with both matches being played at Anderson Arena. That two-match win streak includes a five-game victory just 10 days ago (Oct. 8). Kent had won the last four meetings prior to BG's current streak, and the Flashes have won the last two meetings in Kent.
BGSU is 5-3 in road matches vs. Akron, but Akron won last year's match in the Rubber City in three games. UA won both of last year's meetings, with BG's last victory coming at Akron in November of 1997.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons went 2-0 last week, extending the team's winning streak to five matches ... on Friday (Oct. 15), the Brown and Orange recorded a three-game win over arch-rival Toledo (15-6, 15-3, 15-8) at Anderson Arena ... the Falcons' hitting was quite consistent throughout the evening ... BGSU's .288 hitting percentage in the match included game-by-game numbers of .290, .286 and .288 ... senior Melissa Lewis led the Falcons with 12 kills and had a .370 percentage ... sophomore Amber Vorst hit .364 on the night, while senior Lori Kemerer had nine kills and hit .350 ... sophomore Caty Rommeck hit .583 with seven kills ... Kemerer had a match-high 18 digs, and had five blocks ... Rommeck also had five blocks, one behind senior Kris Pesorda's total ... after winning the UT match in a time of 1:19, the Brown and Orange needed just 1:11 to record a three-game win over Central Michigan (15-3, 15-9, 15-7) the following night ... the Falcons hit .283 and held CMU to a hitting percentage of .093 ... Lewis again led the Brown and Orange in the kills department, with 17, while Vorst had a double-double with 13 kills and 14 digs ... freshman Kate Yeo had a match-high 15 digs, setting a personal best in the process.
FALCON NOTES: The Falcons' current five-match winning streak is the team's longest in nearly two years ... BGSU had a six-match win streak from Oct. 13-30, 1997 ... BG's current streak has come while junior JoAnna Papageorgiou has been sidelined due to injury ... "Pop" started the first 12 contests of the year, but then missed the next five matches ... she returned last weekend, seeing brief action in both the Toledo and Central Michigan matches ... earlier in October, senior Lori Kemerer became just the third player in BGSU history with 1,000 kills, 1,000 digs and 400 blocks in her career ... Kemerer, who surpassed the millennium mark in digs during the Wright State match (Oct. 5), now has 1,099 kills, 1,056 digs and 467 total blocks in her BGSU career ... Kemerer now ranks seventh on the BGSU career lists in both kills and digs, and she has moved into third in total blocks ... she passed Lisa Berardinelli (1983-86) over the weekend, and now is 19 total blocks behind second-place Tammy Schiller (1988-91) ... additionally, Kemerer ranks second at the school in career block assists (361) and seventh in solo blocks (106) ... she is now sixth in attack attempts (2,920) ... senior Melissa Lewis has led BG in kills in 16 of this season's 19 matches ... she surpassed the 1,000-kill mark for her career earlier this month, just the ninth player to do so ... Lewis now has 1,048 career kills, good for eighth place on the BGSU career list ... Lewis ranks ninth all-time in school history with 2,709 career attack attempts ... senior Heather Greig is fifth in school history with 2,024 career assists ... her next target is Wendy (Watkins) Teaman, Greig's former teammate and a current BGSU assistant coach, who had 2,619 assists in a BG uniform ... BGSU has been streaky at home, to say the least, as of late ... after winning six consecutive matches at home from November of 1997 to early October of last year, the Falcons lost 10 in a row at home ... after ending that slide, BG now has a four-match home winning streak.
FALCON QUICK FACTS
THIS WEEK
BGSU at Oakland - Tues., Oct. 19
Rochester, Michigan - 7:00 p.m.
BGSU at Kent - Fri., Oct. 22
Kent, Ohio - 7:00 p.m.
BGSU at Akron - Sat., Oct. 23
Akron, Ohio - 7:00 p.m.
LAST WEEK
at BGSU 3, Toledo 0
Fri., Oct. 15 - Anderson Arena
at BGSU 3, Central Michigan 0
Sat., Oct. 16 - Anderson Arena
1999 RECORDS
Overall: 11-8 (.579)
Mid-American Conf.: 5-3 (.625)
HEAD COACH - Denise Van De Walle (17th season)
Alma Mater: Ball State, 1976
Record at BGSU: 307-208
Overall Career Record: 307-208
ASSISTANT COACHES
Tom Hanna (fourth season)
Alma Mater: Marist, 1991
Wendy Teaman (first season)
Alma Mater: Bowling Green, 1998
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS
All-Time: 405-324-3 (.555) (1976-present / 24th year)
MAC: 138-109 (.559) (1983-present / 17th year)
