Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
OHIO
Volleyball Downs Division Leaders In Four Games
October 18, 2000 | Volleyball
Oct. 18, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team rallied from a one-game deficit and withstood an early onslaught of aces to defeat visiting Ohio University Wednesday night (Oct. 18). The Falcons captured the Mid-American Conference match (8-15, 15-13, 15-5, 15-10) at BGSU's Anderson Arena.
For Falcon head coach Denise Van De Walle, the win was the 150th conference victory of her career, as well as the 150th MAC win in the history of the program. Van De Walle has been BGSU's head coach since 1983, the first year the league sponsored the sport of volleyball.
Van De Walle, now 329-219 overall and 150-117 in MAC play, is just the third MAC coach to reach 150 career conference victories. Her total of 329 overall victories ranks her second among all MAC coaches on that list.
BGSU, now 12-7 overall and 5-5 in MAC action, fell behind 7-2 in game one as Ohio had five service aces during that stretch. The Bobcats had six aces in each of the first two games en route to 13 for the match.
Ohio (14-7, 7-3 MAC), the East Division's first-place team, hit .393 in game one, but the Falcons held the Bobcats to an .097 rate for the rest of the match. OU hit .143 on the evening.
BGSU rallied from deficits of 8-6 and 11-9 in the second game. The Falcons used a 5-0 run to take a 13-11 lead, then, after OU tied the contest at 13-all, took the next two points when back-to-back Bobcat shot attempts sailed wide. The Falcons hit .357 in that second game, and .269 for the match.
BGSU spotted the visitors a point in game three, then raced to a commanding 12-2 lead. In the fourth game, Ohio took early leads of 4-0 and 6-2, but a 6-0 BG run gave the host team a lead it would not relinquish. A kill by freshman Susie Norris capped an 11-1 run and gave the Falcons a 13-7 lead. The Bobcats scored three consecutive points to cut the lead to three, but a kill by senior JoAnna Papageorgiou was followed by a Bobcat attack error that ended the match.
For the Brown and Orange, Norris and sophomore Kristin Gamby each had 14 kills in the match. Gamby, after entering last weekend's action with a career total of 20 kills and a single-match best of six, has had 55 kills over the last three matches. She hit over .300 for the third consecutive contest, hitting .345 vs. the Bobcats.
BGSU juniors Caty Rommeck and Shyann Robinson each had 12 kills, while Papageorgiou added eight. Rommeck hit a team-high .414 on the night.
Defensively, Norris and "Pop" each had 16 digs to lead the Falcons, while Rommeck had a match-best five blocks.
Both Papageorgiou and Rommeck had three service aces as the Falcons had nine as a team. Junior setter Natalie Becker had 50 assists in the match.
For the visitors, who lost for the third consecutive match after a 7-0 MAC start, Lori McColl had a match-high 17 kills, while Amber Merrill and Tracy Binegar added 15 and 12, respectively. Michelle Gil had 45 assists and a match-best 17 digs, pacing five Bobcat double-digit diggers.
Kris Whitfield had four solo blocks for the visitors.
The victory moved the Falcons into a tie for second place in the division with Akron (4-4 MAC), with both teams two games behind OU.
The Falcons return to action Friday (Oct. 20), completing a four-match homestand with a match against Eastern Michigan University. First serve is set for 7:00 p.m. at Anderson Arena.
