Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Heads To NE Ohio This Weekend
October 23, 2000 | Volleyball
Oct. 23, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after a pair of home wins last weekend, will look to continue that success with two Mid-American Conference matches on the road this weekend. The Falcons (13-7 overall, 6-5 MAC) of head coach Denise Van De Walle will play at Kent State University in a Friday (Oct. 27) night match. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at KSU's Memorial Athletic & Convocation Center.
Following the KSU contest, the Falcons will take on the University of Akron in a Saturday matine‚. That match will begin at 3:00 p.m. at UA's James A. Rhodes Arena.
HEAD COACH DENISE VAN DE WALLE: Denise Van De Walle, the dean of Mid-American Conference mentors, is in her 18th year with the Falcons, and has a record of 330-219. She is the second-winningest coach in MAC history with her 330 career victories, and her total of 151 MAC wins ranks her third all-time. Van De Walle reached the 300-win mark for her career on Sept. 10, 1999, when BG swept Mississippi State.
James Neyhouse is in his first season as Van De Walle's assistant, while former BGSU standout Kris Pesorda also is in her first year on the Falcon staff.
THE OPPONENTS: Kent State checks into the week with a 6-13 overall record, and the Golden Flashes are 3-6 in MAC play. KSU will play a Wednesday (Oct. 25) match at Akron before welcoming BGSU to town two nights later. Last week, KSU split a pair of matches, breaking a three-match losing streak with a three-game win at Buffalo Wednesday (Oct. 18). The Flashes dropped a Saturday match (Oct. 21) at Northern Illinois in four games. KSU has played only two home matches to date this season, going 1-1. Head coach Mora Kanim is 51-63 in her fourth year, all in Kent. More information on the team can be found at www.kent.edu/athletics.
Akron enters the week with a 10-11 overall mark, and the Zips are a half-game behind the Falcons in the East Division, with a record of 5-5 in MAC action. UA hosts Kent State Wednesday before meeting BGSU Saturday. Last weekend, the Zips split a pair of road matches. UA swept Central Michigan Friday before losing to WMU, also in three games, Saturday. Akron is 2-4 at home this season heading into the KSU match. Head coach Mike Sweitzer is in his 10th year, all in the Rubber City, and has a 175-144 record. More information on UA can be found at www.gozips.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons hold a 34-10 lead in the all-time series with Kent State, including a five-game win at Anderson Arena earlier this season (Sept. 29). BGSU has won the last four overall meetings in the series, including a five-game match at Anderson and a four-game contest in Kent last year, and the Brown and Orange holds a 12-6 record in matches played at KSU.
BGSU leads Akron by a 14-8 margin, but the Zips captured a four-game match in BG earlier this season (Sept. 23). BGSU is 6-3 all-time in matches at Akron. Interestingly, the road team has won seven of the last eight (and eight of the last 10) matches. The Falcons have won three of the last four matches at Rhodes Arena, but the Zips have won the last five contests at Anderson.
VAN DE WALLE GETS 150TH MAC WIN: BGSU head coach Denise Van De Walle became just the third coach in MAC history to reach 150 career conference victories. Van De Walle reached the milestone when the Falcons downed Ohio Wednesday (Oct. 18). After a win over Eastern Michigan two days later, Van De Walle's career MAC record stands at 151-117 (.563), and her overall record is 330-219 (.601).
LAST WEEK: The Falcons went 2-0 at home last week, extending the current winning streak to four matches. The Falcons knocked off East Division-leading Ohio in four games (8-15, 15-13, 15-5, 15-10) Wednesday (Oct. 18), before sweeping Eastern Michigan (15-12, 15-13, 15-7) two days later.
FALCONS SWEEP P-O-W HONORS: The Falcons swept the MAC weekly awards last week (Oct. 17), as redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby was named the league's offensive player of the week, while junior Caty Rommeck shared the defensive honor.
The Falcons have had at least one player of the week in five of the season's first seven weeks. Rommeck became the first-ever BGSU volleyball player to earn league honors four times in a season. Last year, Melissa Lewis had become the first Falcon ever to earn three P-O-W awards in the same year.
GAMBY GETS SCHOLAR-ATHLETE AWARD, TOO: The honors kept rolling in for sophomore Kristin Gamby last week. After earning MAC Offensive Player-of-the-Week honors, Gamby also was named the league's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week. The award is given to one male and one female each week. Gamby has a 3.37 cumulative grade point average as a pre-accounting major.
Gamby's award marked the second time in three weeks that a Falcon volleyball player captured the honor, as junior Amber Vorst was the league's scholar-athlete of the week on Oct. 3.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories when the NCAA released the latest national statistics last Wednesday (Oct. 18). Freshman Susie Norris was ranked 16th in the nation in digs, with an average of 4.17 per game, while junior Caty Rommeck was 14th in the country in blocks, averaging 1.53 per contest. After last weekend's matches, Norris is now averaging 4.16 digs, while Rommeck is averaging 1.49 blocks.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Oct. 23), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .325, and she leads the MAC with 1.49 blocks. Rommeck ranks sixth in the MAC with 3.96 kills per game.
Freshman Susie Norris is still the MAC digs leader, with an average of 4.16 per game. Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is fifth in the league in blocks (1.11 bpg), 10th in hitting pct. (.271) and 13th in kills (3.33 kpg). Junior Natalie Becker is averaging 11.6 assists, good for third in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons lead the league in digs (18.87), and BGSU ranks second in blocks (2.72), fourth in kills (16.08), hitting pct. (.235) and assists (14.59) and 13th in service aces (1.13).
GREAT GOING, GAMBY! Kristin Gamby continues to post impressive offensive numbers. The redshirt sophomore led BGSU in hitting (.426) and kills (4.14 per game) for the second-straight week. She hit .345 and tied for team honors with 14 kills in the win over Ohio, then hit a match-best .520 with 15 kills (tying for match honors) in a sweep of EMU.
Gamby, who entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills, has posted 70 kills over the last four contests. During that four-match span, she hit .467 with 5.00 kills per game. Gamby is now hitting .388 on the season.
NOTING THE FALCONS: Friday's KSU match will be the 550th contest of Denise Van De Walle's coaching career ... BGSU has just two home matches remaining on the regular-season schedule ... the Falcons have seven road matches left ... just one of BG's seven remaining MAC regular-season matches will be played at Anderson Arena ... freshman Susie Norris tied sophomore Kristin Gamby for team honors in kills in each of last week's matches, with 14 vs. OU and 15 against EMU ... Norris is on pace to break the BGSU single-season record for digs per game ... Norris is averaging 4.16 digs per contest through 20 matches ... the school record is 3.80, by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987 ... Norris has a total of 304 digs to date this season ... the school record is 455, by Holli Costein in 1992 ... Norris has had 13 matches with double-digit dig totals this season, including six contests with 20 or more ... junior Caty Rommeck has had a hitting percentage of .300 or better in 13 matches this year, including in three of the last four contests ... Rommeck has a chance to break into the BGSU single-season top 10 in several blocking categories ... Rommeck has 32 solo blocks and 112 total rejections this year ... Keisha Wilkins (1997) is 10th on both lists, with 42 solo blocks and 137 total blocks ... Rommeck's 1.49 blocks-per-game average puts her on a pace to finish third on that BG seasonal list ... the Falcons are hitting .321 and averaging 20.57 kills per game during the four-match win streak ... during that time, senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is hitting .381 with 4.14 kpg, and junior Natalie Becker is averaging 16.29 assists per game.
DOWN THE ROAD: Following this weekend's action, the Falcons will complete the home portion of the MAC regular-season schedule with a Nov. 3 match vs. Toledo. BGSU will load up the bus and head to Marshall for a match the following night. Start time for both contests is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
2000 MAC STANDINGS (as of Monday morning, Oct. 23)
East Division Ohio (16-7) 8-3 Bowling Green (13-7) 6-5 Akron (10-11) 5-5 Miami (8-13) 4-6 Kent State (6-13) 3-6 Marshall (3-20) 1-9 Buffalo (4-18) 0-11West Division Ball State (16-4) 9-1 Western Michigan (14-5) 9-1 Northern Illinois (18-5) 8-3 Central Michigan (11-10) 6-4 Toledo (7-12) 4-6 Eastern Michigan (4-17) 3-7
