Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Hosts Arch-Rival Rockets Friday
October 30, 2000 | Volleyball
Oct. 30, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after splitting a pair of Mid-American Conference matches on the road last weekend, return home for the final home conference contest this week. The Falcons (14-8 overall, 7-6 MAC) of head coach Denise Van De Walle will face the University of Toledo in a Friday (Nov. 3) match. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at BGSU's venerable Anderson Arena.
Following the UT contest, the Falcons will return to the road for a Saturday match against Marshall University. That contest will begin at 7:00 p.m. at MU's Henderson Center.
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 331-220. She is the second-winningest coach in MAC history with her 331 career victories, and her total of 152 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: Toledo checks into the week with a 7-14 overall record, and the Rockets are 4-8 in MAC play. Last weekend, UT dropped a pair of home matches, falling to Eastern Michigan in four games Friday (Oct. 27) and Ball State in three games the next night. Head coach Kent Miller is 35-77 in his fourth year, all at UT. More information on the team can be found at www.utrockets.com.
Marshall enters the week with a 3-22 overall mark, and the Thundering Herd will take a 1-11 MAC record into a Tuesday (Oct. 31) home match vs. Akron. Last weekend, the Herd dropped a pair of matches on the road, to Ball State Friday (three games) and Miami Saturday (five games). Head coach Steffi Legall is 50-69 in her fourth season, all in Huntington. More information on MU can be found at www.herdzone.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons hold a 38-8 lead in the all-time series with Toledo, but the Rockets broke a BG four-match win streak with a three-game victory in the Glass City earlier this month (Oct. 4). The Falcons enter Friday's match with a perfect 20-0 record in home contests vs. UT.
BGSU leads Marshall by a 5-1 margin, including a three-game victory at Anderson Arena earlier this season (Sept. 30). The Falcons are 3-0 in matches played in Huntington, including a three-game win in last year's lone meeting between the teams.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons went 1-1 during last weekend's trip to Northeast Ohio. BGSU lost a five-game affair at Kent State (8-15, 15-5, 11-15, 15-3, 9-15) in Friday (Oct. 27) action, but rebounded to knock off Akron in four games (15-8, 15-6, 14-16, 15-5) the following afternoon.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories when the NCAA released the latest national statistics last Wednesday (Oct. 25). Freshman Susie Norris was ranked 17th in the nation in digs, with an average of 4.16 per game, while junior Caty Rommeck was 14th in the country in blocks, averaging 1.49 per contest. As a team, the Falcons were ranked 16th in the nation in digs, with an average of 18.87 per game.
After last weekend's matches, Norris is now averaging 4.23 digs, while Rommeck is averaging 1.50 blocks. The Falcons are averaging 19.02 digs as a team.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Oct. 30), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .330, and she leads the MAC with 1.50 blocks. Rommeck ranks sixth in the MAC with 3.92 kills per game, and she is 15th in the conference in digs (2.93 dpg).
Freshman Susie Norris is still the MAC digs leader, with an average of 4.23 per game, and she is 14th in kills per game (3.33). Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is fifth in the league in blocks (1.11 bpg) and 13th in hitting pct. (.260). Junior Natalie Becker is averaging 11.88 assists, good for third in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons lead the league in digs (19.02), and BGSU ranks second in blocks (2.73), third in hitting pct. (.237), fourth in kills (16.21) and assists (14.69) and 13th in service aces (1.05).
NOTING THE FALCONS: The Falcons have won nine matches at home this season, the most since the 1992 team went 12-1 ... this year, BGSU is 9-2 at Anderson Arena, heading into Friday's Toledo match ... redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills ... in the last six matches, she has totalled 103 kills ... during that six-contest span, she has hit .408 with 4.48 kills per game, leading the team in both categories during that time ... last Friday's KSU match was the 550th contest of Denise Van De Walle's coaching career ... BGSU has just two home contests remaining on the regular-season schedule ... the Falcons have five road matches left ... just one of BG's five remaining MAC regular-season matches will be played at Anderson Arena ... freshman Susie Norris had 28 digs in the win at Akron, just one off the school record for a four-game match ... Holli Costein had 29 digs in a Sept. 8, 1990, match against Northwestern ... Norris is on pace to break the BGSU single-season record for digs per game ... Norris is averaging 4.23 digs per contest through 22 matches ... the school record is 3.80, by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987 ... Norris has a total of 347 digs to date this season ... the school record is 455, by Costein in 1992 ... Norris needs 12 more digs to break into the seasonal top 10 ... BGSU's win at Akron continued an interesting trend in that series ... the Falcons now have won four of the last five contests at UA's Rhodes Arena ... the road team has won eight of the last nine (and nine of the last 11) matches in the BGSU-UA series ... in Friday's KSU match, the Falcons lost despite having more kills, more blocks, and a higher hitting percentage than the Golden Flashes ... junior Caty Rommeck has a chance to break into the BGSU single-season top 10 in several blocking categories ... Rommeck has 36 solo blocks and 126 total rejections this year ... Keisha Wilkins (1997) is 10th on both lists, with 42 solo blocks and 137 total blocks ... Rommeck has 90 block assists to date, just nine behind the 10th-place total amassed by Tammy Schiller in 1991 ... Rommeck's 1.50 blocks-per-game average puts her on a pace to finish third on that BG seasonal list ... offensively, Rommeck's hitting percentage of .330 has her on a pace to place sixth on that school seasonal list.
DOWN THE ROAD: Following this weekend's action, the Falcons will complete the home portion of the regular-season schedule with a Nov. 7 non-conference match vs. Oakland. BGSU then will begin a season-ending four-match road swing with contests at Miami (Nov. 10) and Ohio (Nov. 11). Start time for all of BGSU's remaining contests will be 7:00 p.m.
2000 MAC STANDINGS
(as of Monday morning, Oct. 30)
East Division Ohio (17-8) 10-4 Bowling Green (14-8) 7-6 Akron (11-12) 6-6 Miami (9-14) 5-7 Kent State (8-14) 5-7 Marshall (3-22) 1-11 Buffalo (4-20) 0-13West Division Ball State (18-4) 11-1 Western Michigan (16-5) 11-1 Northern Illinois (19-6) 9-4 Central Michigan (13-10) 7-4 Toledo (7-14) 4-8 Eastern Michigan (5-18) 4-8
