Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Looks To Clinch Homecourt Berth
November 13, 2000 | Volleyball
Nov. 13, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after winning three matches last week, will complete the regular season with a pair of road contests this week. The Falcons (19-8 overall, 11-6 Mid-American Conference) of head coach Denise Van De Walle will head to Cleveland State University for a Wednesday (Nov. 15) match. First serve for the non-conference contest is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at CSU's Woodling Gym.
Following the CSU contest, the Falcons will return to conference action with a Saturday (Nov. 18) contest at the University at Buffalo. Start time for that match is 7:00 p.m. at UB's Alumni Arena.
MAC TOURNAMENT PICTURE: The Falcons' win at Ohio University Saturday (Nov. 11) moved BGSU into a first-place tie with the Bobcats in the MAC's East Division. Both teams have 11-6 league records with a single league match left in the regular season. The Falcons, however, hold the tiebreaker by virtue of sweeping the season series between the teams.
The Falcons have clinched a berth in the MAC Tournament, and BG could clinch a top-four seed and a homecourt berth for the quarterfinal round with a win at Buffalo Saturday. BGSU could finish as high as the third seed for the tournament, should the Falcons beat UB while Northern Illinois loses one or both of the Huskies' matches this week. BG holds the tiebreaker with NIU, having won the only season meeting between the schools.
In the event of a BG loss at UB, the Falcons still could garner a homecourt berth for the playoffs, depending upon other outcomes this weekend. The quarterfinal round is set for early next week, with the four winners moving on to the semifinals that Friday, Nov. 24. The semifinal matches, along with Saturday's (Nov. 25) championship, all will be held at the site of the highest-remaining seed after the quarterfinal round.
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 336-220. She is the second-winningest coach in MAC history with her 336 career victories, and her total of 156 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: Cleveland State checks into the week with a 12-15 overall record, and the Vikings ended Midwestern Collegiate Conference play with a 1-11 league record. Last week, CSU went 2-1, including a three-game sweep of Toledo Tuesday (Nov. 7). The Vikes then split a pair of MCC road matches, winning at UW-Green Bay in four games Friday (Nov. 10) before being swept by UW-Milwaukee the following afternoon. Chuck Voss, in his first year at CSU, is 35-51 in his third year as a collegiate head coach. More information on the team can be found at www.csuohio.edu/athletics.
Buffalo enters the week with an overall record of 4-26, and the Bulls will enter Saturday's BGSU match with a MAC mark of 0-17. UB plays a Wednesday non-conference tilt at Stony Brook before facing the Falcons. The Bulls are looking to snap a 17-match losing streak. Last week, UB went 0-3 at home, losing to Syracuse in five games Wednesday (Nov. 8). Then, last weekend, the Bulls fell to Akron in four games and Marshall in three. Head coach Nadine Lilavois, 15-45 in her second year with UB, is 112-218 in her 10th year as a collegiate head coach. More information can be found at www.buffalobulls.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons trail Cleveland State, 13-10, in the all-time series between the schools, but BGSU has won nine of the last 10 meetings, including a four-game victory at Anderson Arena last year (Nov. 16, 1999). CSU's lone victory since 1984 was a three-game triumph at BGSU in 1998. The Falcons have not played in Cleveland since the 1990 season, and BG holds a 3-5 all-time road record vs. the Vikings.
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 4-0, in the all-time series which began in 1998. The Falcons have won three-game matches at Anderson Arena in each of the last three years, including last month (Oct. 13, 2000). The Brown and Orange won a four-game set in Buffalo to close the 1999 regular season (Nov. 20).
LAST WEEK: The Falcons won three matches to extend the current winning streak to six. BGSU stepped out of conference play for a three-game win over visiting Oakland (15-8, 15-13, 15-7) in Tuesday (Nov. 7) action. Then, BGSU hit the road and posted a pair of four-game weekend wins. The Falcons downed Miami (15-9, 15-10, 10-15, 15-10) on Friday (Nov. 10), then beat Ohio (15-17, 15-12, 15-7, 15-11) the following night to move into a tie for the MAC's East Division lead with the Bobcats.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories when the NCAA released the latest national statistics last Wednesday (Nov. 8). Freshman Susie Norris was ranked 11th in the nation in digs, with an average of 4.32 per game, while junior Caty Rommeck was 19th in the country in blocks, averaging 1.49 per contest. As a team, the Falcons were ranked 14th in the nation in digs, with an average of 19.01 per game.
After last week's matches, Norris is now averaging 4.24 digs, while Rommeck is averaging 1.53 blocks. The Falcons now are averaging 19.05 digs as a team.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Nov. 13), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .334, and she leads the MAC with 1.53 blocks. Rommeck ranks seventh in the MAC with 3.89 kills per game, and she is 15th in the conference in digs (2.98 dpg).
Freshman Susie Norris is second in the MAC in digs, with an average of 4.24 per game. Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is fifth in the league in blocks (1.19 bpg) and ninth in hitting pct. (.284). Junior Natalie Becker is averaging 12.19 assists, good for third in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons lead the league in digs (19.05), and BGSU ranks second in blocks (2.74), third in hitting pct. (.240), fourth in both kills (16.43) and assists (14.84) and 13th in service aces (1.02).
NOTING THE FALCONS: BGSU has won the last six matches, and 10 of the last 11 contests ... last Tuesday's win over Oakland was part of "Senior Night," as Falcon seniors JoAnna Papageorgiou and Krista Davis were honored after their final home regular-season match ... the Falcons have won 11 matches at home this season, the most since the 1992 team went 12-1 ... this year, BGSU is 11-2 at Anderson Arena, with a chance to play another home match in the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament ... juniors Caty Rommeck and Shyann Robinson played against their former team Tuesday, having transferred to BG from Oakland before the 1999 season ... Rommeck had a triple-double in Friday's win at Miami, with 19 kills, 12 digs and a career-high 12 total blocks ... she had five solo blocks to tie her career best ... BGSU, after losing 12-straight matches to Miami, now has won the last two series meetings, including a victory in last year's MAC Tournament quarterfinals ... the win marked the Falcons' first at MU's Millett Hall since the 1993 season ... Papageorgiou missed a triple-double by just two blocks in the Miami match, with 18 kills, 12 digs and eight blocks ... she was even closer to a triple-double the following night, with 15 kills, 11 digs and nine total blocks ... Rommeck and Papageorgiou have combined for half of the triple-doubles in the MAC this season ... Rommeck has two (vs. Cincinnati on Sept. 2, at Miami Friday), while "Pop" had one against Ball State (Sept. 22) ... freshman Susie Norris had a season-high four service aces at Miami ... Norris has hit double digits in kills in the last four matches, and is nine of the last 10 contests ... Nadia Bedricky, another freshman, tied her season best with 18 digs at Ohio ... she had 14 the previous night at Miami, and averaged 5.33 digs on the weekend ... Papageorgiou has hit at least .300 in each of the last five matches ... during that time, she is hitting .359 with 4.24 kills per game, leading the team in both categories ... "Pop" has had double-digit kill totals in each the last eight contests ... last week, she hit .402 with 4.36 kills per game ... Rommeck hit .350 with 3.80 kills, 1.90 blocks and 2.90 digs per game in last week's three matches ... in the two MAC wins, Rommeck had 2.38 blocks and 3.00 digs per game ... redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills ... in the last 11 matches, she has totalled 154 kills as BGSU has gone 10-1 ... during that 11-contest span, she has hit .354 with a team-best 4.05 kills per game ... Norris remains on pace to break the BGSU single-season record for digs per game ... Norris is averaging 4.24 digs per contest through 27 matches ... the school record is 3.80, by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987 ... Norris has a total of 420 digs to date this season, good for third on the all-time BGSU list ... she passed four players last week, and needs just four more digs to tie Angellette Love (1992) for sixth on that list ... Norris is 35 digs shy of the school record of 455, by Holli Costein in 1992 ... Rommeck has broken into the BGSU single-season top 10 in several blocking categories ... Rommeck has 43 solo blocks and 153 total rejections this year ... she is tied for ninth on the solo-block list, along with Lori Hilton (1994) ... Rommeck is two solo blocks shy of seventh place, three solo blocks shy of sixth and six solos out of fifth ... Rommeck is tied for sixth on the total blocks list with Tammy Schiller (1990) ... she is 12 total blocks behind fifth-place Lisa Berardinelli (1986) ... Rommeck has 110 block assists to date, placing her eighth on that list, nine out of seventh ... Rommeck's 1.53 blocks-per-game average puts her on a pace to finish third on that BG seasonal list ... offensively, Rommeck's hitting percentage of .334 has her on a pace to place fifth on that school seasonal list ... Rommeck has moved into the career top-10 list for solo blocks ... her total of 62 at BG ties her with 10th-place Sheri Fella (1986-89) ... Rommeck has 230 career total blocks, trailing the 10th-place person (also Fella) by 10 on that career chart ... junior Natalie Becker moved into the BGSU seasonal list for assists last week ... she now has 1,109 assists this year to rank ninth, and needs 29 to catch eighth-place Jodi Olson (1995) ... on the career list, Becker now has 1,328 to rank seventh ... Tracy Livesey (1983-84) is sixth with 1,355.
DOWN THE ROAD: Following this week's action, the Falcons will begin MAC Tournament play next week. As mentioned, BGSU has a chance to host a quarterfinal match during the early part of next week. The four quarterfinal winners will descend upon the home of the highest-remaining seed for the league tournament semifinals (Nov. 24) and championship match (Nov. 25). All start times are yet to be determined.
2000 MAC STANDINGS (as of Monday morning, Nov. 13)
East Division Bowling Green (19-8) 11-6 Ohio (18-10) 11-6 Akron (14-13) 9-7 Kent State (12-14) 9-7 Miami (10-17) 6-10 Marshall (4-25) 2-14 Buffalo (4-26) 0-17West Division Ball State (22-4) 15-1 Western Michigan (20-5) 15-1 Northern Illinois (22-7) 11-5 Central Michigan (14-14) 8-8 Eastern Michigan (6-22) 5-12 Toledo (7-19) 4-12
THIS WEEKEND'S MAC MATCHES
Fri., Nov. 17: Miami at Akron, 7:30 Northern Illinois at Central Michigan Toledo at Kent State Marshall at Ohio Ball State at Western Michigan, 7:30Sat., Nov. 18: Bowling Green at Buffalo Northern Illinois at Western Michigan, 5:30 Marshall at Akron Ball State at Eastern Michigan Miami at Kent State Central Michigan at Toledo
