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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Hosts Kent State Tuesday
November 20, 2000 | Volleyball
Complete BGSU Volleyball Release in PDF Format
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Nov. 20, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after winning a pair of road matches last week, will begin Mid-American Conference Tournament action this week. The Falcons (21-8 overall, 12-6 MAC) of head coach Denise Van De Walle will host Kent State University in league tourney quarterfinal action Tuesday (Nov. 21) afternoon at BGSU's Anderson Arena. Start time for the match is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
The winner of the BGSU-KSU match will advance to this weekend's MAC Tournament semifinals, which will be held at the site of the highest remaining seed after the quarterfinal round. The semifinal matches will be held Friday (Nov. 24), with the championship contest scheduled for Saturday (Nov. 25).
MATCH INFORMATION: Tickets for the MAC Tournament quarterfinal match vs. Kent State will be $4 for adults and $2 for BGSU students with a valid ID. The first 100 students will be admitted free of charge. Gates will open at 2:00 p.m.
FALCONS TIE FOR MAC EAST CROWN: With BGSU's win at Buffalo Saturday (Nov. 18), the Falcons clinched a tie for the MAC's East Division title. Both the Falcons and Ohio finished with 12-6 conference records. The title is BG's first of any kind since the 1992 team went 17-1 to capture the regular-season title. BGSU also won regular-season crowns in 1989 and 1991, and the Falcons won the league tournament in 1991.
Western Michigan captured the MAC's West Division with a 17-1 league record, a game ahead of Ball State (complete MAC standings can be found at the end of this release).
BGSU AND THE MAC TOURNAMENT: The Falcons will be appearing in the MAC Tournament for the second consecutive year and the 12th time in the 17-year history of the event (1980-82, 87-present). In fact, since the tournament was reinstituted prior to the 1987 season, the Falcons' total of 11 appearances in the tourney is the most of any league school.
BGSU has an all-time MAC Tournament record of 8-13. The Falcons are hosting a league tourney quarterfinal match for the second-straight year, having defeated Miami in a five-game contest in 1999. Following that win, BGSU lost to top-seeded and eventual tourney champion Ball State in a semifinal match in Muncie, Ind. In MAC Tournament action down through the years, the Falcons are 3-0 vs. Central Michigan, 1-0 vs. Toledo, 2-3 against both Miami and Western Michigan, and 0-7 against BSU. A complete listing of BGSU's all-time MAC Tournament results can be found in the Adobe Acrobat version of this release.
The Falcons are seeded third for the 2000 MAC Tournament, marking BG's highest seed since the 1993 team was seeded second. That '93 squad was the last Falcon team to advance to the championship match. BG has advanced to the league tourney final on five occasions (1987, 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993), with the 1991 team capturing the school's lone MAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.
BGSU, Northern Illinois and Ohio all finished with 12-6 league records this year, but the Falcons won the tiebreaker and earned the third seed by virtue of head-to-head records with the other two schools. The Brown and Orange swept a pair of matches from Ohio, and BG downed NIU in the only 2000 regular-season meeting between the schools.
MAC TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (since 1987):
Bowling Green 11 Ball State, Miami, Western Michigan 10 Central Michigan 8 Eastern Michigan 5 Akron, Kent (State) 4 Marshall, Northern Illinois 3 Ohio, Toledo 2
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 338-220. With her 338 victories, she has moved past Miami's Carolyn Condit as the winningest coach in MAC history. Her total of 157 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 OPPONENT: Kent State checks into the week with a 14-14 overall record, and the Golden Flashes posted a MAC record of 11-7 to finish in a third-place tie in the East Division. KSU deadlocked with Akron, just a game behind co-champions BGSU and Ohio. The Flashes, like the Falcons, will enter Tuesday's quarterfinal match riding an eight-match winning streak. Last weekend, KSU recorded a pair of three-game sweeps at home, downing Toledo Friday (Nov. 17) and Miami the following night. Kent began MAC play with a 3-7 ledger, but has not lost to a conference opponent since an Oct. 25 match at Akron. KSU also entered last year's MAC Tournament as the sixth seed, but posted a three-game road victory over #3 Akron to advance to the semifinals. Head coach Mora Kanim has a record of 59-64 in her fourth year, all with the Golden Flashes. More information on the team can be found at www.kent.edu/athletics.
STRIKING SIMILARITIES: The Kent State team that invades Anderson Arena Tuesday has some similarities to the Falcon squad it will face. Both KSU and BGSU enter that match riding eight-match winning streaks, second in the league only to Western Michigan (16 matches). Additionally, both the Flashes and the Falcons started slowly in MAC play, beginning league action by going 2-5. Since that time, BG has gone 10-1 against conference teams, with the only loss coming to KSU.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Kent State, 34-11-0, in the all-time series between the schools, and the teams will be meeting for the first time in MAC Tournament action. BGSU and KSU split their two regular-season meetings in 2000, with each team winning a five-game match at home. Kent State won the most recent contest (Oct. 27), ending a four-match series winning streak for the Falcons. BGSU holds an all-time home record of 19-3 against the Golden Flashes, and the Falcons' current three-match home win streak vs. KSU includes the five-game victory on Sept. 29.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons won two road matches to extend the current winning streak to eight. BGSU stepped out of conference play for a three-game win over Cleveland State (15-1, 15-11, 15-4) in Wednesday (Nov. 15) action. Then, BGSU returned to MAC play and closed the regular season with a Saturday (Nov. 18) sweep of host Buffalo (15-7, 15-6, 15-1).
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories when the NCAA released the latest national statistics last Wednesday (Nov. 15). Freshman Susie Norris was ranked 14th in the nation in digs, with an average of 4.24 per game, while junior Caty Rommeck was 13th in the country in blocks, averaging 1.53 per contest. As a team, the Falcons were ranked 11th in the nation in digs, with an average of 19.05 per game.
After last week's matches, Norris is still averaging 4.24 digs, while Rommeck is up to 1.63 blocks per game. The Falcons now are averaging 18.74 digs as a team.
MORE LEAGUE HONORS: A pair of Falcons captured the MAC's weekly awards, the league office announced last Tuesday (Nov. 14). Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou and junior Caty Rommeck were honored by the league office.
Papageorgiou shared the league's offensive player-of-the-week award after hitting .402 with 4.36 kills per game as the Falcons downed Oakland, Miami and Ohio the previous week. The league honor was the first of her career.
Rommeck was named the MAC Defensive P-O-W after averaging 2.90 digs and 1.90 blocks, and hitting .350 with 2.80 kills on the offensive side. Rommeck has earned conference weekly honors a school-record five times this year, and has earned the defensive award four times this fall.
The Falcons have had at least one player of the week in six of the season's first 11 weeks. In addition to Rommeck's five honors, freshman Susie Norris has twice earned defensive P-O-W honors. Also, redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby was the offensive winner once, as was Papageorgiou.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Nov. 20), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .336, and she leads the MAC with 1.63 blocks. Rommeck ranks seventh in the MAC with 3.84 kills per game.
Freshman Susie Norris is second in the MAC in digs, with an average of 4.24 per game. Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is fourth in the league in blocks (1.24 bpg) and ninth in hitting pct. (.283). Junior Natalie Becker is averaging 12.16 assists, good for third in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons lead the league in blocks (2.89), and BGSU ranks third in both digs (18.74) and hitting pct. (.244), fourth in both kills (16.34) and assists (14.73) and 13th in service aces (1.06).
In MAC matches only, Rommeck finished as the league leader in blocks, with 1.50 per game. She was fifth in hitting percentage (.318) and ninth in kills per game (3.68). Papageorgiou was 15th in hitting (.270) and sixth in blocks (1.28), while Norris was second in digs (4.15) and tied for 14th in kills (3.52 per game). Becker was third in assists (12.91).
As a team in league matches, BG finished third in kills (16.93), digs (18.49) and blocks (2.76), fourth in hitting (.246) and assists (15.31) and 13th in aces (0.99).
RECORD WATCH: Freshman Susie Norris has a total of 441 digs this season, and is just 14 shy of the school single-season record ... Holli Costein (455 digs in 1992) currently holds that mark ... Norris is all but certain to shatter the BG single-season record for digs per game ... Norris is averaging 4.24 digs per contest through 29 matches ... the school record is 3.80, by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987 ... if Norris went 10 games without a single dig, she would still be averaging 3.87 digs per game ... junior Caty Rommeck is moving up the BGSU single-season lists in several blocking categories ... Rommeck has 49 solo blocks and 173 total rejections this year ... she is tied for fifth on the solo-block list, along with Lisa Mika (1991) ... Rommeck is four solo blocks shy of fourth place ... Rommeck passed three former Falcons last week, and is now fourth on the total blocks list ... she is six total blocks behind third-place Mika (1991) ... Rommeck has 124 block assists to date, placing her seventh on that list ... she is one block assist out of sixth, two out of fifth, and needs just six block assists to move into a tie for second place ... Rommeck's 1.63 blocks-per-game average puts her on a pace to finish third on that BG seasonal list ... offensively, Rommeck's hitting percentage of .336 this year has her on a pace to place fourth on that list ... Rommeck has moved into the career top-10 list for solo blocks ... her total of 68 at BG places her 10th on that list ... Rommeck has 250 career total blocks at BGSU, ranking 11th ... her next block will tie her with former Falcon player and current assistant coach Kris Pesorda (251 from 1996-99) ... junior Natalie Becker is moving up the BGSU seasonal list for assists ... she now has 1,180 assists this year to rank ninth, and needs 38 to catch eighth-place Linda Popovich (1986) ... on the career list, Becker now has 1,399 to rank sixth ... Wendy Watkins (1994-97) is fifth with 2,619.
NOTING THE FALCONS: BGSU has won the last eight matches, and 12 of the last 13 contests ... the only loss during that time was a five-game road setback against Tuesday's opponent, Kent State ... the early start time for the home match is due to several factors ... the Falcon men's basketball team has a home game scheduled for Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m., and the MAC office has mandated that all volleyball quarterfinal matches be played on Tuesday ... as mentioned, the Falcons' East Division co-championship is the team's first MAC crown of any kind since the 1992 team went 17-1 in league play ... in the league's preseason coaches poll, the Falcons were picked to tie with Marshall for fourth place in the East Division, behind Miami, Akron and KSU ... BGSU has posted the ninth 20-win season in school history, and the team's second in a row ... the Falcons also went 12-6 in MAC play last year, and the Brown and Orange went 21-12 overall in 1999 ... since the beginning of last season, the Falcons have posted an overall mark of 42-20 ... entering Tuesday's 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 ... BGSU has won eight consecutive home matches ... the school record for consecutive home wins is 11, from Nov. 20, 1990, to Nov. 2, 1991 ... in last week's two matches, the Falcons hit .322 as a team while holding the opponents to a rate of .066 ... Buffalo hit .000 against the Falcons, marking BG's best defensive effort in that category this season ... sophomore Kristin Gamby hit a career-best .650 in the win at Cleveland State ... she led the Falcons in kills (21), kills per game (4.20) and hitting pct. (.400) last week ... junior Caty Rommeck had a whopping 3.33 blocks per game last week ... she had five solo blocks and 12 total rejections in just three games at UB, tying her career bests in each category ... it marked the second time in a little over a week that she had five solos and 12 total rejections ... Rommeck also posted those totals in a four-game win at Miami (Nov. 10) ... she had 20 blocks in just six games last week ... in the two wins, Rommeck also had 1.50 digs and 3.00 kills per game, and she hit .375 ... Rommeck and senior JoAnna Papageorgiou have combined for half of the triple-doubles in the MAC this season ... Rommeck has two (vs. Cincinnati on Sept. 2, at Miami Nov. 10), while "Pop" had one against Ball State (Sept. 22) ... freshman Susie Norris tied her season high with four block assists ... in that same match, sophomore Kristin Gamby had a career high five block assists, and her five total blocks tied a personal best ... Gamby entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills ... in the last 13 matches, she has totalled 175 kills as BGSU has gone 12-1 ... during that 13-contest span, Gamby has hit .359 with a team-best 4.07 kills per game ... junior Natalie Becker had a career-best three service aces at Buffalo, while classmate Shyann Robinson had BG career standards of four block assists and four total blocks in that match ... Papageorgiou has hit at least .300 in six of the last seven matches ... during that time, she is hitting .364 with 3.78 kills per game ...Rommeck has hit double digits in kills 23 times in this season's 29 matches ... she has had a total of 39 blocks in the last four matches, for an average of 2.79 per game ... Papageorgiou has had double-digit kill totals 19 times ... Norris has had 18 matches with double-digit kill totals, and she has had at least 10 digs on 20 occasions ... that total includes seven matches of 20 or more digs, and one 30-dig contest ... BGSU's 17 blocks as a team at Buffalo tied a season high ... the Falcons had 15 team blocks at CSU, the second-highest team total in a three-game match this year (trailing only the UB contest) ... offensively, the Falcons hit a season-high .420 at CSU ... BGSU went to five games only four times in MAC play this season, and two of those matches came against Kent State.
2000 MAC STANDINGS (as of Monday morning, Nov. 20):
East Division Bowling Green (21-8) 12-6 Ohio (20-10) 12-6 Kent State (14-14) 11-7 Akron (16-13) 11-7 Miami (10-19) 6-12 Marshall (4-27) 2-16 Buffalo (4-28) 0-18West Division Western Michigan (22-5) 17-1 Ball State (23-5) 16-2 Northern Illinois (23-8) 12-6 Central Michigan (15-15) 9-9 Eastern Michigan (7-23) 5-13 Toledo (7-21) 4-14
MAC TOURNAMENT:
Quarterfinals (Tuesday, Nov. 21): #6 Kent State at #3 Bowling Green, 3:00 #8 Central Michigan at #1 Western Michigan, 7:00 #7 Akron at #2 Ball State, 7:00 #5 Northern Illinois at #4 Ohio, 7:00Semifinals (Friday, Nov. 24 at highest remaining seed): WMU-CMU winner vs. Ohio-NIU winner, TBA BGSU-KSU winner vs. BSU-UA winner, TBA
Championship (Saturday, Nov. 25, at semifinal site): Semifinal winners, TBA
