Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Finishes With 21-9 Record
November 27, 2000 | Volleyball
Nov. 27, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after falling in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament, has seen the 2000 season come to an end. The Falcons of head coach Denise Van De Walle finished the campaign with an overall record of 21-9, and the Brown and Orange went 12-6 in league play to tie for the East Division title.
Complete Season Wrapup Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
ROMMECK, "POP" ON ALL-MAC TEAM: A pair of Falcons, junior Caty Rommeck and senior JoAnna Papageorgiou, were named to the All-MAC Team, the league office announced Wednesday (Nov. 22). Rommeck earned all-league first-team honors, while Papageorgiou garnered honorable mention.
Rommeck earned the league honor after leading the league in blocks, with 1.65 per game. She also ranks fourth in the conference with a .340 hitting percentage, and is sixth with 3.89 kills per game. She led the team in all three categories. Rommeck is the first non-senior to earn all-league first-team honors for the Falcons since Carlyn Esslinger in 1994.
Papageorgiou hit .277 on the year, with 3.35 kills and 1.24 blocks per game. She led the team in service aces, with a total of 24 on the season.
Rommeck, as a first-team selection, is now one of six finalists for the MAC's Player of the Year award. That honor, as well as the league freshman and coach of the year awards, will be announced Wednesday (Nov. 29).
Ball State's Emily Sallee, Susie Meshberger and Megan Hammons joined Rommeck on the first team, as did Western Michigan's Monyka Paul and Zakiya Pope.
NORRIS ON ALL-FRESHMAN SQUAD: Freshman Susie Norris was one of six players named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team, which was announced by the league office Wednesday (Nov. 22). Norris hit .225 on the season, and set school single-season records with 462 digs and 4.28 digs per game. She is one of six finalists for the MAC's Freshman of the Year award, which will be announced Wednesday (Nov. 29).
PAPAGEORGIOU NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT FIRST TEAM: Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou recently was named to the Verizon Academic All-America District IV First Team. The team is made up of student-athletes from the district, which consists of schools in the states of Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama.
Papageorgiou earned the first-team honor after being named to the academic all-district third team last year. To be eligible for the team, student-athletes must have a cumulative grade point average of 3.20 or better, and must be a starter or key reserve on their team. Freshmen and first-year transfers are not eligible for the award.
Papageorgiou has a 3.85 cumulative GPA as a biology major. As a member of the all-district first team, her name automatically appears on the ballot for the Verizon Academic All-America Team. That squad will be announced on approximately Dec. 12.
FALCONS TIE FOR MAC EAST CROWN: With BGSU's win at Buffalo on 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 marked 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.
HEAD COACH DENISE VAN DE WALLE: Denise Van De Walle, the dean of Mid-American Conference mentors, has completed her 18th year with the Falcons, and has a record of 338-221. 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 has finished his first season as Van De Walle's assistant, while former BGSU standout Kris Pesorda wrapped up her first year on the Falcon staff.
MAC TOURNEY APPEARANCES (since 1987)
Bowling Green 11 Ball State, Miami, Western Mich. 10 Central Michigan 8 Eastern Michigan 5 Akron, Kent (State) 4 Marshall, Northern Illinois 3 Ohio, Toledo 2
LAST WEEK: The Falcons dropped a four-game match to visiting Kent State in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 21). KSU captured the win by scores of 15-7, 3-15, 15-10, 17-15.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories when the NCAA released the latest national statistics last Wednesday (Nov. 22). Junior Caty Rommeck was ranked eighth in the nation in blocks, with an average of 1.63 per game, while freshman Susie Norris was 14th in the country in digs, averaging 4.24 per contest.
After the KSU match, Rommeck ended the season with an average of 1.65 blocks per game, while Norris is up to 4.28 digs per game (a new school record).
STILL MORE LEAGUE HONORS: Another member of the Falcons captured a MAC weekly award, the league office announced last Tuesday (Nov. 21). Junior Caty Rommeck was honored by the conference office.
Rommeck shared the MAC Defensive P-O-W after averaging a whopping 3.33 blocks per game as the Falcons swept Cleveland State and Buffalo to end the regular season. Rommeck also averaged 1.50 digs per game, and hit .375 with 3.00 kills per game. She had eight total blocks in the three-game win at CSU, then tied her career bests with five solo blocks and 12 total rejections in just three games at UB.
Rommeck earned conference weekly honors a school-record six times this year, and earned the defensive award five times this fall. Prior to this fall, Melissa Lewis held the school mark for most P-O-W awards in a season, with three in 1999.
The Falcons had at least one player of the week in seven of the regular season's 12 weeks. In addition to Rommeck's six honors, freshman Susie Norris has twice earned defensive P-O-W honors. Also, redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby was the offensive winner once, as was senior JoAnna Papageorgiou.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Nov. 27), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .340, and she leads the MAC with 1.65 blocks. Rommeck ranks sixth in the MAC with 3.89 kills per game.
Freshman Susie Norris is second in the MAC in digs, with an average of 4.28 per game. Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is fifth in the league in blocks (1.24 bpg), 10th in hitting pct. (.277) and 15th in kills (3.35 kpg). Junior Natalie Becker averaged 12.27 assists, good for third in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons are second in the league in blocks (2.88), and BGSU ranks third in both digs (18.84) and hitting pct. (.242), fourth in both kills (16.34) and assists (14.77) and 13th in service aces (1.04).
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).
FRESHMAN SUSIE NORRIS SETS SCHOOL RECORDS FOR DIGS: In her freshman season, Susie Norris set a pair of school records for digs ... Norris had a total of 462 digs in 2000, breaking the old record held by Holli Costein (455 digs in 1992) ... Norris shattered the BGSU single-season record for digs per game, with 4.28 ... the old school record was 3.80, set by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987.
ROMMECK'S RECORD WATCH: Junior Caty Rommeck finished the campaign listed among the BGSU single-season leaders in several blocking categories ... Rommeck had 53 solo blocks and 182 total rejections this year ... she finishes the season tied for fourth on the solo-block list with Lisa Bererdinelli (1986) ... Rommeck was nine solo blocks shy of Tammy Schiller's (1990) school seasonal record ... on the total blocks list, Rommeck finishes in a second-place tie with Nicky Mudrak (1993) ... her total of 129 block assists this year ties her with Mudrak (1991) for third on that list ... Rommeck averaged 1.65 blocks per game, good for second on that list ... Mika (1.73 in 1990) holds that BG record ... offensively, Rommeck's hitting percentage of .340 is the fourth-best average in school annals.
MORE RECORDS: Junior Caty Rommeck has moved into the career top-10 list for solo blocks ... her total of 72 at BG places her 10th on that list ... Rommeck has 259 career total blocks at BGSU, ranking 10th ... junior Natalie Becker had 1,239 assists this year to rank seventh on that BGSU seasonal chart ... on the career list, Becker now has 1,458 to rank sixth ... Wendy Watkins (1994-97) is fifth with 2,619 ... senior JoAnna Papageorgiou's 1.24 blocks-per-game average in 2000 is good for the 10th spot on that seasonal list ... she had 114 block assists to rank ninth in school annals.
NOTING THE FALCONS: The Falcons played four teams that qualified for the 2000 NCAA Tournament, going 1-3 in those matches ... BGSU lost to Loyola (Ill.), Ball State and Western Michigan, but defeated Cincinnati ... BGSU won 12 of the season's last 14 matches, with the only two losses during that time coming to Kent State ... the MAC Tournament quarterfinal loss broke a pair of eight-match losing streaks, as BGSU had won eight overall matches, as well as the previous eight home contests ... 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 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 ... over the last two seasons, the Falcons have posted an overall mark of 42-21 ... BGSU won 11 matches at home this season, the most since the 1992 team went 12-1 ... this year, BGSU went 11-3 at Anderson Arena ... junior Caty 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) ... redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills ... in the last 14 matches of the season, she totalled 181 kills as BGSU went 12-2 ... during that span, Gamby hit .341 with a team-best 3.85 kills per game ... junior Shyann Robinson set a career best with 14 digs in the KSU match ... Rommeck hit double digits in kills 24 times in this season's 30 matches ... she had a total of 48 blocks in the last five matches, for an average of 2.67 per game ... Papageorgiou had double-digit kill totals 20 times ... Norris had 19 matches with double-digit kill totals, and she had at least 10 digs on 21 occasions ... that total includes eight matches of 20 or more digs, and one 30-dig contest ... the Falcons lose just two seniors, Papageorgiou and Krista Davis, off of the 2000 squad.
2000 MAC STANDINGS (as of Monday morning, Nov. 27):
East Division Bowling Green (21-9) 12-6 Ohio (20-11) 12-6 Kent State (15-15) 11-7 Akron (16-14) 11-7 Miami (10-19) 6-12 Marshall (4-27) 2-16 Buffalo (4-28) 0-18West Division Western Michigan (25-5) $ 17-1 Ball State (25-6) $ 16-2 Northern Illinois (24-9) 12-6 Central Michigan (15-16) 9-9 Eastern Michigan (7-23) 5-13 Toledo (7-21) 4-14 $ NCAA Tournament participant
MAC TOURNAMENT
Quarterfinals (Tue., Nov. 21):
#6 Kent State def. #3 BGSU, 3-1 #1 Western Michigan def. #8 Central Michigan, 3-0 #2 Ball State def. #7 Akron, 3-0 #5 Northern Illinois def. #4 Ohio, 3-1
Semifinals (Fri., Nov. 24 at Kalamazoo, Mich.):
Ball State def. Kent State, 3-1 Western Michigan def. Northern Illinois, 3-0
Championship (Sat., Nov. 25, at Kalamazoo):
Western Michigan def. Ball State, 3-1
