Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Set To Begin 2000 Season
August 31, 2000 | Volleyball
Aug. 31, 2000
The Bowling Green State University volleyball team will begin the 2000 season with a trip to Bloomington, Ind., to compete in Friday and Saturday's (Sept. 1-2) IU Credit Union/Hoosier Invitational. The tournament, hosted by Indiana University, will feature Loyola University Chicago and the University of Cincinnati, in addition to the Falcons.
The tournament, originally scheduled to be held at University Gym (2,500), has been moved to Assembly Hall. The Falcons will open the season by facing the LUC Ramblers in a Friday match that starts at 6:00 p.m. locally (7:00 p.m. Eastern Time).
On Saturday, the Brown and Orange will face the host IU Hoosiers in the second match of the day, scheduled to begin at noon locally. BGSU concludes action with a 5:00 p.m. local start against the UC Bearcats.
This weekend's action will mark the first of the season for all four schools.
All three BGSU opponents appeared in the NCAA Tournament last season and finished in the top 100 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI).
"This should be a very good, competitive tournament," said BGSU head coach Denise Van De Walle. "I think we are ready to go.
"After several weeks of practice, our team is very excited to play someone else. This tournament will give us a look at three different types of teams from three different conferences.
"I think whomever makes the fewest amount of mistakes, especially early in a match, will win."
The Falcons welcome back 10 letterwinners from last year's squad that went 21-12 overall. The Brown and Orange, the most-improved team in the Mid-American Conference, tripled the conference win total of the year before, going 12-6 and finishing second in the MAC's East Division.
BGSU loses the services of four letterwinners from that squad, but all four were starters. Van De Walle, the dean of MAC coaches, will look for the returning players to keep the Falcon program at a high level of play.
The 15-woman squad features a pair of seniors in Krista Davis and JoAnna Papageorgiou, as well as a six-member junior class - Natalie Becker, Shyann Robinson, Caty Rommeck, Chris Shepherd, Karen Tangeman and Amber Vorst.
Sophomores Kristin Gamby and Kate Yeo are joined by five freshmen, including Laura Twyman, who sat out the 1999 season as a redshirt. True frosh Nadia Bedricky, Susie Norris, Bridget Protas and Sara Sikorski round out the Falcon squad.
Van De Walle enters her 18th season as a head coach, all at Bowling Green. She has a record of 317-212 and ranks second all-time in wins by a MAC coach.
Loyola welcomes back 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from a team that went 24-10 overall in 1999. After finishing second in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference with a 10-2 record, the Ramblers won the conference tournament to advance to the NCAA's. Head coach Liz Nelson enters her fourth season as a head coach, all with LUC, and has a record of 62-38.
Indiana is coming off a 20-11 season, and head coach Katie Weismiller welcomes back seven letterwinners, including three starters, from that team. IU finished in a fifth-place tie in the strong Big Ten Conference, with a 10-10 league ledger. Weismiller enters her eighth season at IU with a 112-110, and she is 162-134 overall as she embarks upon her 10th year as a head coach. The Hoosiers advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament last year.
Reed Sunahara, once the head coach at Toledo, begins his first year at the Cincinnati helm. Sunahara, who served as a Bearcat assistant coach for three years prior to the promotion, takes the reins of a team which went 28-7 last year. UC welcomes back eight letterwinners and three starters from that club, which tied for the American Division title in Conference USA with a 13-3 mark, then won the conference tournament to earn the NCAA bid. Sunahara has a two-year head-coaching record of 19-40.
The Falcons hold a 3-1 lead in the all-time series with Loyola, and the teams last met two years ago, at the Loyola Kaepa Invitational in Chicago. The Brown and Orange posted a narrow, five-game win (15-10, 12-15, 13-15, 16-14, 17-15) in that contest.
BGSU is 0-1 all-time vs. Indiana, with the only meeting coming in 1980. IU posted a two-games-to-none win in a tournament at Cleveland State.
The Falcons are 8-11-0 all-time vs. Cincinnati, and Saturday's meeting will mark the first between the two teams since 1990. That year, the teams met twic, with the Brown and Orange winning both. BGSU has captured the last seven meetings dating to 1982. Prior to BGSU's seven-match win streak, UC had a nine-match winning streak.
Despite the daunting lineup of opponents this weekend, Van De Walle feels that the Falcons can make some noise in the IU tourney.
"Because the other three teams all went to the (NCAA) tournament last year, I suppose we might be viewed as the underdog," she said. "But, we have had a great preseason after a great spring season, and I think we are ready to be competitive.
"Since it is the opener for all four teams, we have no scouting reports. We're going in blind, but so is everyone else. We are healthy, we have been experimenting with a couple of different lineups, and we are ready to go.
"I am anxious to get going!"
Following the tournament at Indiana, the Falcons will head to a tournament at Central Florida (Sept. 8-9) before hosting a tourney at Anderson Arena on Sept. 15-16. That four-team, round-robin affair will feature Evansville, Illinois Chicago and IUPUI.
