Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Hosts Kent State, Marshall This Weekend
September 25, 2000 | Volleyball
Sept. 25, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, looking to rebound after a pair of losses to defending Mid-American Conference divisional winners, will continue MAC play with a pair of matches this weekend. The Falcons (7-4 overall, 0-2 MAC) of head coach Denise Van De Walle will conclude a seven-match homestand, facing Kent State in a Friday (Sept. 29) match before meeting Marshall in a Saturday (Sept. 30) contest. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at venerable Anderson Arena (5,000).
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 324-216. She is the second-winningest coach in MAC history with her 324 career victories, and her total of 145 MAC wins also ranks her second all-time. Van De Walle reached the 300-win mark for her career last Sept. 10, when the Falcons 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:Kent State will bring a 4-8 overall record into Friday's match at BGSU. The Golden Flashes are 1-1 in MAC play after splitting a pair of contests last weekend. KSU lost a five-game match to Ohio Friday before sweeping visiting Central Michigan in three games Saturday. The Flashes welcomed back 10 letterwinners, including five starters, from last year's team that went 14-17 overall and 10-8 in MAC play. KSU finished fourth in the MAC's East Division last year. Mora Kanim is 49-58 in her fourth year as a collegiate head coach, all in Kent. More information on the team can be found at www.kent.edu/athletics.
Marshall is 2-11 heading into the week, and the Thundering Herd is 0-2 in MAC action. MU will play at Northern Illinois Friday night before making the long trip to BGSU for Saturday's match. Last weekend, the Herd opened league play with four-game losses at home to Eastern Michigan and Toledo. A year ago, the Thundering Herd went 15-15 overall, and Marshall was 9-9 in MAC play. Head coach Steffi Legall is 49-58 in her fourth year as a head coach, all at Marshall. More information on the team can be accessed at www.HerdZone.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons lead Kent State, 33-10-0, in the all-time series, and the Falcons have won the last three matches. BGSU swept last year's meetings, winning a five-game match at Anderson and a four-game contest in Kent. The Brown and Orange is 18-3 in home matches against the Golden Flashes, having won the last two meetings at Anderson.
BGSU leads Marshall by a 4-1 margin, and the Falcons captured last year's lone meeting, a three-game affair in Huntington. The teams have split the only two previous matches in Anderson Arena, with MU winning a five-game meeting in the last match in BG, in 1998.
LAST WEEK: The Brown and Orange opened MAC play by taking on last year's two division champions. BGSU lost a five-game marathon to last season's West Division and MAC Tournament champ, Ball State (12-15, 8-15, 15-10, 15-11, 10-15) before falling in four games to defending East Division winner Akron (4-15, 15-17, 15-8, 12-15). Both matches were held at Anderson Arena.
GETTING DEFENSIVE: Bowling Green players won or shared the MAC's Defensive Player of the Week award in each of the first three weeks of the 2000 season. Freshman Susie Norris won the award on Sept. 5 after her first weekend of collegiate play, while junior Caty Rommeck was honored by the league in each of the next two weeks. Rommeck shared the award on Sept. 12 before winning it outright on Sept. 19.
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: The Falcons were represented in several national categories when the NCAA released the first statistics of the season last Wednesday (Sept. 20). Caty Rommeck was ranked thrd in the nation in blocks, with an average of 1.91 per game, while Susie Norris was ninth in the country in digs, averaging 4.47 per contest. As a team, the Falcons were eighth in the nation in digs (19.64 dpg) and 14th in blocks (3.09 bpg). After last weekend's matches, Rommeck is now averaging 1.71 blocks, while Norris has increased her digs-per-game average to 4.49. The team is averaging 3.10 blocks and 20.14 digs per game.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Mid-American Conference office released the latest league statistics Monday (Sept. 25), and the Falcons have several players among the various category leaders. Junior Caty Rommeck is seventh in the league with a hitting percentage of .299, and she leads the MAC with 1.71 blocks. Rommeck ranks eighth in the MAC with 3.76 kills per game, and her average of 3.05 digs per contest places her seventh.
Freshman Susie Norris is the MAC digs leader, with an average of 4.49 per game, while senior JoAnna Papageorgiou is 12th with 2.90 digs per contest. Papageorgiou ranks fourth in the league with 1.17 blocks per game, and her .274 hitting percentage places her 10th in the league. Norris and "Pop" are 10th and 11th, respectively, in service aces per game. Norris is averaging 0.34 aces, while Papageorgiou stands at 0.32. Junior Natalie Becker is averaging 9.81 assists, good for 10th in the MAC.
As a team, the Falcons lead the league in both digs (20.14) and blocks (3.10), and BGSU ranks fifth in hitting percentage (.216), sixth in both kills (15.12) and assists (13.57) and 13th in service aces (1.12).
NOTING THE FALCONS:
* The loss to Ball State snapped a seven-match win streak for the Brown and Orange. The school record for consecutive wins is 11, set by both the 1977 and 1991 teams.
* JoAnna Papageorgiou had the first triple-double of her Falcon career in that Ball State match. The senior had 15 kills, 18 digs and 10 blocks in the match. She followed that performance with a double-double vs. Akron, posting 13 kills and 14 digs.
* Susie Norris had a "20-20" match against Ball State, with team-leading totals of 24 kills and 23 digs. Norris had 12 kills in game three alone, hitting .750 (12-0-16). She also led the team in kills (15) and digs (18) vs. Akron.
* Papageorgiou tied a school record in the Ball State match. With 10 block assists, she matched the BGSU record for block assists in a five-game match. That record was set by Nicky Mudrak (vs. Central Michigan, Nov. 21, 1993) and matched by redshirt freshman Laura Twyman in the Cincinnati match earlier this season (Sept. 2).
DOWN THE ROAD: Following this weekend's action, the Falcons will embark upon a three-match road trip. After a midweek trip to Toledo (Wed., Oct. 4), the Falcons will play at Western Michigan on Friday, Oct. 6, before heading to Central Michigan for a match the following night. All three matches are scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
2000 MAC STANDINGS
as of Monday morning, Sept. 25
East Division Ohio (9-4) 2-0 Akron (6-7) 1-1 Kent State (4-8) 1-1 Miami (4-8) 0-1 Bowling Green (7-4) 0-2 Buffalo (3-9) 0-2 Marshall (2-11) 0-2West Division Northern Illinois (11-2) 2-0 Ball State (9-3) 2-0 Toledo (4-5) 1-0 Western Michigan (6-5) 1-1 Central Michigan (5-7) 1-1 Eastern Michigan (2-11) 1-1
