Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Begins Final Week Of Regular Season
November 12, 2001 | Volleyball
Nov. 12, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, looking to extend a season-best six-match winning streak, will play three matches in the regular season's final week. The Falcons (18-6 overall, 11-5 Mid-American Conference), currently tied for first place in the MAC's East Division, will step outside of conference play for a Tuesday (Nov. 13) match against Cleveland State University. Start time for that contest is 7:00 p.m. at BGSU's Anderson Arena.
Following the CSU match, the Brown and Orange will return to the road for the final time in the regular season, with a Friday (Nov. 16) match against Kent State University. First serve for the match, BGSU's final intradivisional match as an East Division member, is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at KSU's Memorial Athletic & Convocation Center.
On Saturday (Nov. 17), the Falcons will close the regular season with a match against arch-rival Toledo. That contest will begin at 7:00 p.m. at Anderson.
Bowling Green enters the Cleveland State match with an 8-1 record at home this year. The Falcons are 6-5 on the road and 4-0 in neutral-site matches in 2001.
HEAD COACH DENISE VAN DE WALLE: Denise Van De Walle, the dean of MAC mentors, is in her 19th season with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 356-225. Van De Walle recently became the first-ever coach to amass 350 career wins at a MAC school, reaching that plateau in the Falcons' Oct. 20 win over Marshall. The team's 21 wins last season enabled her to become the winningest coach in league history. Van De Walle's total of 168 MAC wins entering Friday's KSU match ranks her third all-time on that list.
Former BGSU standout Kris Pesorda is in her second season as assistant coach for the Falcons. Sean Huiet is in his second season with the Falcon volleyball program, and his first as an assistant coach.
ROMMECK REACHES 1,000-KILL MARK AT BGSU: Senior Caty Rommeck, in just her third season in the Brown and Orange, has become the 10th player in school history to amass 1,000 career kills ... Rommeck had 15 kills in Friday's win over Marshall, then went over the millennial mark with a match-high 22 kills in the victory at Ohio ... Rommeck, who hammered kill number 1,000 midway through game two of that match, now has a total of 1,014 kills in her BGSU tenure ... with her next kill, Rommeck will move into a tie for ninth place in school history ... Rommeck, who played one year at Oakland University before transferring to BGSU, now has an overall career total of 1,146 kills.
THE MAC RACE: Entering the final week of the 2001 regular season, the Falcons are tied with Akron for the MAC's East Division lead ... BGSU and UA both sport 11-5 league records with two matches to play ... UA hosts Ohio Friday (Nov. 16) before playing at Kent State the following night ... the East Division winner will be the number-two seed for the MAC Tournament ... should the Falcons and Zips tie in the final standings, the seeding will be decided via the MAC tiebreaker ... the first tiebreaker is head-to-head competition, and BGSU and UA split their two regular-season meetings ... the second tiebreaker is winning percentage vs. conference teams, beginning at the top of the standings (regardless of division) ... so, the result of the tiebreaker would depend upon the order of finish ... both teams went 0-1 against Northern Illinois and Ball State, the teams likely to finish with the top-two records in the league ... both teams won their lone match vs. Eastern Michigan, and both teams went unbeaten vs. Western Michigan ... Akron fared better vs. Miami (1-1) than the Falcons did (0-1), and both teams are 0-1 vs. Toledo ... BGSU has one more match with the Rockets ... the Falcons need just one win in this weekend's two MAC matches to clinch a top-four seed and a homecourt berth for the quarterfinal round of the league tournament ... the quarterfinals will be held Tuesday, Nov. 20, with the semifinals and championship match set for the following weekend.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons swept a pair of road contests from East Division foes last weekend ... BGSU downed Marshall (30-21, 30-25, 30-25) in Friday action (Nov. 9), then posted a four-game win at Ohio (30-17, 30-23, 27-30, 30-13) ... the wins extended the current BGSU victory streak to a season-high six matches.
THE OPPONENTS: Cleveland State checks into the week with an overall record of 7-17, and the Vikings finished the Horizon League schedule with a 2-12 conference mark ... the BGSU contest marks the regular-season final‚ for the Vikings ... CSU dropped a pair of matches last weekend at home, falling to Loyola (Ill.) in three games Friday (Nov. 9) and Illinois at Chicago in four games the next day (Nov. 10) ... a year ago, the Vikings went 12-17 overall and 1-11 in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (the MCC changed to the Horizon League over the summer) ... head coach Chuck Voss is 19-34 in his second year with the Vikes ... he has an overall mark of 42-70 in his fourth year overall ... the school's athletic web site if www.csuvikings.com.
Kent State begins the week with a 14-11 record, and the Golden Flashes are 8-8 in MAC action ... KSU will host IPFW in a Monday (Nov. 12) match before meeting the Falcons four days later ... the Flashes split a pair of matches last week, losing a four-game contest vs. visiting West Virginia Tuesday (Nov. 6) before winning a five-game match at Buffalo Friday (Nov. 9) ... the Flashes are 7-6 at home this season ... last season, Kent State finished with a 15-15 overall mark and a league ledger of 11-7 ... Mora Kanim has a record of 74-76 in her fifth year as a collegiate head coach, all in Kent ... the school's athletic web site is www.kent.edu/athletics.
Toledo has an overall record of 16-9, and the Rockets will take a 9-7 MAC record into a Friday (Nov. 16) contest at Eastern Michigan ... the Rockets enter the weekend with a 2-6 road record on the season ... last weekend, UT split a pair of home contests, losing to Ball State in four games Friday before sweeping Western Michigan the following night ... last year, the Rockets were 7-21 overall and 4-14 in the league ... head coach Kent Miller is in his fifth year, both at UT and as a collegiate mentor, and has a mark of 51-93 ... the school's athletic web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES: BGSU trails Cleveland State by a 13-11 count in the all-time series between the teams ... but, the Falcons have won the last two matches and 10 of the last 11 contests ... the Falcons won a three-game match in Cleveland last year, and BG took the most recent match at Anderson Arena, in 1999 ... BGSU is 7-4 in home contests vs. the Vikings.
The Falcons hold a 35-12 advantage over Kent State, including a come-from-behind victory in this year's first meeting, at Anderson Arena Oct. 10 ... in that match, BG dropped the first two games before winning the final three ... last season, KSU took two of three matches, including the lone match at the M.A.C. Center as well as a MAC Tournament quarterfinal match at Anderson Arena ... in fact, BGSU's only two losses in the final 14 matches of the 2000 regular season came to Kent State ... the Falcons hold a 12-7 edge in road contests vs. KSU.
BG leads Toledo by a 39-9 margin, and the Brown and Orange will be looking to improve upon an impressive streak ... the Falcons hold a perfect 21-0 home record in the series vs. the Rockets ... UT won this season's first meeting, a five-game affair in the Glass City (Oct. 12) ... the teams split last year's matchups, with the home team winning in three games in each case.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK: The Falcons won a pair of road contests last weekend ... BGSU beat Marshall in three games Friday (Nov. 9) ... junior Kristin Gamby had 15 kills off the bench, and senior Caty Rommeck matched that total ... Gamby hit a team-best .400, while Rommeck hit .382 on the evening ... Rommeck had a double-double, adding 10 digs ... senior Kate Yeo led the team in that category with 11 ... Yeo and senior Natalie Becker each had three service aces, and Becker added 37 set assists ... on Saturday (Nov. 10), the Falcons topped host Ohio in a four-game contest ... Rommeck had a match-high 22 kills, including kill number 1,000 of her BGSU career, to pace four Falcons in double figures ... she hit a match-best .421 ... sophomore Susie Norris had 17 kills and hit .349, while senior Shyann Robinson and Gamby had 15 and 13 kills, respectively ... the Brown and Orange hit a season-high .337 in the win, including a blazing .606 in game four ... defensively, Robinson had 16 digs to pace five double-digit Falcons in that category, with Norris adding 15 ... Rommeck had 14 digs and six blocks, with sophomore Laura Twyman matching that block total ... Becker had 53 assists and 12 digs, while sophomore Nadia Bedricky matched that dig total.
ROMMECK MOVES UP: Senior Caty Rommeck, in just two-plus years in the Brown and Orange, continues to move up several BGSU career records lists ... Rommeck ranks among the school's leaders on all three blocks lists ... she is tied for seventh in school history with 108 solo blocks, needing just five to tie for fourth place ... Rommeck has 286 block assists, and now holds down the sixth spot on that list ... she has moved into sixth overall in total blocks as well, and has 394 ... she has moved onto the lists for both kills (10th, 1,014) and attack attempts (10th, 2,347) ... the list of former Falcons that Rommeck is chasing follows:
ROMMECK ON THE CAREER LISTS:
Category Total, Rank Next on the list Solo Blocks 108, T-7th Lori Kemerer (110) Currently tied with Kelly Ellett (108) Block Assists 286, 6th Lisa Berardinelli (321) Total Blocks 394, 6th Lori Hilton (442) Kills 1,014, 10th Heather Murphy (1,015) Attack Attempts 2,347, 10th Lori Hilton (2,783) Hitting Pct. .308, 3rd Carey Amos (.315) (1014-292-2347)
SETTERS MOVING UP, TOO: Both setters on the BGSU roster are on the career list for set assists ... senior Natalie Becker has a career total of 2,527 assists to rank sixth ... her next target is Wendy Watkins (2,619) ... sophomore Sara Sikorski has a career total of 320 assists, good for 10th place in BG annals ... she passed her assistant coach, Kris Pesorda, in the BGSU win over Buffalo (Oct. 26) ... Pesorda remains the highest ranking non-setter on the assists list.
ROMMECK ON SEASONAL LISTS: Senior Caty Rommeck currently averages 4.59 kills per game ... that average would place her fourth on the BGSU single-season list ... Tammy Schiller (1991) holds the record with 5.37 kpg ... Rommeck's average of 1.48 blocks per game this year, if she could maintain it, would place her fifth on that career list ... Lisa Mika (1990) set the BG record in that category, with 1.73 bpg ... Rommeck's totals of 99 block assists and 135 total blocks tie her for 13th on those school seasonal lists.
NOVEMBER SUCCESS: The Falcons have experienced some success in the month of November over the past few years ... BGSU has a record of 17-4 (.810) in November matches over the last three years ... the Falcons were 6-3 in that month in 1999 and 7-1 last year ... this season, the Falcons have a 4-0 November record.
GO WEST: The 2001 season marks the final campaign for the Falcons as a member of the MAC's East Division ... in October, the MAC welcomed the University of Central Florida as a member for the sport of football only, and placed UCF in the East ... BGSU is being moved to the West Division for all sports, beginning in the 2002-03 academic year.
NOTING THE FALCONS: In addition to Caty Rommeck, senior Natalie Becker has moved onto a BGSU single-season list ... Becker currently has 1,069 assists on the year, ranking 12th on the school chart ... the Falcons have a total of 60 victories since the start of the 1999 season ... BGSU is 60-27 (.690) overall and 35-17 (.673) in MAC action in that time ... the Falcons are 9-3 in three-game matches and 6-1 in five-game contests this year ... senior Shyann Robinson had a career-high 16 digs in the win at Ohio ... a total of 11 different Falcons have started at least one match this year ... Rommeck is the only player to have started all 24 contests ... sophomore Susie Norris hit double digits in kills just twice in her first 15 matches of the season, but has turned the trick in six of the last eight matches ... on defense, she had just two double-digit dig totals in her first 12 matches, but has had at least 10 digs in nine of the last 11 contests ... Rommeck has had 10 or more kills in 17 of the last 18 matches, and in 22 of this year's 24 contests, including nine matches of 20 kills or more ... she has had at least five blocks on 16 occasions this year ... Rommeck hit .403 with a team-high 5.29 kills per game last weekend ... she and junior Kristin Gamby each had 1.29 blocks per game in the two wins ... during the Falcons' six-match winning streak, Gamby is hitting .331 with 4.45 kills per game, leading the team in both categories ... senior Natalie Becker is averaging an even 14.00 assists during that time.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Falcons have several players among the MAC leaders in the latest conference statistics, released Monday (Nov. 5) ... senior Caty Rommeck leads the MAC in both kills per game (4.59) and blocks per game (1.48) ... she is seventh in hitting percentage (.304) ... classmate Natalie Becker averages 12.43 assists, good for second in the league ... junior Kristin Gamby is seventh in the league with a kills-per-game average of 3.76 ... Gamby ranks ninth with a .288 hitting pct. ... sophomore Susie Norris is 10th with 2.87 digs per game ... soph Laura Twyman has 1.05 blocks per game, good for 10th in the league ... as a team, the Falcons are third in kills (15.82 kpg), blocks (2.64 bpg) and assists (14.31 apg), fourth in hitting pct. (.228), seventh in digs (15.52 dpg) and 12th in service aces (1.32 per game).
