Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Embroiled In East Division Race
November 05, 2001 | Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete BGSU Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, looking to extend a four-match winning streak, will hit the road for a pair of contests against Mid-American Conference East Division opponents this weekend. The Falcons (16-6 overall, 9-5 MAC) will travel to Marshall University for a Friday (Nov. 9) match against the Thundering Herd. Start time for that contest is 7:00 p.m. at MU's Cam Henderson Center.
Following the MU match, the Brown and Orange will head to Athens, Ohio, for a Saturday (Nov. 10) contest vs. Ohio University. First serve is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the Convocation Center.
Bowling Green enters the Marshall match with a 4-5 road record this year. The Falcons are 8-1 at home 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 354-225. 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 166 MAC wins entering Friday's Marshall rematch 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.
RACE IS TIGHT AT THE TOP: Entering this week's action, the top three teams in the MAC's East Division are separated by just a game-and-a-half ... with just two weeks left in the regular season, the Falcons have moved into second place in the division, a half-game behind first-place Akron (10-5 MAC) ... BG defeated the Zips in four games in Saturday action (Nov. 3) ... Miami (8-6 MAC) is in third place in the East ... if the regular season ended today, the Falcons would be seeded fourth overall and would host a MAC Tournament quarterfinal match.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons swept a pair of home contests, each in four games, last weekend ... BGSU downed Central Michigan (30-25, 30-27, 25-30, 30-28) in Friday action (Nov. 2), then rallied from a game-one loss to top East Division-leading Akron (16-30, 30-20, 30-19, 32-30) the following night.
ROMMECK EYES 1,000-KILL MARK: Senior Caty Rommeck, in just her third season in the Brown and Orange, is moving ever closer to becoming the 10th player in school history to amass 1,000 career kills ... Rommeck, who had 16 kills in each of last weekend's two wins, now has 977 kills in her Falcon tenure ... she needs 23 kills to reach the millennial mark, and 38 to move into a tie for ninth place in school history ... Rommeck, who played one year at Oakland University before transferring to BGSU, actually has an overall career total of 1,109 kills.
THE OPPONENTS: Marshall checks into the week with an overall record of 6-17, and the Thundering Herd will enter the BGSU match with a MAC mark of 4-10 ... MU split a pair of matches last week, losing a Wednesday (Oct. 31) home contest to Akron in four games, before taking to the road for a five-game win over Buffalo Saturday (Nov. 3) ... a year ago, Marshall finished with a 4-27 overall mark and a 2-16 league ledger ... Steffi Legall has a head-coaching record of 57-91 in her fifth year, all in Huntington ... the school's athletic web site is www.herdzone.com.
Ohio begins the week with a 7-15 record, and the Bobcats will take a 5-8 MAC record into a Friday (Nov. 9) home match vs. Miami ... OU is 6-2 at home this year entering the Miami match ... last week, the 'Cats won a pair of matches in Athens, sweeping West Virginia in a non-league contest Tuesday (Oct. 30) before downing Toledo in a Friday (Nov. 2) four-game match ... last season, Ohio finished 20-11 overall and tied with BGSU for the East Division crown with a 12-6 MAC mark ... Mike Lessinger is in his second season as a collegiate head coach, both in Athens, and is 27-26 ... the school's athletic web site is www.ohiobobcats.com.
THE SERIES: BGSU holds a 39-10 lead over Ohio in the all-time series between the teams ... the Falcons have won the last four overall matches, and captured the last contest at the Convocation Center ... Friday's meeting will be the second in two weeks for the teams ... the Falcons won a three-game match at Anderson Arena on Oct. 27 ... the Falcons are 13-6 against the Bobcats in matches played in Athens.
The Falcons hold a 7-1 advantage over Marshall in that series ... BGSU captured this year's first meeting, a three-game contest at Anderson on Oct. 20 ... BGSU has won the last four overall matchups between the teams, and the Falcons are 4-0 all-time in matches at the Henderson Center.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK: The Falcons won a pair of home contests last weekend ... BGSU beat Central Michigan in four games Friday (Nov. 2) ... junior Kristin Gamby led the way on offense, with 21 kills ... senior Caty Rommeck had 16 kills, while sophomore Susie Norris had 14 kills and a match-high 17 digs ... the Falcons hit .314 as a team, the highest percentage for the Brown and Orange in a MAC match this season ... senior Kate Yeo joined Norris in double digits in digs, with 11, while senior Natalie Becker had 51 set assists ... Rommeck had eight digs and six blocks ... Saturday (Nov. 3), BGSU rallied from a 30-16 setback in game one to post a four-game win over Akron ... the win moved the Falcons to within a half-game of the division-leading Zips ... Gamby had a match-high 21 kills for the second consecutive night ... Rommeck had 16 kills for the second-straight night, while redshirt sophomore Laura Twyman had a career-high 13 kills and hit .409 off the bench ... senior Shyann Robinson had 10 kills ... Becker had 55 assists, and hit .462 (7-1-13) with seven kills and eight digs ... sophomore Nadia Bedricky had 15 digs to pace four double-digit Falcons in that category ... Norris (14), Rommeck (13) and Robinson (12) rounded out that group.
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 eighth in school history with 106 solo blocks, needing just two to catch seventh-place Kelly Ellett, and just seven to tie for fourth place ... Rommeck has 279 block assists, good for a seventh-place tie on that list ... she is seventh overall with 385 total blocks ... she has moved onto the lists for both kills (10th, 977) and attack attempts (11th, 2,275) ... the list of former Falcons that Rommeck is chasing follows:
ROMMECK ON THE CAREER LISTS
Category Total, Rank Next on the list
Solo Blocks 106, 8th Kelly Ellett (108)
Block Assists 279, T-7th Carlyn Esslinger (280)
currently tied with Nicky Mudrak (279)
Total Blocks 385, 7th Nicky Mudrak (392)
Kills 977, 10th Heather Murphy (1,015)
Attack Attempts 2,275, 11th Nicky Mudrak (2,297)
Hitting Pct. .305, 3rd Carey Amos (.315)
(977-284-2275)
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 2,437 assists to rank sixth ... her next target is Wendy Watkins (2,619) ... sophomore Sara Sikorski has a career total of 316 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 4.54 kills per game ... that average would place her fifth on the BGSU single-season list ... Tammy Schiller (1991) holds the record with 5.37 kpg ... Rommeck's average of 1.50 blocks per game this year, if she could maintain it, would place her fourth on that career list ... Lisa Mika (1990) set the BG record in that category, with 1.73 bpg.
NOTING THE FALCONS: The Falcons have a total of 58 victories since the start of the 1999 season ... BGSU is 58-27 (.682) overall and 33-17 (.660) in MAC action in that time ... the Falcons are 8-3 in three-game matches and 6-1 in five-game contests this year ... prior to last weekend, BGSU had played just two matches that lasted four games, losing both ... but, the Brown and Orange won a pair of four-game contests over the weekend ... a total of 11 different Falcons have started at least one match this year ... senior Caty Rommeck is the only player to have started all 22 contests ... sophomore Susie Norris hit double digits in kills just twice in her first 15 matches of the season, but then turned the trick in each of the next five matches ... on defense, she had just two double-digit dig totals in her first 12 matches, but has had at least 10 digs in eight of the last nine contests ... Rommeck has had 10 or more kills in 15 of the last 16 matches, and in 20 of this year's 22 contests, including eight matches of 20 kills or more ... she has had at least five blocks on 15 occasions this year ... junior Kristin Gamby hit .373 with a team-high 5.25 kills per game last weekend ... senior Natalie Becker hit a team-high .455 (12-2-22) and averaged 15.14 assists in the two wins ... the home team won each match in BGSU's two contests vs. Akron this year ... prior to the 2001 season, the visiting team had won nine of the last 11 meetings in the BGSU-UA series.
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 (4.54) and blocks per game (1.50) ... she is seventh in hitting percentage (.296) ... classmate Natalie Becker averages 12.30 assists, good for second in the league ... junior Kristin Gamby is seventh in the league with a kills-per-game average of 3.74 ... Gamby ranks 10th with a .284 hitting pct. ... sophomore Susie Norris is eighth with 2.88 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 (15.65 kpg), blocks (2.63 bpg) and assists (14.21 apg), fourth in hitting pct. (.223), eighth in digs (15.33 dpg) and 12th in service aces (1.26 per game).
MAC STANDINGS
(as of Monday morning, Nov. 5) East Division Akron (16-6) 10-5 Bowling Green (16-6) 9-5 Miami (11-10) 8-6 Kent State (13-10) 7-8 Ohio (7-15) 5-8 Marshall (6-17) 4-10 Buffalo (5-19) 0-14West Division Northern Illinois (18-4) 13-2 Ball State (16-7) 12-3 Eastern Michigan (16-8) 9-6 Toledo (15-8) 8-6 Western Michigan (12-9) 7-7 Central Michigan (6-16) 1-13
