Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Hands Out Awards
April 12, 2001 | Volleyball
April 12, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - A number of Bowling Green State University volleyball student-athletes were honored as the team held its end-of-season banquet Sunday (April 8). Head coach Denise Van De Walle and the Falcons celebrated a 2000 campaign which saw the team win over 20 matches for the second consecutive year and tie for the Mid-American Conference's East Division crown.
Junior Caty Rommeck (Sterling Hts., Mich./Henry Ford II/Oakland Univ.) picked up a number of awards, including the team's Player-of-the-Year honor. Rommeck, an All-MAC First-Team selection, led the Falcons and ranked among the league leaders in hitting percentage (.340), kills per game (3.89) and blocks per game (1.65). She led the league in the latter category.
Rommeck, who was the first non-senior to earn all-league first-team honors for the Falcons since the 1995 season, also was named the team's Offensive Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year (blocking). The team awards two Defensive P-O-Y awards, one for blocking prowess and one for digging.
Freshman Susie Norris (Bascom, Ohio/Hopewell-Loudon) earned the latter Defensive Player-of-the-Year award. In her first collegiate season, Norris set BGSU single-season records with 462 digs and 4.28 digs per game. She was named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team.
In addition to her other honors, Rommeck also earned the team's Competitor's Award.
Senior JoAnna Papageorgiou (Rock Island, Ill./Pleasant Valley [Iowa]/Kirkwood CC) and redshirt sophomore Kristin Gamby (Mount Victory, Ohio/Marion Elgin) shared the team's Most Improved Player honor. Papageorgiou, an All-MAC Honorable-Mention choice, hit .277 on the year, with 3.35 kills and 1.24 blocks per game. She led the Falcons in service aces, with a total of 24 on the season.
Gamby exploded onto the scene in mid-October. She entered the Oct. 13 Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills. In the final 14 matches of 2000, she totalled 181 kills as the Falcons went 12-2. During that span, Gamby hit .341 with a team-best 3.85 kills per game. On the year, she hit .325 with 3.26 kpg.
Senior Krista Davis (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada/Sir Allan MacNab) and freshman Sara Sikorski (Sterling Hts., Mich./Henry Ford II) shared the Falcons' Coaches Award, while four student-athletes -- Davis, Norris, Papageorgiou and redshirt freshman Laura Twyman (Sugar Land, Texas/S.F. Austin) -- earned the Academic Achievement award. All four of those student-athletes earned a perfect 4.00 GPA in the fall semester.
The Falcons completed the 2000 season with an overall record of 21-9, and the Brown and Orange went 12-6 in MAC play to tie for the East Division title. Over the last two seasons, the Falcons have posted an overall mark of 42-21. BGSU loses just two seniors -- Davis and Papageorgiou -- off the 2000 squad.
BGSU VOLLEYBALL - 2000 AWARDS
In other volleyball news, the Falcons had a great deal of success at their own eight-team spring tournament last Saturday (April 7). The teams were divided into two four-team pools for the morning action.
In those morning contests, the Falcons posted a 5-1 record. The top-two teams from each pool then faced off, and BGSU went 2-0, defeating Indiana-Purdue-Fort Wayne and Eastern Michigan.
