Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Heads To Indiana To Open Season
August 26, 2001 | Volleyball
Aug. 26, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, after falling in the quarterfinal round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament in the 2000 season, has been named the pre-season choice for the MAC East Division. The Falcons head coach Denise Van De Walle finished the 2000 season with an overall record of 21-9, and the Brown and Orange went 12-6 in league play to tie for the East Division title.
The Falcons begin their 2001 season at the Hoosier Invitational in Bloomington Labor Day weekend with scheduled matches against the University of Tennessee (Aug. 31), Indiana University (Sept. 1) and the University of Maryland (Sept.1).
BGSU remains on the road to face the University of Idaho (Sept. 7), Winthrop University (Sept. 7), and Michigan State (Sept. 8) in the Michigan State Invitational in East Lansing.
Before heading back on the road, the Brown and Orange will come home to Anderson Arena with a match against University of Dayton on Tuesday, Sept. 11, at 7:00 p.m.
HEAD COACH DENISE VAN DE WALLE: Denise Van De Walle, the dean of MAC mentors, begins her 19th season with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 338-221 heading into the season opener. Her 21 wins with BG last season enabled her to surpass Miami's Carolyn Condit as the winningest coach in MAC history. Her 157 MAC wins entering the 2001 season ranks her third all-time.
Kris Pesorda, a former BG standout, enters her second season as assistant coach for the Falcons.
The 2000 season student assistant for the Brown and Orange, Sean Huiet, begins his first season as assistant coach.
THE OPPONENTS: The University of Tennessee will open its 2001 season with the BGSU match. The Lady Vols went 23-10 overall last season, and finished third in the Southeastern Conference East with a 9-5 league mark. Their post-season play ended in the NCAA First Round. Head coach Rob Patrick welcomes back eight letterwinners, including five starters, from last year. Patrick enters the 2001 season with a record of 76-54-4.
Indiana University opens the season against the University of Maryland before hosting the Falcons on September 1. The Hoosiers finished the 2000 season with an overall record of 16-14. Head coach Katie Weismiller's team went 7-13 in the Big Ten last season, tying for eighth. Weismiller welcomes back 12 letterwinners and five starters from the 2000 team. She has a record of 178-148 in her eight years with the Hoosiers.
The University of Maryland opens the season with an Alumni Match in Ritchie Coliseum before heading to Indiana for the Hoosier Invitational. The Terps finished the 2000 season with an overall record of 14-16, finishing eighth in the ACC with a record of 4-12. Head coach Janice Kruger welcomes back 10 letterwinners and four starters from the 2000 squad. Kruger has a 247-162 record in her thirteen years with the Terps.
THE SERIES: The Lady Vols lead the Falcons with a 2-1-0 record in the all-time series. The last meeting between these two teams was in 1996 at the Pitt Panther/Mizuno Invitational where Tennessee won in four games.
The Falcons trail the series against Indiana with a 0-2-0 record. The last meeting between these two teams was last season at the Indiana Tournament in Bloomington, where Indians won in four games.
Bowling Green holds a 2-0-0 series lead vs. Maryland. The last meeting between the Falcons and the Terps was in 1990 at George Washington's Labor Day Festival, a BGSU win. The Falcons defeated the Terps in four games after defeating Syracuse, Iowa State, and Temple.
SENIORS LEAD THE WAY: This year's returnees include a group of six seniors, the largest group since the 1992 senior class. The senior class includes returning All-MAC First-Team performer Caty Rommeck and one of the top setters in the conference, Natalie Becker. Shyann Robinson and Amber Vorst have started 65 career matches between them, while defensive specialists Karen Amstutz and Kate Yeo have quality experience from the past two 21-win teams.
ROMMECK ON 2000 ALL-MAC TEAM: Senior Caty Rommeck was named to the All-MAC Team for the 2000 season. Rommeck earned all-league first-team honors. Rommeck earned the league honor after leading the league in blocks, with 1.65 per game. She also ranked fourth in the conference with a .340 hitting percentage, and was sixth with 3.89 kills per game. She led the team in all three categories. Rommeck was the first non-senior to earn all-league first-team honors for the Falcons since Carlyn Esslinger in 1994.
NORRIS ON ALL-FRESHMAN SQUAD: Freshman Susie Norris was one of six players named to the MAC's All-Freshman Team for the 2000 season. Norris hit .225 on the season, and set school single-season records with 462 digs and 4.28 digs per game.
FALCONS TIE FOR MAC EAST CROWN: With BGSU's win at Buffalo on Nov. 18, 2000, the Falcons clinched a tie for the MAC's East Division title. Both the Falcons and Ohio finished with 12-6 conference records. The title marked BG's first of any kind since the 1992 team went 17-1 to capture the regular-season title. BGSU also won regular-season crowns in 1989 and 1991, and the Falcons won the league tournament in 1991.
MAC TOURNEY APPEARANCES:
(since 1987)
Bowling Green: 11 Ball State, Miami, Western Mich.: 10 Central Michigan: 8 Eastern Michigan: 5 Akron, Kent (State): 4 Marshall, Northern Illinois: 3 Ohio, Toledo: 2
NATIONALLY SPEAKING: Falcon players were represented in several categories in the final 2000 NCAA statistics. Junior Caty Rommeck was ranked fifth in the nation in blocks, with an average of 1.65 per game, while freshman Susie Norris was 12th in the country in digs, averaging a school-record 4.28 per contest.
STILL MORE LEAGUE HONORS: Last season, the Falcons had at least one league player of the week in seven of the regular season's 12 weeks and swept the weekly awards on three occasions. Caty Rommeck earned conference weekly honors a school-record six times last year, garnering the MAC Defensive P-O-W award five times. In addition to Rommeck's six honors, Susie Norris twice earned defensive P-O-W honors. Also, Kristin Gamby was the offensive winner once.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Falcons had several players among the various category leaders in the Mid-American Conference statistics for the 2000 season. Senior Caty Rommeck was fourth in the league with a hitting percentage of .340, and she led the MAC with 1.65 blocks. Rommeck ranked sixth in the MAC with 3.89 kills per game. Sophomore Susie Norris was second in the MAC in digs, with an average of 4.28 per game. Senior Natalie Becker averaged 12.27 assists, good for third in the MAC. As a team, the Falcons were second in the league in blocks (2.88), and BGSU ranked third in both digs (18.84) and hitting pct. (.242), fourth in both kills (16.34) and assists (14.77) and 13th in service aces (1.04) for the 2000 season. In MAC matches only, Rommeck finished as the league leader in blocks, with 1.50 per game. She was fifth in hitting percentage (.318) and ninth in kills per game (3.68), while Norris was second in digs (4.15) and tied for 14th in kills (3.52 per game). Becker was third in assists (12.91). As a team in league matches, BG finished third in kills (16.93), digs (18.49) and blocks (2.76), fourth in hitting (.246) and assists (15.31) and 13th in aces (0.99).
NORRIS SETS RECORDS FOR DIGS FOR 2000: In her freshman season, Susie Norris set a pair of school records for digs ... Norris had a total of 462 digs in 2000, breaking the old record held by Holli Costein (455 digs in 1992) ... Norris shattered the BGSU single-season record for digs per game, with 4.28 ... the old school record was 3.80, set by Jo Lynn Williamson in 1987.
ROMMECK'S RECORD WATCH: Junior Caty Rommeck finished the 2000 campaign listed among the BGSU single-season leaders in several blocking categories ... Rommeck had 53 solo blocks and 182 total rejections last year ... she finished the season tied for fourth on the solo-block list with Lisa Berardinelli (1986) ... Rommeck was nine solo blocks shy of Tammy Schiller's (1990) school seasonal record ... on the total blocks list, Rommeck finished in a second-place tie with Nicky Mudrak (1993) ... her total of 129 block assists tied her with Mudrak (1991) for third on that list ... Rommeck averaged 1.65 blocks per game, good for second on that list ... Mika (1.73 in 1990) holds that BG record ... offensively, Rommeck's hitting percentage of .340 was the fourth-best average in school annals.
MORE RECORDS: Senior Caty Rommeck moved into the career top-10 list for solo blocks ... her total of 72 at BG places her 10th on that list ... Rommeck has 259 career total blocks at BGSU, ranking 10th ... senior Natalie Becker had 1,239 assists in 2000 to rank seventh on that BGSU seasonal chart ... on the career list, Becker now has 1,458 to rank sixth ... Wendy Watkins (1994-97) is fifth with 2,619.
NOTING THE FALCONS: The Falcons played four teams that qualified for the 2000 NCAA Tournament, going 1-3 in those matches ... BGSU lost to Loyola (Ill.), Ball State and Western Michigan, but defeated Cincinnati ... BGSU won 12 of the season's last 14 matches, with the only two losses during that time coming to Kent State ... the MAC Tournament quarterfinal loss broke a pair of eight-match winning streaks, as BGSU had won eight overall matches, as well as the previous eight home contests ... in the league's 2000 preseason coaches poll, the Falcons were picked to tie with Marshall for fourth place in the East Division, behind Miami, Akron and KSU ... BGSU posted the ninth 20-win season in school history, and the team's second in a row ... the Falcons also went 12-6 in MAC play last year, and the Brown and Orange went 21-12 overall in 1999 ... over the last two seasons, the Falcons have posted an overall mark of 42-21 ... BGSU won 11 matches at home in 2000, the most since the 1992 team went 12-1 ... last year, BGSU went 11-3 at Anderson Arena ... senior Caty Rommeck had two triple-doubles in 2000 (vs. Cincinnati on Sept. 2, at Miami Nov. 10) ... Kristin Gamby entered the Oct. 13, 2000, Buffalo match with a career total of 20 kills ... in the last 14 matches of the 2000 season, she totalled 181 kills as BGSU went 12-2 ... during that span, Gamby hit .341 with a team-best 3.85 kills per game ... senior Shyann Robinson set a career best with 14 digs in the KSU match ... Rommeck hit double digits in kills 24 times in last season's 30 matches ... she had a total of 48 blocks in the last five matches, for an average of 2.67 per game ... Norris had 19 matches with double-digit kill totals, and she had at least 10 digs on 21 occasions ... that total included eight matches of 20 or more digs, and one 30-dig contest.
