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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball At Oakland, NIU This Week
September 24, 2001 | Volleyball
Sept. 24, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University volleyball team (6-1, 1-0 MAC), after a three-game win over Western Michigan Friday night (Sept. 21), hit the road for the next four matches. The Falcons play a Tuesday (Sept. 25) match at Oakland University, before returning to Mid-American Conference action with a Friday contest at Northern Illinois University. Start time for both matches is set for 7:00 p.m. locally.
Next week, the Falcons will take on the University at Buffalo (Oct. 5) and the University of Akron (Oct. 6).
BGSU's win over Western Michigan marked the first victory over the Broncos since 1997.
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 344-222. Her 21 wins with BG last season enabled her to surpass Miami's Carolyn Condit as the winningest coach in MAC history. Her 158 MAC wins entering the NIU match ranks her third all-time.
Kris Pesorda, a former BG standout, is in her second season as assistant coach for the Falcons. The 2000 season student assistant for the Brown and Orange, Sean Huiet, is in his first season as assistant coach.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons won their home opener in Anderson Arena Friday (Sept. 21), defeating the 2000 MAC West Champions, Western Michigan, in three games (30-23, 30-26, 32-30). BG took the lead early in the first game and did not let it go until game three. The Broncos went up 5-4 in game three, leading for the first time in the match. After falling behind by as much as five points, BG, rallying behind a great crowd at home, battled to win the game 32-30 and to take the match.
THE OPPONENTS: Last week, Oakland was defeated by Central Michigan, IUPUI, and Valparaiso. The Grizzlies, now 4-6, 0-2 in the Mid-Continent Conference are coached by Ed Tolentino. Tolentino, in his third season with Oakland, welcomes back nine letterwinners, including two starters.
Northern Illinois had three MAC matches last week, losing to Eastern Michigan and Ball State, but defeating Miami Saturday night (Sept. 22) in five games. The Huskies are now 4-4 overall and 1-2 in the MAC. Coach Todd Kress is in his third season with Northern Illinois. He welcomes back eight letterwinners and five starters from his 2000 squad.
THE SERIES: Bowling Green leads the series against Oakland, 4-0-0. The last meeting between these two teams was last year, when BG won in three games.
Northern Illinois leads the series over the Falcons, 14-3-0. In their meeting last year, Bowling Green won in four games.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK: In their first home match and first conference match, Bowling Green defeated Western Michigan Friday night (Sept. 21) in three games...Caty Rommeck led the team with 15 kills, six blocks and four digs...Kristin Gamby and Laura Twyman each posted nine kills and two blocks...Setter Natalie Becker led the team with 40 assists, while Amber Vorst recorded a team-high 11 digs in addition to her five kills.
LEADERS OF THE MAC: The Falcons have several players among the various category leaders in the Mid-American Conference statistics as of September 24, 2001...Senior Caty Rommeck is third in the league in hitting percentage with .377, first in the MAC in both blocks (1.44) and kills per game (4.81) and ninth in digs (2.78)...Sophomore Susie Norris is eleventh in service aces with a 0.44 average per game...Senior Natalie Becker averages 12.48 assists, good for third in the MAC... Sophomore Laura Twyman is fifth in the MAC in blocks with a 1.04 average...Junior Kristin Gamby is sixth in the MAC with a 3.78 kills per game average...As a team, the Falcons are second in the league in blocks (2.44)...BGSU ranks seventh in digs (14.30) and third in hitting pct. (.239) and assists (13.96)...The Falcons are fifth in kills (15.30) and 11th in service aces (1.37) for the 2001 season.
