Bowling Green State University Athletics
Volleyball Gearing Up For 2002 Campaign
August 16, 2002 | Volleyball
Aug. 16, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team is in the midst of preseason preparations for the 2002 campaign. The Falcons of head coach Denise Van De Walle will play a team of former Falcons in the Alumnae Match on Aug. 31, then will open the 2002 season with a Sept. 3 contest against Oakland University at Anderson Arena. BGSU will participate in tournaments hosted by Pittsburgh, Colorado and Wisconsin, along with single matches at Michigan and IPFW, before beginning Mid-American Conference play on Sept. 27.
FALCONS ENJOY MAC SUCCESS
Over the past three seasons, the Falcons have been one of the most successful teams in the Mid-American Conference ... in conference matches during that time, BGSU's 36-18 record places the Brown and Orange third among the 13 MAC schools ... the Falcons' overall record of 63-29 gives BG the third-best percentage in the league, and the top mark among East Division teams, since the outset of the 1999 campaign.
RECORDS -- LAST THREE YEARS
Team MAC Record Overall Record Ball State 46- 8 (.852) 74-23 (.763) Western Michigan 42-12 (.778) 65-24 (.730) Bowling Green 36-18 (.667) 63-29 (.685) Akron 35-19 (.648) 51-37 (.580) Northern Illinois 34-20 (.630) 58-30 (.659) Kent State 30-24 (.556) 45-44 (.506) Miami 28-26 (.519) 41-44 (.482) Eastern Michigan 26-28 (.481) 46-45 (.505) Ohio 24-30 (.444) 40-48 (.455) Toledo 19-35 (.352) 32-53 (.376) Marshall 15-39 (.278) 25-63 (.284) Central Michigan 12-42 (.222) 27-59 (.314) Buffalo 4-50 (.074) 20-70 (.222)
GO WEST
As mentioned above, the Falcons have had the best record of all MAC East Division teams over the last three years ... the 2001 season marked the final season of East Division competition for the Brown and Orange, however ... beginning with the 2002 campaign, the Falcons will be a member of the West Division ... the move occurred as a result of the MAC adding the University of Central Florida as a football-only member, and placing UCF in the East ... the move means that six of the eight qualifiers for the 2001 MAC Volleyball Tournament now reside in the West Division.
QUARTER-CENTURY (PLUS) OF SUCCESS
The 2001 season marked the 26th campaign of varsity volleyball at BGSU ‚ over those first 26 years of the program, the Falcons have an overall record of 457-345-3, for a winning percentage of .570 ‚ that percentage improves to .577 (169-124) in MAC play.
GAMBY THE LONE SENIOR
After a 2001 season in which nearly half of her squad (six of 13 players) held senior status, Denise Van De Walle has just one senior on her 2002 team ... that senior, Kristin Gamby, will look to lead a team that also features six juniors, four sophomores and a single freshman ... four of the non-frosh are newcomers to the Falcon program, as juniors Samantha Rennau and Shannon Roeper and sophomores Amber Mareski and Taylor Twite are first-year transfers ... the returning juniors are Nadia Bedricky, Susie Norris, Sara Sikorski and Laura Twyman, while sophomores Melissa Mohr and Bridget Protas are back for their second playing season ... Emily Manser is BGSU's lone freshman.
SETTING ACADEMIC STANDARDS
The following members of the 2002 BGSU volleyball team -- all seven of the student-athletes (100%) that have been on campus prior to the fall of 2002 -- currently hold a cumulative grade-point average of 3.00 or greater:
In fact, the volleyball Falcons have a most impressive team cumulative GPA of 3.45 through the spring, 2002, semester ... five of the seven returnees have a GPA of 3.69 or higher ... over the last six years, the Falcons have graduated 20 players from the volleyball program ... no fewer than 17 of those players (85%) had a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better.
THIS CROWN FITS NICELY
The Falcons, in the team's final season as a member of the MAC's East Division, captured the divisional title in 2001 ... the Brown and Orange went 12-6 to finish a game ahead of both Akron and Miami ... the title marked BG's second in as many years, after the 2000 team tied for the division crown ... the Brown and Orange also won regular-season crowns in 1989, 1991 and 1992, and the Falcons won the league tournament in 1991.
TWENTY PLUS ONE, YET AGAIN; FALCONS END SEASON AT 21-8
The Falcons won 21 matches in 2001, marking the 10th time in school history -- and the third consecutive year -- that BGSU has reached the 20-win plateau ... BG was 12-6 in MAC action last fall, capturing the league's East Division title ‚ the Falcons also went 12-6 in MAC play the previous two years ... over the last three seasons, the Falcons have posted an overall mark of 63-29.
MORE ON THE 20-WIN STREAK
As mentioned, BGSU has won 21 matches in each of the last three seasons, just the second time that has happened in school history ... the Falcons won 20-plus matches in five-straight campaigns from 1989-93 ... BGSU has now won 20 or more matches 10 times, all during Denise Van De Walle's 19-year tenure.
ROMMECK AN ALL-REGION PICK
BGSU's Caty Rommeck was named to the All-Mideast Region team in 2001 ... she became just the fourth Falcon player to earn all-region honors in the history of the program, and the first in a decade ... Rommeck was one of just two MAC players named to the team ... the rest of the 12-member team was comprised of players from the Big Ten Conference ... the Mideast Region is made up of all schools from the MAC, Big Ten and Northeast Conferences.
ROMMECK, GAMBY ON ALL-MAC TEAM
A pair of Falcons, Caty Rommeck and Kristin Gamby, were named to the 2001 All-MAC Team ... Rommeck earned all-league first-team honors for the second year in a row ... Gamby, who received honorable mention, was honored by the conference for the first time ... Rommeck led the league in kills per game (4.63), and ranked second in blocks (1.41) and seventh in hitting percentage (.307) ... Gamby was sixth in the conference in kills per game (3.79) and ranked 11th with a hitting pct. of .282.
TWYMAN ON ACADEMIC TEAM
Laura Twyman was named to the 2001 Verizon Academic All-District IV Team ... Twyman earned third-team honors ... she carried a perfect 4.00 grade point average as an accounting major ... on the court, she finished the 2001 season with a .242 hitting pct. and an average of 1.01 blocks per game ... the team is made up of student-athletes from NCAA Division I schools in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee ... to be nominated, a student-athlete must be a starter or important reserve, and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher ... team members are selected by a vote of members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) within the district.
VAN DE WINNER
BGSU coach Denise Van De Walle, the dean of MAC mentors, completed her 19th year with the Falcons in 2001 ‚ Van De Walle, with 359 overall victories at the helm of the Brown and Orange, is the winningest coach in conference history ... her total of 169 MAC wins entering the 2002 campaign ranks her third all-time ... Van De Walle now has a record of 359-229 at the helm of the Brown and Orange, good for a winning percentage of .611.
ROMMECK GOES NATIONAL
In January of 2002, Caty Rommeck was selected to the USA Women's National Training Team ... Rommeck travelled to the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. ... the team consisted of 12 players picked from a tryout held in San Diego, Calif., after the Final Four in mid-December ... Rommeck trained with players that include collegiate All-Americans Tayyiba Haneef (Long Beach State), Lizzy Fitzgerald (Wisconsin) and Angela Knopf (Colorado State).
BECKER LEAVES A LEGACY
One of the Falcons' six seniors in 2001 was Natalie Becker ... the graduation of Becker leaves an opening at the setter position for Van De Walle's squad in 2002 ... all Becker did in her two seasons as the starter was amass a career total of 2,766 assists, ranking her fourth in school history ... in each of her two seasons as the starter, Becker set a school record for assists per game ... she dished out 12.27 assists per game as a junior in 2000, then broke her own record with 12.34 apg last fall ... junior Sara Sikorski and sophomore transfer Amber Mareski are the two setters on the 2002 roster.
FALCON POTPOURRI
BGSU is 20-6 (.769) in November matches over the last three seasons ... the Falcons went 10-4 in three-game matches and 8-2 in five-game contests last year ... a total of 12 different Falcons started at least one match in 2001 ... the Brown and Orange earned the second seed for the 2001 MAC Tournament, marking BG's highest seed since the 1993 team was also seeded second ... Caty Rommeck had 10 or more kills in 27 of the season's 29 matches, including in 22 of the final 23 contests ... Kristin Gamby had 21 matches with double-digit kill totals, including nine of the season's last 10 matches ... Gamby had over 20 kills in three of the last four contests.
MAC TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (since 1987)
Bowling Green.........................12 Ball State, Miami, Western Michigan...11 Central Michigan.......................8 Akron, Eastern Michigan................5 Kent (State), Northern Illinois........4 Marshall, Toledo.......................3 Ohio...................................2
