Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons, Readying For 2003 Campaign, Open Preseason Practices
August 12, 2003 | Volleyball
Aug. 12, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team is in the midst of preseason preparations for the 2003 season. A total of 12 student-athletes reported on Sunday (August 10), and practices are underway. The Falcons of head coach Denise Van De Walle open the 2003 season on Aug. 29, beginning play in the two-day Bronco Invitational, hosted by Boise State University.
BGSU will head to Peoria, Ill., for the Bradley Invitational on Sept. 5-6, before opening the home portion of the schedule with the BGSU Invitational on Sept. 12-13. Iowa State, Murray State and West Virginia will head to Anderson Arena for the four-team, round-robin tournament.
Van De Walle welcomes back nine letterwinners, including four starters, from the 2002 squad. Some additional BGSU and Mid-American Conference volleyball news and notes...
MAC PRESEASON POLL RELEASED
Ohio and Ball State have been tabbed as the Mid-American Conference's divisional favorites for the 2003 season. Ohio was picked to win the East Division crown in a vote of the league's 13 head coaches, while BSU was tabbed to win the West Division and repeat as MAC Tournament champion. In a change from previous polls, the MAC announces only the top three selections in each division.
Akron was picked to finish second in the East Division, followed by Kent State. In the West Division, Western Michigan was picked to place second, while Northern Illinois was selected to finish third.
ALL 13 TEAMS TO MAKE MAC TOURNAMENT
The format for the MAC Volleyball Tournament has undergone a major change. For the first time in league history, all 13 teams will participate in the tourney, which mirrors the format of the league's men's and women's basketball tournaments. Three seeds -- the two divisional winners and the team with the next best divisional winning percentage -- will receive first-round byes. The other 10 teams will play first-round matches on Tuesday, Nov. 18, at campus sites, with the fourth seed hosting the #13 seed, #5 hosting #12, etc. Then, following the first round, the eight remaining teams will converge on Muncie, Ind., for the quarterfinal (Nov. 21), semifinal (Nov. 22) and championship (Nov. 23) rounds.
DEAN VAN DE WALLE
The Falcons have the dean of MAC volleyball coaches, Denise Van De Walle, at the helm. Van De Walle, entering her 21st season as BGSU's head coach, is the winningest mentor in MAC history with 368 career victories for the Brown and Orange. In MAC play, she has 173 total wins to place third all-time.
NINE RETURNEES
After losing six seniors off the 2001 squad, Van De Walle had just one senior (Kristin Gamby) on last year's team. Additionally, Laura Twyman, a redshirt junior in 2002, was on track to graduate and elected not to return to the team in 2003. But, BGSU's nine returning letterwinners include four seniors, including fourth-year starter Susie Norris. Nadia Bedricky, Samantha Rennau and Sara Sikorski all are back for their senior seasons as well.
NORRIS ON TRACK TO SET SCHOOL DIGS RECORDS
Senior Susie Norris, who set the school's single-season digs records as a freshman in 2000, is on track to set the school career records in that category. She has a three-year total of 1,129 digs, placing her sixth in school history. Norris, who has had at least 287 digs in each of her first three seasons, is only 215 digs shy of current school record-holder Holli Costein (1,344 career digs from 1989-92).
MORE RECORDS ON HORIZON FOR SUSIE?
Norris has a chance to finish her career at or near the top of several other lists, in addition to the digs charts. She enters her senior season with a total of 2,646 career attack attempts, ranking her 10th in BGSU annals. The school record is 3,821 (Carlyn Esslinger). Also, Norris has 947 career kills, and is on track to become just the 11th player in school history to amass 1,000 kills. If Norris gets the 53 kills she needs to reach the century mark, she would be only the seventh Falcon ever to top the 1,000 plateau in both kills and digs.
PROTAS PACKS POWERFUL PUNCH
Redshirt junior Bridget Protas is the Falcons' top returnee in terms of hitting percentage. Protas hit .227 in 25 matches last season, before seeing her year come to an end due to injury. Norris led the returning Falcons with a total of 353 kills last fall.
MORE ON THE RETURNEES
* In addition to Norris and Protas, second-year Falcons Emily Manser and Amber Mareski each made at least 15 starts last year. Manser, now a sophomore, was second on the team with 306 digs last fall, while Mareski made 20 starts and had nearly 900 set assists last season.
* Mareski, a junior, and Sikorski give Van De Walle two veterans with setting experience. They rank ninth and 10th, respectively, in school history in career assists.
* Bedricky, a part-time starter over her first three years, made nine starts a year ago and was third on the Brown and Orange with 245 digs.
* In addition to Protas and Mareski, the junior class consists of Melissa Mohr and Taylor Twite. Mohr had 23 service aces, top among returnees. Twite made 12 starts and hit .196 a year ago, and her total of 63 blocks last year places her second (behind Protas' 78) among active Falcons.
WHAT ABOUT THE NEWCOMERS?
The Falcons' three newcomers include a pair of freshmen in Chrissy Gothke (Whitehouse, Ohio) and Corrie Mills (Elgin, Ill.), as well as a fifth-year senior. Libby Voshell joins Van De Walle's program after a stellar four-year career on the Falcon softball squad. Voshell, who earned all-state honors in volleyball at Brighton (Mich.) H.S., finished her BG softball career ranked second in career doubles and homeruns, just one shy of the career record in each category.
A TOURNAMENT AT ANDERSON
For the first time in three years and only the second time in over a decade, the Falcons will host an in-season tournament. Iowa State, Murray State and West Virginia will come to Anderson Arena for the BGSU Invitational on Sept. 12-13. The Falcons won the most recent BGSU Invite, in 2000. Prior to that tourney, BGSU had last hosted a tourney in 1992.
FIRST TIME SINCE HER FIRST SEASON
The Falcons have not played Ohio State since 1983, Denise Van De Walle's first season with the Brown and Orange. On Sept. 28 of that year, OSU captured a five-game match in Columbus, winning games four and five. BGSU had also fallen in a five-gamer the previous year (1982) in the only series match played in BG. The Buckeyes, ranked 18th in the nation in the 2003 USA Today/AVCA Division I preseason poll, hold a 7-0 advantage in the all-time series with the Falcons.
MAKE A DAY OF IT
BGSU fans have a rare chance to see two Falcon teams in action on the road in the same day. On Saturday, Sept. 20, the Falcon football team will take on Ohio State in a 12:10 p.m. start in Ohio Stadium. That evening, the two schools' volleyball squads will do battle across the street, at OSU's St. John Arena. The volleyball match is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.
