Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Conclude MAC Road Matches This Weekend
November 02, 2004 | Volleyball
Nov. 2, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, currently seeded sixth in the conference will travel to Kent State (Nov. 6) and Akron (Nov. 7) for their final two MAC road matches of the season. The match with KSU is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., while the Akron match is slated to begin at 2:00 p.m.
Volleyball Notes For This Weekend
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RECAP OF THE PAST WEEK
BGSU went 0-2 over the past weekend with losses to Western Michigan (3-0) and Eastern Michigan (3-2), both at home.
On Friday night Bowling Green played host to the Broncos of Western Michigan, but the home court was anything but friendly. WMU swept the Falcons (30-25, 30-19, 30-25) for the second consecutive match.
The highlight of the night was game three, with the Falcons trailing 22-6. With the match seemly over, BGSU nearly pulled of a comeback for the ages. A 9-1 run closed the gap to within 23-15. The run continued with a 7-3 spurt to close the gap to four at 26-22, but the comeback was not to be. The Broncos won the third and final game 30-25.
The following night the Falcons came out with a different attitude and nearly pulled of an upset over Eastern Michigan, falling in five games (30-22, 23-30, 25-30, 30-16, 8-15).
Junior Ashlei Nofzinger set a career-high 19 kills and 22 digs in the loss to the Eagles, including 11 digs in the first game alone. Even in the loss three Falcons poured in double-doubles. Nofzinger, Emily Manser (12 kills and 12 digs) and Amber Mareski (58 assists and 11 digs. Chrissy Gothke registered a team-best 28 digs, and even posted nine digs in the shortened game five alone.
A LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
Kent State (8-12, 5-8 MAC) is coming off back-to-back three game losses to Ohio and Ball State over the past weekend and have lost six of their last seven matches.
The Flashes are led by Danielle Holt, who averages 4.78 kills and 2.84 digs per game.
On Sunday the Falcons travel to Akron (12-11, 4-7) for a 2:00 p.m. showdown. The Zips are coming off a 3-0 victory over Buffalo last Friday night, but dropped a 3-1 decision to Toledo the following night.
THREE FALCONS EARN MAC POW
In only nine weeks of volleyball action, the BGSU volleyball team has earned three MAC Player of the Week nominations. Melissa Mohr (Sept. 13), Emily Manser (Sept. 27) and Taylor Twite (Oct. 11) have all earned the award. The last time the Brown & Orange have earned the award on three different occasions was back in 2001 when Kristin Gamby, Susie Norris and Caty Rommeck were named East Division Player of the Week.
SEARCH FOR 3,000/1,000/400
Senior setter Amber Mareski recorded her 2,900th career assist over the past weekend. For her career she now owns 2,983 assists in her BGSU career, which ranks fourth all-time in school history. She is only 17 assists shy of the magical number 3,000, a number only three Falcons have ever reached.
1. 4,406 Linda Popovich 1986-89 2. 3,779 Carey Amos 1989-92 3. 3,407 Jodi Olson 1993-95 4. 2,983 Amber Mareski 2001-SASenior Taylor Twite owns 851 career kills and is a mere 149 kills from becoming only the 12th Falcon in school history to reach 1,000 career kills.
10. 1,110 Caty Rommeck 1999-2001 11. 1,024 Kristin Gamby 1999-2002 12. 1,015 Heather Murphy 1996-98 13. 858 Nicky Mudrak 1990-93 14. 851 Taylor Twite 2002-SA
The final Falcon looking for a career milestone is head coach Denise Van De Walle. Coach Van De Walle owns 393 career wins and is only seven wins shy of 400, which would make her only the 34th DI coach in NCAA history to surpass that mark.
MAC TOURNAMENT REACHING CLOSER
If the season ended today the BGSU volleyball team would be seeded sixth and play host to the University of Toledo on Tuesday, Nov. 16, before hosting the remaining eight teams from Nov. 19-21 for the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
FALCONS IN THE MAC
With 12.35 assists per game, Amber Mareski ranks fourth in the MAC. She has 1050 assists on the season.
Melissa Mohr ranks sixth in the MAC in blocks per game with 1.21. She has 16 solo blocks and 88 block-assists on the season. Mohr also ranks sixth in the MAC with .38 aces/ game.
Taylor Twite ranks 12th in kills per game with 3.60 as well as 12th in hitting percentage with a .295
NOFZINGER STEPS UP BIG
Junior transfer Ashlei Nofzinger entered last Saturday's action averaging 1.90 kills, 1.20 digs and was hitting .228 on the season. Following the match with Eastern Michigan, where she doubled her kills/game and quadrupled her digs/game (19 kills (3.8/game) and 22 digs (4.4/game)) she is now averaging 2.01 kills and 1.54 digs. Both the 19 kills and 22 digs were career-highs for the outside hitter.
Senior Spotlight: Amber Mareski
Amber Mareski will leave her mark on the BGSU program for many years. The senior from St. Clair, Michigan will finish her career in the top five on the career assist mark, as well as assists per game for a career. For her career she has recorded 2,925 assists (4th all time) and averages 10.07 assists per game in her three year Falcon career. Her 12.35 assists/game this season would rank first in school history if the season ended today.
Mareski owns a career-high 69 assists for one match, which she set back in 2002 in a match with Ohio, as well as a career-best 18 digs and seven kills, which she set at last years MAC Tournament.
Mareski is majoring in music education and currently maintains a 3.67 GPA.
