Falcons Look To Improve On Best Start In Eight Years

Complete BGSU weekly volleyball notes (.pdf)
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Radisson New Orleans Airport Privateer Invitational Tournament Central

After winning all four matches at the season-opening Duquesne/Robert Morris Tournament, the Bowling Green State University volleyball team is off to its best start since the 2001 team won five in a row to open the season. The Falcons will look to extend that winning streak at the Radisson New Orleans Airport Privateer Invitational, hosted by the University of New Orleans, this weekend. The Falcons will play host school New Orleans Friday night and will meet Texas Tech and Southeastern Louisiana Saturday.

HEAD-TO-HEAD
Bowling Green has never faced any of the three schools it will play this weekend.

THE OPPONENTS
New Orleans opened the season by dropping two of three matches at the Flo Hyman Invitational, hosted by Houston. The Privateers beat Houston in four sets to open the season but lost to Indiana in four and to Baylor in three to round out the tournament. New Orleans hit just .195 as a team but got 42 kills and five aces from Lindsey Loyd. Head coach Jozsef Forman is in his third season at New Orleans with a career record of 39-28, including a 22-10 mark a year ago.

Texas Tech was swept by Creighton and No. 10 Illinois at the Creighton Tournament and then followed that up with a three-set loss to Texas State. The Red Raiders have hit just .141 while opponents are hitting .371. Amandy Dowdy leads the team with 27 kills and seven of the team's 13 service aces. Head coach Trish Knight is in her first season at Texas Tech after a long and distinguished career at Missouri State-West Plains in NJCAA.

Southeastern Louisiana competed at the same event as New Orleans, the Flo Hyman Invitational, losing in straight sets to Houston, Indiana, and Baylor. The Lady Lions struggled offensively, hitting .042 on the weekend. However, the team bounced back by hitting .514 in a three-set sweep of Alcorn State Tuesday, winning by the lopsided scores of 25-15, 25-9, 25-5. Head coach Julie Langford is in her fourth season at the helm, guiding the program to just a 26-65 record, but improving the team's win total in each of her seasons to 11-17 in 2008.

THE VICTORY MARCH
With a 4-0 start to the 2009 season, head coach Denise Van De Walle has compiled a career record of 491-322 in 27 years at Bowling Green, needing just nine more to reach milestone win No. 500. Since 2006, the Falcons have racked up an impressive 76-25 overall record and has won 20 or more matches in each of the last three campaigns. Van De Walle is one of the 30 active winningest coaches in NCAA Division I and her 491 wins are easily the most in Mid-American Conference history.

THE NEMESIS
Just as Lex Luthor was Superman's nemesis, Shari Luther has been a nemesis to opponents in the early going. Even if they aren't related (OK, we realize the last names aren't even spelled the same and Lex Luthor is fictional), Luther is causing headaches for opponents the way Luthor and his cryptonite must have caused for Superman. She was named Most Valuable Player at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Tournament after averaging 2.8 kills per set and a team-best .430 attack percentage on the weekend. She also had a team-high 13 blocks and served up three aces. For those efforts, she also received the first MAC East Division Offensive Player of the Week award for 2009.

ACTION JACKSON
Senior Kaitlin Jackson has been a versatile player throughout her career with the Falcons. At the Duquesne/Robert Morris Tournament, she recorded the first two double-doubles of her career, averaging 2.64 kills per set, leading the team in digs at 3.43 per set, and recording eight blocks, tied for second on the team. For her efforts, she was named to the all-tournament team.

WHO'S THAT KID?
Freshman setter Allison Kearney is one member of a highly touted class at Bowling Green. In her first collegiate weekend, she lived up to the billing. Kearney averaged 11.5 assists per set, led the team with nine aces and added 2.5 digs per set. She was named to the Duquesne/Robert Morris All-Tournament team.

THE DOMEK SHOW
For Mid-American Conference opponents, it may seem like Corey Domek has been around forever. The senior left side hitter has received MAC postseason honors in each of her first three years with Falcons. She was named to the conference's all-freshman team in 2006 and has followed that up with back-to-back second team all-conference honors. With a team-best 48 kills at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Tournament, she moved from 13th place to 10th place in BGSU history with 1,147 career kills. At her current pace, she could reach the top five by season's end.

SEASON OPENERS
Bowling Green won its season opener for the second consecutive season with a sweep of Loyola (Mary.) at the Duquesne/Robert Morris Tournament. In all, the Falcons are 14-13 in season openers under head coach Denise Van De Walle.

DEFENDING THE HOUSE THAT ROARS
Bowling Green's first seven matches of the 2009 season will be away or on a neutral court but when the Falcons open the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational Sept. 11, the team will set foot on one of the best home courts in the country -- Anderson Arena. BGSU is 22-3 at home over the past two seasons and has an active nine-match winning streak in Anderson Arena. Opponents hit just .198 in 12 matches a year ago in "The House That Roars".

YOUTH IS SERVED
The Bowling Green coaching staff had a stellar offseason, putting together a recruiting class ranked among the best in the Mid-American Conference. In fact, PrepVolleyball.com named the freshman class as a high honorable mention group -- one of only two MAC classes to achieve that honor. The class made an impact already as setter Allison Kearney was named to the Duquesne/Robert Morris All-Tournament team. Cassie Berning played in 14 of the team's 15 sets at the tournament and had 13 kills and 27 digs. Kari Galen played in two matches, picking up three kills.

HITTING THE BOOKS
Bowling Green has always stressed academics and Falcon volleyball has been a model of that philosophy. The 2008 BGSU volleyball team received the AVCA Academic Team Award for the ninth consecutive season, compiling a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 or better. The Falcons have the second longest streak in all of NCAA Division I and has received the award 10 times overall.

RISING TO THE TOP
Since 2006, the Bowling Green volleyball program has been one of the best and most consistent teams in the Mid-American Conference. The Falcons have the second best overall record and MAC record in the conference during that time frame. Here are the combined records for each MAC team since 2006:

Records through 9/2/09
Team Overall (Pct.) MAC (Pct.)
Ohio 81-19 (.810) 44-4 (.917)
Bowling Green 76-25 (.752) 37-11 (.771)
Western Michigan 70-37 (.654) 34-14 (.708)
Central Michigan 59-36 (.621) 29-19 (.604)
Northern Illinois 54-41 (.568) 30-18 (.625)
Miami 55-44 (.555) 34-14 (.708)
Kent State 48-49 (.495) 20-28 (.417)
Eastern Michigan 42-57 (.424) 18-30 (.375)
Toledo 32-62 (.340) 12-36 (.250)
Buffalo 32-66 (.327) 6-42 (.125)
Ball State 29-67 (.302) 18-30 (.375)
Akron 23-72 (.242) 7-41 (.146)

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Fans and media can keep up-to-date on the Bowling Green volleyball team at the official site of Bowling Green athletics, BGSUFalcons.com. Match recaps, previews, statistics, bios and much more can be found on the website. The University of New Orleans has a tournament central page located on their athletic website at http://www.unoprivateers.com. The exact address of the tourney central page is: http://www.unoprivateers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=86712&SPID=10261&DB_OEM_ID=16700&ATCLID=204772316.

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