Falcons Look To Make Move In The MAC

Weekly Game Notes (.pdf)

Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green finishes up their homestand with a pair of Mid-American Conference matches this weekend. At 6-12 overall and 1-3 in league play, the Falcons will host Ohio Friday night at 7 p.m. The team then hosts Kent State Saturday at 7 p.m. Ohio sits one game behind Akron in the MAC East standings at 3-1, while Kent State is tied with Bowling Green as part of a four-way tie for third in the East at 1-3.

THE OPPONENTS
• Ohio is coming off of a weekend split in which they lost to Akron in five sets, and defeated Buffalo in three sets. Ohio is 11-6 overall and boasts a 3-1 record in MAC play. Ohio comes into the match hitting .234 on the year, with Junior outside hitter Katie Post leading the way. In conference play, Ohio has hit .256 as a team, while holding opponents to a .155 hitting percentage. Once again, Junior Katie post leads the Bobcats, averaging 1.26 blocks per game. Bowling Green is 41-24 all-time against Ohio, but lost both matches in three sets a year ago. Head Coach Ryan Theis is in his third year at the helm, with an overall record of 62-21 and a Mid-American Conference record of 31-5.
• Kent State comes into this weekend with a record of 8-11 on the season, with a conference mark of just 1-3.The Flashes come are coming off of two five-set thrillers this weekend, in which they defeated Buffalo and lost to Akron. The Flashes are hitting just .200 on the season, with Junior middle blocker Liva Brivule leading the team with .340 kills per set. As a team, the Flashes are holding opponents to a hitting percentage of just .181 on the year, while averaging 2.53 blocks per set. BGSU is 43-19 all-time against Kent State, including a hard-fought five-setter the last time these teams faced off in the House That Roars. Head Coach Glen Conley, a Bowling Green grad, is 57-56 in his four years at Kent State.

THREE'S COMPANY
For the third consecutive week, a Bowling Green freshman was awarded one of the Mid-American Conference's Player of the Week awards. This week, Danielle Tonyan won the MAC East Division Offensive Player of the Week award after posting 17 kills against Miami and then a career-high 23 against Western Michigan. Last week, Paige Penrod was named MAC East Division Defensive Player of the Week and Ashley Dunn received the same award the week prior to that.

DISHING OUT THE ASSISTS
Freshman setter Laura Avila had an eye-popping 54 assists in the Falcons' three-set loss to Western Michigan. That total is the most for any BGSU player in a three-set match in the rally scoring era of collegiate volleyball (since 2001). The all-time school record for assists in a three set match is 63, achieved by Carey Amos in 1991, ironically also against Western Michigan.

STRINGING THEM ALONG
Freshmen Ashley Dunn has begun a string of double-digit dig performances with an active streak of 10 consecutive matches -- posting at least 12 digs in every one of those contests. She has climbed to sixth in the MAC with 4.10 digs per set and fourth in MAC contests only at 4.60 digs per set. Dunn ranks 15th in digs per set nationally among freshmen.

BLOCK PARTY
Early in the year, Bowling Green struggled to block at the net. The Falcons had 5.0 or more team blocks in only two of the first nine matches of the year. But the team now has 5.0 or more team blocks in eight of the past nine contests. In fact, the team ranks third in the conference in MAC only matches with 2.33 per set and Noelle Spitler ranks sixth in the league with 0.93 blocks per set in conference only matches.

FIVE-SET SPECIALISTS
In recent history, Bowling Green has thrived in five-set matches, posting a .500 record or better in such contests every year since 2005. Overall, the team is 26-9 in such matches since 2005. This year, Bowling Green is 2-1 in matches that have gone the distance, losing a five-setter to Pittsburgh before winning matches against Eastern Illinois and Buffalo.

Bowling Green's Record In Five-Set Matches Since 2005
2010 2-1
2009 6-2
2008 9-1
2007 5-1
2006 2-2
2005 2-2

FRESHMAN CONTRIBUTIONS
With such a young team in 2010, Bowling Green is relying on freshmen to produce right from the start. The class has not disappointed so far, led by Paige Penrod and Danielle Tonyan. Penrod's 209 kills to this point are the most for any BGSU player in their first 18 collegiate matches over the past decade, while Tonyan's 161 rank fifth and Lindsey Butterfield's 55 are 10th. The Falcon freshmen class is having just as big of an impact defensively as Ashley Dunn, Penrod, and Laura Avila rank first, second, and third on the team in digs. Dunn's 258 digs are the third-most for a BGSU freshman in her first 18 matches in the past decade.

PENROD RISING TO THE TOP
Paige Penrod's 209 kills this year already rank as the ninth-most in a freshman season in program history. She needs 16 more this weekend to match Stephanie Swiger (2004) for eighth place and 22 to equal Meghan Mohr (2005) for seventh. Susie Norris set the freshman record with 360 kills in 2000. Currently, Penrod ranks 15th in the country among freshmen in kills per set.

THE YOUNGEST EVER?
This year's team has seven freshmen and four sophomores on the roster. No team under head coach Denise Van De Walle has ever had more than six freshmen and none have had a combined 11 freshmen and sophomores. Since volleyball became a varsity sport under the athletics department in 1976, there is no record of any other team having seven freshmen on the varsity roster. While it certainly means big things could be in store for the future, the Falcons will be relying on inexperienced players to learn through on-the-job training.

VAN DE WALLE STARTS ON THE NEXT 500
With a victory over rival Toledo in the Mid-American Conference Tournament a year ago, Bowling Green coach Denise Van De Walle won her 500th career match, becoming the first to reach that total as a coach in the MAC. The team's win over IUPUI during the opening weekend started her on the backside to 1,000 with her 501st victory. She is now 506-354 all-time, including 236-191 in conference play. In 28 seasons at the helm, she has 13 20-win seasons and a 30-win campaign in 1992. Her teams have won five MAC regular season championships and Van De Walle has been named MAC Coach of the Year four times.

NEW FALCON NEST
The volleyball team will move into the Stroh Center, a new convocation center, in 2011 along with the men's and women's basketball and gymnastics teams. It has been announced that the Falcons will open the arena Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 against Michigan State. The last time BGSU hosted a Big Ten school came in 2005 when the Falcons lost a five-set match to Ohio State in the BGSU Invitational.

PENROD NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT TWICE
Freshman Paige Penrod has been named to an all-tournament team twice during the non-conference section of the schedule. She was honored for the first time in her college career at the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational, hosted by the University of Florida, where she had a team-high 29 kills and hit .221 for the Falcons, adding 18 digs and four blocks. She had her first career double-double against Albany, finishing with 11 kills and 10 digs in the match. She was then named to the all-tournament team at Pittsburgh's Blue and Gold Invitational, where she had 60 kills in four matches and a .265 attack percentage. She added 30 digs, seven aces, and six blocks at the event.

SPITLER NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT TWICE
Senior Noelle Spitler was named to an all-tournament team twice in the first three weeks of the season after being honored at the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational and the MSU Showcase. Spitler had 23 kills and hit .271 during Bowling Green's home tournament, adding a team-best seven blocks. In the win over Cornell, she had 11 kills, five digs and five blocks. At Michigan State, she posted 29 kills and a .417 attack percentage in three matches, including a career-high 13 kills in a win over IUPUI with a .524 attack percentage.

MARK THE CALENDAR
Bowling Green has announced a number of promotions throughout the year. The Falcons already recognized the All-Anderson Volleyball Team and held Alumnae Day on Oct. 2 when BGSU hosted Western Michigan. The Oct. 22 home game against Toledo at 7 p.m. will serve as the annual Pink Out game to raise Cancer awareness. Parent's Night will take place Oct. 29 against Buffalo at 7 p.m. and Senior Night will be the next day against Akron at 3 p.m.

HITTING THE BOOKS
Bowling Green has always stressed academics and Falcon volleyball has been a model of that philosophy. The 2009 BGSU volleyball team received the AVCA Academic Team Award for the 10th 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 11 times overall. The volleyball team has been a big part of BGSU leading the way in the MAC in academics. Bowling Green was awarded the Faculty Athletic Representatives' award for the second consecutive year in recognition of having the highest GPA among women student-athletes and the Falcons also received the 2010 MAC Institutional Academic Achievement Award for having the highest GPA among all of its student-athletes in the conference.

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