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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tuesday, November 16
Ypsilanti, MI
7:00 p.m.
Bowling Green State University
at
Eastern Michigan (First Round)
Falcons Start Postseason Tuesday
November 14, 2010 | Volleyball
Complete Game Notes (.pdf)
Bowling Green, Ohio - The Bowling Green volleyball team lost 13 of its final 15 regular season matches but the Falcons can make up for that beginning Tuesday in the postseason. As the No. 12 seed for the Mid-American Conference Tournament, Bowling Green will play at No. 5 seed Eastern Michigan at 7 pm for the right to advance to the MAC Tournament quarterfinals. The Falcons went on the road for the first round a year ago and defeated Toledo to move on in the tournament and will look to do the same this year.
SCOUTING EASTERN MICHIGAN
Eastern Michigan enters the conference tournament with a record of 23-10 overall and the Eagles went 10-6 in Mid-American Conference play. However, EMU struggled down the stretch, losing four of its final five matches and the team went 7-7 in the final 14 matches. Eastern Michigan holds opponents to just a .179 attack percentage by averaging 17.58 digs per set. Junior Haley Stein paces the team and the MAC with 5.76 digs per set. Sophomore Rachel Iaquaniello is third in the conference with 3.84 kills per set.
THE MAC TOURNAMENT
Bowling Green is the No. 12 seed for the MAC Tournament and faces No. 5 seed Eastern Michigan in the first round Tuesday night. There are also three other first round contests as No. 6 seed Central Michigan hosts No. 11 Miami, No. 7 Akron hosts No. 10 Buffalo, and No. 8 Toledo hosts No. 9 Kent State. The top four seeds get byes into the quarterfinals and they are No. 1 Ball State, No. 2 Ohio, No. 3 Western Michigan, and No. 4 Northern Illinois. The winner of Bowling Green's match with Eastern Michigan will play Northern Illinois in the quarterfinals.
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 16 of the past 22 contests.
DUNN DEAL
With 445 digs this season, Ashley Dunn holds the 10th highest single-season dig total in program history. She needs three digs to pass Alex Zlabis (447 digs a year ago) for ninth and 11 to pass Holli Costein (455 digs in 1992), as well as 14 to surpass Chelsey Meek (458 digs in 2005 for seventh). Dunn could also still catch Susie Norris (462 digs in 2000 and 467 digs in 2003) in sixth and fifth place. Meek holds the school record with 663 digs in 2008. Dunn's 4.28 digs per set ranks as the fourth-highest single season average at BGSU. Meek's 5.62 digs per set in 2007 is the current school record.
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 26-10 in such matches since 2005. This year, Bowling Green is 22 in matches that have gone the distance, losing a five-setter to Pittsburgh before winning matches against Eastern Illinois and Buffalo. The Falcons lost to Akron in five sets Saturday.
FRESHMEN 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 387 kills are most ever for a BGSU freshman. Danielle Tonyan's 295 kills are the fourth most for a freshman through the first 31 collegiate matches of a career in the past decade and Lindsey Butterfield's 135 are 10th. The rookie 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 445 digs are the fourth-most for a BGSU freshman in her first 31 matches in the past decade and rank as the 10th highest single-season dig total in program history.
THREE'S COMPANY
For three consecutive weeks, a Bowling Green freshman was awarded one of the Mid-American Conference's Player of the Week awards. Two weeks ago, 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. The week before, 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.
PENROD AND TONYAN RISING TO THE TOP
In the Falcons' match against Kent State Friday night, Paige Penrod set a new program record for kills in a season by a freshman. She now has 387, surpassing the previous record of 360 by Susie Norris in 2000. In fact, Penrod ranks ninth nationally among all freshmen in kills.
Along with that, Danielle Tonyan has moved into fifth place in kills for a freshman with 295 and needs just five more to reach 300 in her rookie season. If she gets to that mark, Penrod and Tonyan would be the first freshmen duo in program history to have 300 kills in a season. They already rank first among freshmen pairs with 682 kills (Lori Kemerer and Heather Murphy are second with 610 kills in 1996).
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 508-365 all-time, including 237-202 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/SPITLER SWEEP ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
Freshman Paige Penrod and senior Noelle Spitler were each named to an all-tournament team twice during the non-conference portion of the schedule. Penrod was honored for the first time in her college career at the Campus USA Credit Union Invitational, hosted by the University of Florida, and then followed that up by being named to the all-tournament team at Pittsburgh's Blue and Gold Invite. Spitler was honored at Michigan State's MSU Showcase and then at home in the Best Western Falcon Plaza Invitational.
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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Friday, October 17
BG VB : Postgame Interviews 10.10
Saturday, October 11
BG VB : Postgame Interviews 10.9
Friday, October 10