Bowling Green State University Athletics

Falcons Honor Greats; Play MAC Home Opener This Weekend
September 28, 2010 | Volleyball
Weekly Game Notes (.pdf)
All-Anderson Team Announcement
Bowling Green, Ohio - Bowling Green returns home for a pair of Mid-American Conference matches this weekend. At 6-10 overall and 1-1 in league play, the Falcons will host Miami (Ohio) Thursday night at 7 p.m. The team then hosts Western Michigan Saturday at 7 p.m. for Alumnae Day and All-Anderson Team Recognition Night. The 14-member All-Anderson Team will be in attendance and will be honored following the match.
ALL-ANDERSON VOLLEYBALL TEAM
As part of the "Closing The Doors Of The House That Roars" celebration, Bowling Green has announced the All-Anderson Volleyball Team, recognizing the 14 best players to play for BGSU in the Anderson Arena era. The group represents 20 First Team All-MAC selections, 13 First Team Academic All-MAC picks, four MAC Player of the Year awards, and four selections to the BGSU Hall of Fame. The group will be honored at BGSU's home volleyball match against Western Michigan Saturday at 7 p.m. The complete team can be viewed on page five.
THE OPPONENTS
• Miami is one of the traditional MAC volleyball powers but the RedHawks have gotten off to an uncharacteristically slow start to the season. Miami is 5-10 overall and was swept by both Buffalo and Akron during the past weekend to start MAC play, scoring no more than 20 points in any set. Much like Bowling Green, Miami posts enough kills to win matches but has a high attack error rate and is hitting just .199 on the year. The RedHawks are also struggling defensively, allowing opponents to hit a league-worst .242 on the year. Miami has gotten a lot of help in its service game, though, and Jackie Lang is second in the conference with 0.53 aces per set. Bowling Green is just 24-39 all-time against Miami and lost to the RedHawks three times a year ago, including being eliminated in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals. Head Coach Carolyn Condit is the second-most tenured coach in the MAC (behind BGSU's Denise Van De Walle) and has a career record of 575-436 overall and 476-356 in 27 years at Miami.
• Western Michigan is another traditional MAC power and the Broncos are off to another solid start, opening the year 11-4 overall and 2-0 in league play. All four of Western Michigan's losses have come at the hands of teams either ranked or receiving votes in the top 25 poll. The Broncos are first in the MAC in digs and second in both kills and assists but is dead last with just 1.02 service aces per set. Jessica Brown averages 3.44 kills per set and is hitting at a .344 clip, while Sam Viox is averaging a MAC-best 11.60 assists per set. BGSU is just 17-33-1 all-time against Western Michigan but is a more respectable 10-11 in Anderson Arena. The Falcons won a hard-fought five-setter the last time these teams faced off in the House That Roars back in 2008. Head Coach Colleen Munson is 179-158 in 11 seasons as a coach and 127-59 in six years at Western Michigan.
THE BEST OFFENSE IS A GOOD DEFENSE
For the second consecutive week, a Bowling Green player was named Mid-American Conference East Division Defensive Player of the Week. Freshman Paige Penrod received the award this week after posting 34 digs and five blocks during the past week. She had 15 in a three-set loss to Akron and then posted a career-high 19 in the five-set win over Buffalo Saturday. She follows freshman libero Ashley Dunn, who received the award a week ago.
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.
SERVE IT UP
Freshman setter Laura Avila came up with a clutch service game when it mattered most for the Falcons. With Saturday's fifth set at Buffalo tied at 15-15, Avila served two consecutive aces to give the Falcons the win. She had just three career aces prior to that point.
.200 IS KEY
So far in 2010, a .200 attack percentage has been the critical number for BGSU success. The Falcons are 4-0 when reaching that total for a match (doing so against IUPUI, Cornell, St. Francis and Robert Morris) and 2-10 when they do not.
STRINGING THEM ALONG
Freshmen Ashley Dunn has begun a string of double-digit dig performances with an active streak of eight consecutive matches -- posting at least 12 digs in every one of those contests. A year ago, Alex Zlabis had a season-long 11-match streak of double-digit digs early in the season.
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 each of the past seven matches and, in fact, leads the conference in blocks per set during league matches only. Kari Galen's 1.17 blocks/set in conference play is tied for second in the MAC.
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.
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 169 kills to this point are the third-most for any BGSU player in their first 16 collegiate matches over the past decade, while Tonyan's 121 rank seventh and Lindsey Butterfield's 48 are 10th. The Falcon freshmen class may have an even bigger impact defensively as Ashley Dunn, Penrod, and Laura Avila rank first, second, and third on the team in digs. Dunn's 219 digs are the third-most for a BGSU freshman in her first 16 matches in the past decade.
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 506-352 all-time, including 236-189 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.
MARK THE CALENDAR
Bowling Green has announced a number of promotions throughout the year. The Falcons will recognize the All-Anderson Volleyball Team and hold Alumnae Day on Oct. 2 when BGSU hosts Western Michigan at 7 p.m. 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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