Unbeaten Falcons Head To Tampa For South Florida Invite

USF Volleyball Invitational
Hosted by the University of South Florida
Sept. 2-4/Tampa, Fla.

Bowling Green (2-0) vs. Eastern Kentucky (1-3)
Sept. 2, 11 a.m.
All-Time Series History: Tied 1-1 (Streak EKU W1)
Live Stats

Bowling Green (2-0) vs. Bethune-Cookman (1-1)
Sept. 2, 5 p.m.
All-Time Series History: First Meeting
Live Stats

Bowling Green (2-0) vs. Maryland Eastern Shore (0-0)
Sept. 3, 2 p.m.
All-Time Series History: First Meeting
Live Stats

Bowling Green (2-0) at South Florida (0-2)
Sept. 3, 7:30 p.m.
All-Time Series History: First Meeting
Live Stats

Coming off of a tournament championship at the Kristen Dickmann Invitational, hosted by Navy, the Bowling Green volleyball team heads to Tampa to take part in the USF Volleyball Invitational. The Falcons went 2-0 in Annapolis, Mary., but had two matches cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. Danielle Tonyan averaged 4.5 kills per set and was named Tournament Most Valuable Player, while Emily Kauth was named to the all-tournament team as well.

THE OPPONENTS
Eastern Kentucky opened the season 1-3, playing a tough opening-season tournament at the Pitt Panther Invitational. The Colonels beat Howard but lost to Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, and Duquesne in succession. Eastern Kentucky only hit .143 but Hannah Burkle led with 35 kills and had a .270 attack percentage, while adding a team-best 10 blocks. Head coach Lori Duncan is in her 14th season at the helm of the program, leading the program to a pair of conference championships in 2004 and 2005.

Bethune-Cookman opened the season by splitting two matches, sweeping Savannah State before losing in four sets to The Citadel despite having no players listed at taller than 5-foot-11. The Lady Wildcats held opponents to only .059 hitting but hit only .072 themselves and recorded just 4.0 blocks in the two matches. Krysta Gardner led the way with 24 kills and libero Jennifer Jimenez had 29 digs. Head coach Isaac Raphael is in his first season after spending time as an assistant coach at Florida International.

Maryland Eastern Shore was scheduled to play in Hampton, Va. at the Tiny Laster Invitational, but that event was cancelled due to Hurricane Irene. The Hawks were chosen to win the North Division of the MEAC and Maline Vaitai was selected as the preseason MEAC Player of the Year. She led the league in kills (3.45 per set) and ranked third in aces (0.37 per set) a year ago. Outside hitter Zoe Bowens was also selected to the preseason all-league team. Don Metil enters his fifth year as the coach of the program after leading the squad to a 20-12 record a year ago.

South Florida is 0-2 after taking a trip West to face New Mexico and New Mexico State, winning just one set in the two matches. The Bulls hit only .089 in the two matches but did post 23.0 blocks, 11 of which came from Kayla Walton. J'beria Davis recorded the lion's share of the team's kills with 28 but also had 15 attack errors. Head coach Claire Lessinger is in her eighth season at USF, coming off a 10-18 season a year ago after three straight winning seasons.

TONYAN NAMED TOURNEY MVP/KAUTH ALL-TOURNAMENT
Sophomore outside hitter Danielle Tonyan received her first career all-tournament honor and was named MVP of the Kristen Dickmann Invitational this past weekend. She had 16 kills and a .536 attack percentage in the team's three-set sweep of Air Force, adding three blocks. She followed that up with a team-high 11 kills and totaled three aces and two blocks in a sweep of host Navy.

Senior middle Emily Kauth was a terror at the net defensively, post nine blocks in two matches to earn all-tournament honors. She was also perfect on 13 serve-receive attempts, had nine kills, and attacked at a .400 clip. In the win over Air Force, she had three kills and five blocks before posting six kills and four blocks in the win over Navy.

A SIMPLE FORMULA
If a team can hit better than its opponent, in most cases that team is more likely to win. For Bowling Green, that's proving to be true in the early-going. The Falcons rank first in the Mid-American Conference in hitting percentage (.356) and rank first in the league in opponent's hitting percentage (.110). Those numbers stand in stark contrast to a year ago when Bowling Green ranked dead last in the 12-team MAC in hitting percentage and 11th in opponent's hitting percentage.

THE DYNAMIC DUO
Bowling Green returns one of the most talented attacking duos in the Mid-American Conference in sophomores Paige Penrod and Danielle Tonyan. Currently, the duo is the only set of teammates in the Mid-American Conference to rank in the top 10 in the league in both kills and points. Tonyan ranks second in the MAC in points and third in kills and aces. Penrod is eighth in kills and 10th in points. Along with the raw numbers, the pair has improved their efficiency as well. Tonyan is hitting .418 this year (up from .210 a year ago) and Penrod is at .271 (up from .196 as a freshman).

SETTING THEM UP
While Penrod and Tonyan are primed to have big sophomore seasons, they need some help to produce at the same rate they did a year ago. Sophomore setter Laura Avila and freshman Erica Fullenkamp are providing those two with tremendous attacking opportunities. Avila has handed out 39 assists so far and Fullenkamp has 20 helpers. A year ago, 42 percent of Avila's set attempts turned into kills while that percentage has increased to 48.8 percent this year.

DIGGING DUNN
A year ago, libero Ashley Dunn posted the fourth-highest single-season dig total in program history for a freshman with 457. That total was the eighth-best total in program history and her 4.27 digs per set was the fifth-best average in school history and second-best among freshmen. This year, Dunn has posted double-digit digs in each of the first two matches, giving her a string of six straight 10+ dig matches dating back to last year.

COMPARING THE MAC
Here are Bowling Green's rankings in the MAC as a team and as individuals:

Team
Hitting Percentage – 1. Bowling Green .356
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 1. Bowling Green .110
Assists/Set – 5. Bowling Green 11.83
Kills/Set – T7. Bowling Green 12.67
Blocks/Set – 3. Bowling Green 2.25
Aces/Set – 3. Bowling Green 1.83
Digs/Set – 11. Bowling Green 12.83

Individuals (Top 10 Rankings)
Hitting Percentage – 6. Danielle Tonyan .418
Kills/Set – 3. Danielle Tonyan 4.50; 8. Paige Penrod 3.67
Aces/Set – T3. Danielle Tonyan 0.50; T3. Ashley Dunn 0.50
Blocks/Set – 4. Emily Kauth 1.50
Digs/Set – 8. Ashley Dunn 3.83
Points/Set – 2. Danielle Tonyan 5.50; 10. Paige Penrod 4.08

THE MAC IS TOUGH
On the opening weekend of the 2011 NCAA Division I volleyball season, Mid-American Conference teams combined to go 25-12. Five of the 12 teams in the conference are still unbeaten including Miami (4-0) and Bowling Green (2-0) in the East. In the West, Western Michigan (3-0), Toledo (3-0) and Ball State (2-0) still have not tasted defeat. At 0-3, Akron is the only winless team left in the MAC.

PENROD NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MAC
Sophomore outside hitter Paige Penrod was picked as a Preseason All-MAC East Division player by vote of the league coaches. Penrod joined Akron's Tina Dimitrijevs, Buffalo's Abby Niekamp, Miami's Cassie Farrell, and Ohio's Katie Post and Lexie Hartnett on the team.

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 and, even more impressively, 22-6 in the past four years.

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

DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Three active players have recorded at least one double-double in their career (posting at least 10 kills, digs, assists, blocks, or aces in a match in two of those categories). Paige Penrod enters the season with a team-high 10 double-doubles, followed by Laura Avila with five and Ashley Dunn with one.

20 KILLS OR 20 DIGS
Paige Penrod enters the season with three career matches with at least 20 kills (and a career-high 25 against Buffalo on Oct. 29, 2010), while Danielle Tonyan has added one career 20-kill match (23 vs. Western Michigan on Oct. 2, 2010). Ashley Dunn posted seven 20-dig matches a year ago with a career-best 26 in matches against St. Francis (Sept. 17, 2010) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 16, 2010).

VAN DE WALLE GOING OUT ON TOP
Last spring, Bowling Green head coach Denise Van De Walle announced that the 2011 season would be her last before she retires. With this year's 2-0 start, she has a career record of 510-365 and has been named MAC Coach of the Year four times. The Falcons have posted a record of 237-202 in conference action over the course of her career.

FALCONS PICKED FIFTH
Bowling Green was picked to finish fifth in the Mid-American Conference East Division in the preseason poll by vote of the league's coaches. Ohio was selected to win the East, followed by Miami, Akron, Buffalo, BGSU, and Kent State. In the West, Northern Illinois was picked to win, followed by Ball State, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Central Michigan, and Toledo.

RED, WHITE AND BLUE
Senior defensive specialist Madison Nitta represented the United States on the US Deaf Volleyball Team during the past summer. Nitta, who has profound hearing loss, was a key player as the United States won the 2011 Friendship Games in Washington, D.C. The USA defeated the Ukraine twice along the way to the championship, the first time in more than six years that the Ukraine had been defeated in international play.

THE NEW HOME
The volleyball and basketball teams will move into the Stroh Center this year, a brand new arena on the campus of BGSU. The Falcon volleyball team will host the first athletic event in the facility, playing Michigan State at 6 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 9. 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.

HITTING THE BOOKS
Bowling Green has always stressed academics and Falcon volleyball has been a model of that philosophy. The 2010 BGSU volleyball team received the AVCA Academic Team Award for the 11th 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 12 times overall.

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