Senior Night Highlights Final Home Weekend

BGSU vs. Buffalo
PARENT'S NIGHT
Friday, Nov. 2, 2012; 7:00 p.m.
Stroh Center/Bowling Green, Ohio
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com
Live Audio: BGRSO
Live Video: America One Network

BGSU vs. Akron
SENIOR NIGHT
Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012; 5:00 p.m.
Convocation Center/Athens, Ohio
Live Stats: BGSUFalcons.com
Live Audio: BGRSO
Live Video: America One Network

2012 MAC STANDINGS
EAST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Ohio	11-1	16-8
Bowling Green	10-2	15-9
Akron	7-5	14-10
Miami	4-8	9-16
Kent State	3-9	6-18
Buffalo	2-10	8-16
WEST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Western Michigan	9-3	16-9
Northern Illinois	7-5	16-12
Central Michigan	6-6	12-11
Ball State	6-6	13-12
Eastern Michigan	5-7	15-13
Toledo	2-10	8-17

Bowling Green closes out the home portion of the regular season this weekend as the Falcons host Buffalo Friday night at 7 p.m. for Parent's Night and then hosts Akron Saturday at 5 p.m. for Senior Night. BGSU will recognize four seniors – Leah Shaw, Cassie Berning, Kari Galen, and Lauren Mizgalski. At 10-2 in the MAC, the Falcons hold sole possession of second place, one match behind Ohio and one match ahead of Western Michigan.

LINKS, LINKS, LINKS
Here's a list of links that fans may find interesting heading into the weekend's matches:
* BGSU volleyball players single-match season and career highs (.pdf)
* Mid-American Conference statistical leaders
* NCAA statistical leaders
* NCAA RPI Rankings

ABOUT BUFFALO
Buffalo comes into the weekend with a record of 8-16 overall and is 2-10 in MAC play, ranking at the bottom of the East Division. The Bulls are 0-8 in road contests this year and have lost three straight matches heading into Friday night. Buffalo's .164 attack percentage is last in the MAC, but the Bulls are a strong blocking team, ranking second in the league at 2.41 per set. Akeila Lain, a 6-foot-1 freshman middle, leads the blocking unit at 1.28 per set, second in the MAC, while 5-10 freshman outside hitter Megan Lipski and 5-11 junior setter Dani Reinert are third and fourth in the conference in service aces. Head Coach Todd Kress is in his fourth season with the Bulls, posting a record of 53-67. In 18 years as a head coach (also at Fairfield, Northern Illinois, and Florida State), he is 308-226.

ABOUT AKRON
About the only team in the MAC that has shown more improvement from a year ago is Akron. The Zips are 14-10 overall and 7-5 in league play a year after going 1-15 in the conference. Akron has won four straight entering the weekend and is a respectable 3-5 in road matches. The Zips lead the MAC with 1.25 service aces per set and rank in the top seven in the conference in every statistical category. Tina Dimitrijevs, a 6-foot senior middle blocker, is the conference leader with a .362 attack percentage and she is also fifth in aces at 0.30 per set. Head Coach Ron Arenz is in his fifth season at Akron with a record of 58-87. He has a career mark of 94-116 in six years as a head coach.

FOLLOWING THE FALCONS
There are a variety of ways to follow this weekend's action and links for all are available on BGSUFalcons.com. BGSU will offer live stats, live audio (courtesy of BGRSO), and live video for both contests. As well, fans can keep up with the action on Twitter by following @BGAthletics and @jknavel.

TURN THE DIAL
The Bowling Green Radio Sports Organization (BGRSO) will provide a radio broadcast of all BGSU volleyball home matches this season, which will also be available on the web via live streaming. Follow links at BGSUFalcons.com to listen on the web.

ON THE TUBE
The Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN), broadcasting to the greater Toledo area, has televised four BGSU home matches this year. The station televised the team's Orange and Brown scrimmage and followed that up by broadcasting Kent State, Western Michigan, and Toledo victories.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
BGSU is 6-1 inside the Stroh Center in 2012 and the Falcons have the third-best home attendance in the league at 722 (only Ohio and Western Michigan are better). A year ago, BGSU stunned Michigan State in four sets in the Stroh Center behind a program-record crowd of 2,961.

EIGHT IS GREAT
BGSU started 8-0 in MAC play this year for the fourth time in program history. Most recently, the 2006 team started conference play with 10 straight wins and went on to finish 13-3, tied for second in the MAC East Division. Prior to that, the 1992 team started 13-0 and won the conference with a record of 17-1. The only other 8-0 start came in 1989, when the league played just eight conference matches and the Falcons won them all to earn a conference title.

BETTER THAN A YEAR AGO
With 10 Mid-American Conference wins this year, Bowling Green has already surpassed its conference win total from a year ago when the squad went 6-10. It marks the second consecutive year in which the team has shown an increased league win total of at least four victories. Akron is the only other MAC team with more wins than a year ago as the Zips are 7-5 after going 1-15 in 2011.

LOOKING AHEAD
Eight teams advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament played at the SPIRE Institute in Geneva, Ohio beginning Nov. 16. If play were to start today, the Falcons would be the No. 2 seed for the tournament and would face off against No. 7 seed Ball State, one of only two MAC teams to beat BGSU this year. If the tournament were to start today, these would be the first-round pairings:

No. 1 Ohio vs. No. 8 Eastern Michigan
No. 2 Bowling Green vs. No. 7 Ball State
No. 3 Western Michigan vs. No. 6 Central Michigan
No. 4 Northern Illinois vs. No. 5 Akron

FIVE-SETTERS
In a seven-match stretch, Bowling Green played in five five-setters (including four in a row), winning all five of those matches. Prior to that stretch, the Falcons had played in just one five-set match, a loss to Utah. It is the first time in program history that the team has played four straight five-set matches.

CAN YOU DIG IT?
Early in the year, BGSU's defense was a weak point and the Falcons had 28 fewer digs than their opponents in the first three matches. But hard work has paid off and Bowling Green is now one of the best digging teams in the MAC. The Falcons have outdug 17 of their 21 opponents since that time (including 10-of-12 conference teams) and had an amazing 112 digs against Oakland, the most for the program in 12 years. In those 21 matches since the slow start, BGSU has posted 137 more digs than their opponents. In 12 league matches, BGSU has 96 more digs.

RPI LEADERS
The NCAA released the latest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranking of the 2012 season Monday and Bowling Green dropped seven spots from a week ago to No. 64, second among all MAC schools (Ohio is No. 49). Among this week's opponents, Buffalo is ranked No. 234 and Akron is at No. 163.

HOGGING THE HARDWARE
In a five-week stretch, the Mid-American Conference honored BGSU by handing down six MAC Player of the Week awards. Ashley Dunn was named MAC East Division Defensive Player of the Week three consecutive times. The week prior to that, Lindsey Butterfield earned Offensive Player of the Week honors and Leah Shaw was named Defensive Player of the Week. The week before that, Paige Penrod earned MAC East Division Offensive Player of the Week honors. Dunn has now been named MAC Defensive Player of the Week five times in her career. For Penrod, she has earned three Player of the Week honors (two offensive and one defensive), while Butterfield and Shaw were named for the first time. Along with those four, Danielle Tonyan and Kari Galen also have been named MAC Player of the Week at least one time in their careers.

HITTING ON ALL CYLINDERS
Over the past 15 matches, junior outside hitter Paige Penrod and junior setter Laura Avila have been playing at a high level. In the first seven matches of the season, Penrod averaged 3.40 kills per set and recorded eight kills or less three times. In the past 15 matches, she has been much better at 4.13 and has at least 10 kills in every contest. Over those first seven matches, Avila averaged only 9.12 assists per set, but in the last 17 she is almost two assists per set better at 10.9. She has also handed out at least 50 assists six times in that 17-match stretch after reaching that total just once in her career.

SHE'S ON A ROLL
Junior outside hitter Lindsey Butterfield has possibly been the most critical part of the Falcons' 10-2 start in league play, stepping up her game once conference action began. Butterfield never had more than seven kills a year ago and reached double-digit kill totals just four times in 11 non-conference matches this year. But in MAC play, she has at least 10 kills in 10-of-12 matches and is hitting .288, a strong improvement over her .211 attack percentage in non-conference contests.

BLOCK PARTY
Senior middle Leah Shaw and junior middle Kaitlyn Skinner have been tough to hit around since MAC play began. Shaw tied a program record with 11 block assists in a four-set victory over Buffalo and the two are each averaging more than 1.00 block per set in league play. Skinner has 59 blocks in MAC matches, an average of 1.44 per set, while Shaw has 46 blocks, an average of 1.07. In fact, Skinner went over 100 blocks on the season during the past weekend, becoming the first player to do that since Shari Luther had 103 in 2009. Shaw and Skinner are the only teammates to both rank in the top six in the league in blocks in conference matches with Skinner first and Shaw sixth.

DUNN IS DIGGING IT
Ashley Dunn keeps climbing the BGSU dig charts. She already has two of the best 10 single-seasons in Bowling Green history for digs and now has 1,316 career digs, fifth-most in program history. She is on pace to end 2011 (assuming a minimum of one postseason contest) with 494 digs, which would be her career-high in a season and would rank fifth in BGSU history. Her current average of 4.40 digs per set is the fourth-best season in program history. Dunn needs just 28 more digs to tie Holli Costein (1989-92) for fourth place on the career digs leaderboard at BGSU.

300 TIMES THREE
Junior Paige Penrod recorded her 300^th kill of the 2011 season against Central Michigan and Danielle Tonyan did the same this past weekend against Ohio. They have both posted at least 300 kills in all three seasons of their careers. Only one player in program history, Corey Domek, has had four 300-kill seasons in her career.

STACKING UP THE MAC
The list below shows where BGSU ranks as a team and individuals among the MAC leaders in various statistical categories. Team or individual stats that rank first in the MAC are bolded and italicized:

OVERALL STAT LEADERS
TEAM STATS (Rank out of 12 MAC team)
Hitting Percentage – 6. BGSU .207
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 4. BGSU .189
Assists – 6. BGSU 12.39
Kills – 6. BGSU 13.52
Blocks – 3. BGSU 2.31
Service Aces – 7. BGSU 1.17
Digs – 6. BGSU 16.02

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 10 rankings)
Kills – 2. Paige Penrod 3.94; 9. Danielle Tonyan 3.33
Assists – 4. Laura Avila 10.48
Service Aces – 6. Paige Penrod 0.29
Blocks – 3. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.25
Digs – 8. Ashley Dunn 4.40

MAC MATCHES ONLY STAT LEADERS
TEAM STATS (Rank out of 12 MAC team)
Hitting Percentage – 5. BGSU .220
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 1. BGSU .155
Assists – 4. BGSU 12.70
Kills – 4. BGSU 13.81
Blocks – 2. BGSU 2.62
Service Aces – 7. BGSU 1.09
Digs – 3. BGSU 17.13

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 10 rankings)
Kills – 5. Paige Penrod 3.70; 10. Danielle Tonyan 3.34
Assists – 4. Laura Avila 10.77
Blocks – 1. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.44; 6. Leah Shaw 1.07
Digs – 2. Ashley Dunn 5.04

NATIONAL RANKINGS
Listed below is how BG ranks nationally as a team and individually:

TEAM STATS (Rank out of 328 NCAA Division I teams)
Service Aces – 189. Bowling Green 1.17
Assists – 95. Bowling Green 12.39
Blocks – 84. Bowling Green 2.31
Digs – 87. Bowling Green 16.02
Hitting Percentage – 143. Bowling Green .207
Kills – 79. Bowling Green 13.52

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 250 Nationally)
Aces – 204. Paige Penrod 0.29
Assists – 69. Laura Avila 10.48
Blocks – 61. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.25
Digs – 130. Ashley Dunn 4.40
Kills – 59. Paige Penrod 3.94; 177. Danielle Tonyan 3.33
Points – 66. Paige Penrod 4.44; 167. Danielle Tonyan 3.85

CHARTING THEIR CAREERS
Junior setter Laura Avila moved into 10th place in career assists at BGSU earlier this year and became just the 10th player in program history with 2,000 career assists in the win over Ohio. She needs 75 more to tie Wendy Watkins (1994-97) for ninth place on the leaderboard and 102 more to tie Heather Greig (1996-99) for eighth. Paige Penrod is ninth in career attack attempts and needs 170 more to tie Holli Costein (1989-92) for eighth. Ashley Dunn is already in fifth place in career digs at BGSU and needs 28 more to tie Costein for fourth place.

THE DYNAMIC DUO
Bowling Green has one of the most talented attacking duos in the Mid-American Conference in juniors Paige Penrod and Danielle Tonyan. The pair is one of only two sets of teammates in the MAC to both rank in the top 10 in the league in kills (Penrod is second and Tonyan is ninth) and they were the only set of teammates to both rank in the top 10 a year ago. Both have recorded more than 300 kills in each of their first three years. Only one player in program history, Corey Domek, reached 300 kills in all four years of a career.

MORE DIGS
Against Oakland in a mid-week non-conference match, Bowling Green had 112 team digs, the most for the program since 2000. In that contest, Laura Avila had a career-high 36 digs, coming up just two shy of the program record, set by Chelsey Meek in 2007.

A RECORD-BREAKING NIGHT
In Bowling Green's win over Buffalo, the Falcons set or tied a number of blocking records. The team had 23.0 team blocks, which are the most ever by a BGSU team in a four-set victory. The team also had a program record 40 block assists, while Leah Shaw tied the school record with 11 block assists in a four-set match.

NEW COACHING STAFF
For the first time in 30 years, the BGSU volleyball team has a new head coach. Three-time Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year Danijela Tomic takes over leadership of the program after 29-year head coach Denise Van De Walle retired following the 2011 season. Tomic spent seven years as the head coach at FIU, racking up a career record of 158-61. Assistant coaches Tucker Short and Jessica Hohl are also new to the program, as is Coordinator of Operations Lindsay Laurent.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Paige Penrod recorded double-doubles (at least 10 kills, digs, assists, blocks, or aces in a match in two of those categories) in seven consecutive matches prior to the Ohio contest, giving her 15 this year and a team-high 31 for her career. Laura Avila follows with 21 (11 this year) and Danielle Tonyan has six, all of them this year. Erica Fullenkamp has posted five double-doubles in her career and Ashley Dunn has one. Penrod's 31 career double-doubles are the most since Chrissy Gothke had 38 from 2003-06.

Double-Doubles In 2012
8/24/12 at Marquette – Danielle Tonyan 12 kills, 10 digs
8/25/12 vs. Northwestern – Danielle Tonyan 19 kills, 10 digs
8/25/12 vs. Northwestern – Paige Penrod 13 kills, 11 digs
9/1/12 at Indiana – Paige Penrod 26 kills, 10 digs
9/1/12 at Indiana – Laura Avila 44 assists, 10 digs
9/7/12 vs. Portland State – Laura Avila 49 assists, 11 digs
9/8/12 at BYU – Paige Penrod 11 kills, 13 digs
9/8/12 vs. Utah – Paige Penrod 30 kills, 19 digs
9/8/12 vs. Utah – Laura Avila 64 assists, 14 digs
9/14/12 vs. UAB – Paige Penrod 19 kills, 12 digs
9/14/12 vs. UAB – Laura Avila 60 assists, 10 digs
9/14/12 vs. Jacksonville State – Laura Avila 50 assists, 15 digs
9/21/12 vs. Ohio – Paige Penrod 14 kills, 13 digs
9/21/12 vs. Ohio – Laura Avila 37 assists, 11 digs
9/28/12 at Akron – Paige Penrod 15 kills, 15 digs
9/29/12 at Buffalo – Paige Penrod 11 kills, 11 digs
10/6/12 vs. Western Michigan – Paige Penrod 21 kills, 14 digs
10/9/12 vs. Oakland – Paige Penrod 23 kills, 16 digs
10/9/12 vs. Oakland – Laura Avila 46 assists, 36 digs
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Paige Penrod 21 kills, 11 digs
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Laura Avila 55 assists, 17 digs
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Danielle Tonyan 16 kills, 18 digs
10/13/12 at Central Michigan – Danielle Tonyan 14 kills, 12 digs
10/13/12 at Central Michigan – Paige Penrod 16 kills, 14 digs
10/13/12 at Central Michigan – Laura Avila 44 assists, 16 digs
10/19/12 vs. Ball State – Paige Penrod 14 kills, 27 digs
10/19/12 vs. Ball State – Laura Avila 48 assists, 13 digs
10/20/12 vs. Toledo – Paige Penrod 17 kills, 11 digs
10/26/12 at Kent State – Danielle Tonyan 18 kills, 14 digs
10/26/12 at Kent State – Paige Penrod 12 kills, 18 digs
10/26/12 at Kent State – Laura Avila 54 assists, 14 digs
10/27/12 at Ohio – Danielle Tonyan 13 kills, 12 digs

20 KILLS OR 20 DIGS
Paige Penrod has posted 20 kills in a match 11 times in her career and Danielle Tonyan has reached that total eight times. Lindsey Butterfield had her first career-20 kill match against Eastern Michigan. Those 11 career 20-kill matches for Penrod are the most since Caty Rommeck had 17 from 1999-01. Ashley Dunn posted seven 20-dig matches as a freshman, three more as a sophomore, and has eight more this year for a career total of 18. Her career total is the most since Chelsey Meek had 44 career matches with at least 20 digs from 2005-08. Cassie Berning posted the first 20-dig match of her career against UAB, Laura Avila did the same against Oakland, and Penrod recorded her first against Ball State.

20-Dig Matches In 2012
8/25/12 vs. Northwestern – Ashley Dunn 23 digs
9/1/12 at Indiana – Ashley Dunn 20 digs
9/14/12 vs. UAB – Cassie Berning 22 digs
9/29/12 at Buffalo – Ashley Dunn 27 digs
10/6/12 vs. Western Michigan – Ashley Dunn 29 digs
10/9/12 vs. Oakland – Laura Avila 36 digs
10/9/12 vs. Oakland – Ashley Dunn 25 digs
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Ashley Dunn 28 digs
10/13/12 at Central Michigan – Ashley Dunn 24 digs
10/19/12 vs. Ball State – Paige Penrod 27 digs
10/26/12 at Kent State – Ashley Dunn 20 digs

20-Kill Matches In 2012
9/1/12 at Indiana – Paige Penrod 26 kills
9/8/12 vs. Utah – Paige Penrod 30 kills
9/14/12 vs. Jacksonville State – Paige Penrod 21 kills
9/14/12 vs. Jacksonville State – Danielle Tonyan 20 kills
10/6/12 vs. Western Michigan – Paige Penrod 21 kills
10/9/12 vs. Oakland – Paige Penrod 23 kills
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Paige Penrod 21 kills
10/12/12 at Eastern Michigan – Lindsey Butterfield 21 kills

THE CLASSROOM COMES FIRST
Following her MAC East Offensive Player of the Week recognition, Lindsey Butterfield was also named the MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on Sept. 26. A biology major with a 3.89 GPA, Butterfield earned the league's weekly award given to just one male and one female student-athlete across all sports.

ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
Four different BGSU players earned all-tournament honors at one of the four pre-conference tournament this year. Paige Penrod earned the honor twice (making five in her career), being named to the team at the last two tournaments, the Purdue Active Ankle Challenge and the BYU Nike Invitational. Laura Avila was also named all-tournament at the Purdue Active Ankle Challenge (the second of her career), while Kaitlyn Skinner earned her first career all-tournament honor at the Indiana Invitational. Danielle Tonyan opened the year by being named to the Marquette Challenge All-Tournament team, the third all-tournament honor she has earned in her three years at BGSU.

PRESEASON PICKS
BGSU was picked to finish third in the Mid-American Conference East Division, by vote of the league's 12 head coaches in the MAC Preseason Poll. The Falcons trailed just Ohio and Miami in the poll, and ranked ahead of Buffalo, Kent State, and Akron. Western Michigan was picked to win the West and the Broncos were also selected as the overall regular season champions and the tournament champions.

TONYAN NAMED PRESEASON ALL-MAC
Junior right side hitter Danielle Tonyan was named East Division Preseason All-MAC, in voting by the league's 12 head coaches. Tonyan is coming off of a sophomore year in which she was named first team All-MAC and ranked third in the league in kills. She finished the year among the top 100 nationally in both kills and points. She joined Ohio's Chelsea Bilger, Lexie Hartnett and Kelly Lamberti, Buffalo's Liz Scott and Miami's Madison Hardy on the team. The West Division Preseason All-MAC team consisted of Western Michigan's Jessica Brown and Terin Norris, Ball State's Kara Bates, Central Michigan's Kaitlyn McIntyre, Eastern Michigan's Rachel Iaquaniello, and Northern Illinois' Mary Kurisch.

OLD SCHOOL
For the past few years, we've talked about how young the BGSU volleyball team is, but that's not the case anymore. Eleven of the 13 team members are either juniors or seniors (four seniors and seven juniors). That total is more than any other in the Mid-American Conference. Akron, Ball State, and Northern Illinois all have nine juniors and seniors. On the other end of the spectrum, Kent State has just three and Western Michigan has four.

TRANSFER OF POWER
The lone newcomer on the BGSU volleyball team is sophomore transfer Kelsey Bates. Bates, who hails from Willshire, Ohio, spent her freshman season at Syracuse before returning to her home state for this season.

MOST IMPROVED
With an 11-win increase over a year ago, Bowling Green was easily the most improved team in the Mid-American Conference a year ago. The Falcons improved from 8-24 in 2010 to 19-12 in 2011. The second most improved team in the conference was Central Michigan, which had a five-win increase.

MAC ATTACK
Danielle Tonyan was named first team All-MAC as a sophomore in 2011, becoming the first player to earn that honor since Shari Luther in 2009. Kendra Halm, in 2006, was the last BGSU sophomore to be named first-team All-MAC and she went on to earn first team honors again as both a junior and senior.

HITTING THE BOOKS
Bowling Green has always stressed academics and Falcon volleyball has been a model of that philosophy. The 2011 BGSU volleyball team received the AVCA Academic Team Award for the 12th 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 13 times overall. Two BGSU players, Laura Avila and Kari Galen, were named Academic All-MAC a year ago, while Lindsey Butterfield, Libby Dachenhaus, Ashley Dunn, and the graduated Emily Kauth were named honorable mention.

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