Falcons Play For MAC Title This Weekend

BGSU at Miami
Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012; 7:00 p.m.
Millett Hall/Oxford, Ohio
Live Stats: Courtesy Miami
Live Video: Courtesy Miami

BGSU at Northern Illinois
Saturday, Nov. 10, 2012; 7:00 p.m.
Victor E. Court/Dekalb, Ill.
Live Stats: Courtesy Northern Illinois
Live Video: Courtesy Northern Illinois

2012 MAC STANDINGS
EAST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Bowling Green	12-2	17-9
Ohio	12-2	17-9
Akron	8-6	15-11
Miami	4-10	9-18
Buffalo	3-11	9-17
Kent State	3-11	6-20
WEST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Western Michigan	11-3	18-9
Northern Illinois	9-5	18-12
Eastern Michigan	7-7	17-13
Central Michigan	7-7	13-12
Ball State	6-8	13-14
Toledo	2-12	8-19

Bowling Green closes out the regular season with a chance to win a MAC regular season championship on the road. The Falcons will play at Miami Thursday night at 7 p.m. and will play at Northern Illinois Saturday at 7 p.m. With two victories, Bowling Green would earn at least a share of the MAC regular season title.

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 MIAMI
Miami enters the weekend with a record of 9-18 overall and is 4-10 in MAC play. The RedHawks still have some hope of qualifying for the MAC Tournament but must win both contests this weekend to stay alive. The team has struggled offensively this year, ranking 11th in the MAC in kills and assists. Sophomore Meg Riley, a 6-foot-1 sophomore outside hitter, has been a bright spot in this area, though, ranking ninth in the league with 3.36 kills per set. She is also 10th in service aces at 0.25 per set. Head Coach Carolyn Condit is in her 29th year at the helm with a career mark of 508-402. Including four seasons as coach at Xavier, she is 607-482.

ABOUT NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Northern Illinois comes into the weekend with a record of 18-12 overall and the Huskies are 9-5 in the MAC, ranking second in the West Division. NIU is currently in fourth place in the league standings but the team needs wins to secure its spot for the MAC Tournament. The Huskies come into the week with three wins in a row and they have done that by shutting down opponents' attack, ranking third in the MAC with a .187 opponent's hitting percentage. Meghan Romo, a 6-foot-1 senior outside hitter, and MacKenzie Roddy, a 6-foot-1 sophomore outside hitter, are fifth and sixth in the league in kills with 3.42 and 3.39 per set. Roddy is tied with Paige Penrod for first in the league in aces as well.

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

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.

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. 1 seed for the tournament and would face off against No. 8 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 Bowling Green vs. No. 8 Ball State
No. 2 Ohio vs. No. 7 Eastern Michigan
No. 3 Western Michigan vs. No. 6 Central Michigan
No. 4 Northern Illinois vs. No. 5 Akron

THE SCENARIOS
While Bowling Green and Ohio are currently tied at the top of the MAC standings, either team could still earn the No. 1 overall seed. If both teams win both games this weekend, the Falcons would earn the No. 1 overall seed if Ball State remains behind Central Michigan in the final league standings. If the head-to-head series is tied (as it is for BGSU and Ohio), then the tiebreak takes into account how each team did against the best teams in the league. The tie is broken by comparing how the two teams fared against the top teams in the MAC and working down the standings.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
BGSU finished the year with an 8-1 record inside the Stroh Center. The team also had the third-best home attendance in the league, averaging 722 fans (only Ohio and Western Michigan were better).

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 12 Mid-American Conference wins this year, Bowling Green has doubled 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 8-6 after going 1-15 in 2011.

FIVE-SETTERS
In a nine-match stretch, Bowling Green played in six five-setters (including four in a row), winning all six 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 18 of their 23 opponents since that time (including 11-of-14 conference teams) and had an amazing 112 digs against Oakland, the most for the program in 12 years. In those 23 matches since the slow start, BGSU has posted 128 more digs than their opponents. In 14 league matches, BGSU has 87 more digs.

THE RPI
The NCAA released the latest Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) ranking of the 2012 season Monday and Bowling Green climbed five spots to No. 59, second among all MAC schools (Ohio is No. 56). Among this week's opponents, Buffalo is ranked No. 239 and Northern Illinois is at No. 124.

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.

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 12-of-14 matches and is hitting .278, 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 66 blocks in MAC matches, an average of 1.32 per set, while Shaw has 57 blocks, an average of 1.10. In fact, Skinner's 108 blocks are the most for a Falcon since Kendra Halm had 131 and Shari Luther had 110 in 2008. Shaw and Skinner are the only teammates to both rank in the top five in the league in blocks in conference matches with Skinner first and Shaw fifth.

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 1,348 career digs, fourth-most in program history. She is on pace to end 2011 (assuming a minimum of one postseason contest) with 492 digs, which would be her career-high in a season and would rank fifth in BGSU history. Her current average of 4.32 digs per set is the fourth-best season in program history. Dunn needs 117 more digs to tie Chrissy Gothke (2003-06) for third 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 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.

CLOSING IN ON 400
Junior Paige Penrod needs just nine kills to reach 400 in a season for the second time in her three-year career. Danielle Tonyan needs 57 kills to get to that total and her odds of doing that will increase with each postseason match the Falcons win. If they both make it to 400, they would be the first BGSU teammates to do that since Caty Rommeck (514 kills) and Kristin Gamby (407 kills) in 2001.

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 – 7. BGSU .208
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 4. BGSU .189
Assists – 6. BGSU 12.28
Kills – 6. BGSU 13.40
Blocks – 3. BGSU 2.28
Service Aces – 3. BGSU 1.25
Digs – 6. BGSU 15.75

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 10 rankings)
Kills – 3. Paige Penrod 3.83; 8. Danielle Tonyan 3.36
Assists – 5. Laura Avila 10.41
Service Aces – T1. Paige Penrod 0.33
Blocks – 3. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.20
Digs – 9. Ashley Dunn 4.32

MAC MATCHES ONLY STAT LEADERS
TEAM STATS (Rank out of 12 MAC team)
Hitting Percentage – 4. BGSU .220
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 2. BGSU .160
Assists – 5. BGSU 12.46
Kills – 5. BGSU 13.55
Blocks – 2. BGSU 2.52
Service Aces – 3. BGSU 1.23
Digs – 4. BGSU 16.46

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 10 rankings)
Kills – 5. Paige Penrod 3.55; 10. Danielle Tonyan 3.39
Assists – 5. Laura Avila 10.59
Aces – 5. Cassie Berning 0.30; 6. Paige Penrod 0.29
Blocks – 1. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.32; 5. Leah Shaw 1.10
Digs – 4. Ashley Dunn 4.80

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 – 139. Bowling Green 1.25
Assists – 106. Bowling Green 12.28
Blocks – 88. Bowling Green 2.28
Digs – 110. Bowling Green 15.75
Hitting Percentage – 137. Bowling Green .208
Kills – 81. Bowling Green 13.40

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 250 Nationally)
Aces – 87. Paige Penrod 0.33
Assists – 75. Laura Avila 10.41
Blocks – 74. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.20
Digs – 143. Ashley Dunn 4.32
Kills – 73. Paige Penrod 3.83; 168. Danielle Tonyan 3.36
Points – 68. Paige Penrod 4.37; 168. Danielle Tonyan 3.86

CHARTING THEIR CAREERS
Junior setter Laura Avila moved into 10^th place in career assists at BGSU earlier this year and became just the 10^th player in program history with 2,000 career assists in the win over Ohio. She has moved into ninth place in school history with 2,631 career assists and needs 15 more to tie Heather Greig (1996-99) for eighth. Chrissy Gothke (2003-06) sits just 95 ahead of Avila in seventh place. Paige Penrod is ninth in career attack attempts and needs 91 more to tie Holli Costein (1989-92) for eighth. Ashley Dunn is already in fourth place in career digs at BGSU and needs 117 more to tie Gothke for third 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 third and Tonyan is eighth) 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 first 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 second Ohio contest, giving her 16 this year and a team-high 32 for her career. Laura Avila follows with 23 (13 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 32 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
11/2/12 vs. Buffalo – Laura Avila 47 assists, 19 digs
11/3/12 vs. Akron – Paige Penrod 10 kills, 15 digs
11/3/12 vs. Akron – Laura Avila 40 assists, 13 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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