Falcons Head Back On The Road For Indiana Invite

Indiana Invitational
Aug. 31-Sept. 1, 2012
University Gymnasium; Bloomington, Ind.

BGSU vs. Georgia Tech
Aug. 31, 2012; 5:00 p.m.
Live Stats: Gametracker

BGSU at Indiana
Sept. 1, 2012; 12:00 p.m.
Live Stats: Gametracker
Audio: Indiana Radio Broadcast

BGSU vs. Cleveland State
Sept. 1, 2012; 5:00 p.m.
Live Stats: Gametracker

2012 MAC STANDINGS
EAST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Buffalo	0-0	2-1
Miami	0-0	1-2
Kent State	0-0	1-2
Akron	0-0	1-3
Bowling Green	0-0	0-2
Ohio	0-0	0-3
WEST TEAMS	MAC	OVERALL
Eastern Michigan	0-0	4-0
Ball State	0-0	2-1
Central Michigan	0-0	2-1
Northern Illinois	0-0	1-2
Western Michigan	0-0	1-2
Toledo	0-0	1-2

Bowling Green volleyball looks for its first victories of the season this weekend as the Falcons, now 0-2, play three matches at the Indiana Invitational. By the time the Falcons have finished playing Georgia Tech and Indiana, the team will have played four straight BCS schools to start the season, the first time the program has done that since playing five straight in 1993. After Georgia Tech Friday evening at 5 p.m. and Indiana Saturday afternoon at noon, the Falcons will close with a match against Cleveland State Saturday evening at 5 p.m.

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)
* Georgia Tech Preview (not yet available)
* Indiana Preview
* Cleveland State Preview

ABOUT GEORGIA TECH
Picked to finish sixth in the ACC this year, the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets enter Friday evening's match with Bowling Green at 3-0 on the season. Georgia Tech hosted the Courtyard Invitational this past weekend and defeated Cal State Fullerton in four sets, Charleston Southern in three, and SMU in five to earn the tournament championship. Senior outside hitter Bailey Hunter was named MVP of the tournament after posting two double-doubles, including 19 kills and 10 digs in the five-set clincher. Senior Nicki Meyer was named Libero of the Tournament and senior right side hitter Monica Mead earned all-tournament honors. Mead and Hunter were named to the preseason All-ACC Team. A year ago, Georgia Tech went 15-16 on the season and 8-12 in the ACC. The Yellow Jackets hold a 1-0 record all-time against Bowling Green.

ABOUT INDIANA
Indiana opened the season at the Black Knight Invitational and went 3-0 on the week, defeating Stony Brook and Army in four sets, before beating Quinnipiac in straight sets. In the preseason, the Hoosiers were not selected among the top six in the Big Ten preseason poll and had no preseason All-Big Ten honorees. But Indiana received a tournament MVP performance from junior outside hitter Jordan Haverly in week one, while sophomore middle Morgan Leach and senior right side hitter Kelci Marschall both made the all-tournament team. Haverly averaged 4.2 kills per set while the Hoosiers hit .268 for the tournament. Indiana also posted 23 aces (an average of 2.1 per set) and had three players finish with at least three digs per set. Indiana is 2-1 all-time against the Falcons.

ABOUT CLEVELAND STATE
Cleveland State is in position to have a big year and was picked to finish second in the Horizon League in the preseason coaches' poll. As well, senior outside hitter Kara Koch was named the Horizon League Preseason Offensive Player of the Year. She did not disappoint in the opening weekend as she was named tournament MVP as Cleveland State rolled through the IPFW Invitational with a 3-0 record, dropping just one set along the way. The Vikings swept Kent State and IPFW, while defeating Murray State in four. Koch averaged 5.00 kills per set and hit .248 on the weekend, while Cleveland State hit .288 as a team. Junior setter Annie Djukic ran a strong offense, averaging 13.1 assists per set. Bowling Green is 18-16 all-time against Cleveland State.

FOLLOWING THE FALCONS
If you can't be at the tournament this weekend, live stats will be available via links at BGSUFalcons.com. Fans can also 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
BGSU's intersquad scrimmage was televised via tape-delay by the Buckeye Cable Sports Network (BCSN), broadcasting to the greater Toledo area. BCSN will televise a handful of BGSU's home matches this year and more information is available online at www.bcsn.tv.

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.

TONYAN NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT
Danielle Tonyan was named to the all-tournament team at the Marquette Challenge after averaging 4.43 kills per set and posting double-doubles in both Falcon matches. She had a match-high 12 kills to go with a career-high 10 digs in the loss to Marquette. Tonyan followed that up with a match-high 19 kills and equaled her career high with 10 digs, to go with three blocks and two aces, against Northwestern. It is the third time in her career that she has earned an all-tournament honor.

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.

HOW THE MAC STACKS UP
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:

TEAM STATS (Rank out of 12 MAC team)
Hitting Percentage – 9. BGSU .161
Opponent Hitting Percentage – 9. BGSU .233
Assists – T10. BGSU 10.71
Kills – 11. BGSU 11.43
Blocks – 5. BGSU 2.14
Service Aces – 2. BGSU 1.71
Digs – 9. BGSU 14.86

INDIVIDUAL STATS (Top 10 rankings)
Hitting Percentage – T6. Leah Shaw .333
Kills – 2. Danielle Tonyan 4.43
Assists – 7. Laura Avila 9.29
Service Aces – 1. Lindsey Butterfield 0.83
Blocks – 4. Kaitlyn Skinner 1.43; T5. Paige Penrod 1.14
Digs – T7. Ashley Dunn 4.71

ON-PACE
While it's very early in the season, BGSU has a few players on pace to break into the top 10 in a single-season in some statistical categories. Danielle Tonyan's 4.43 kills per set would be the eighth-best average in program history, while Lindsey Butterfield is on pace for 70 aces and 0.83 per set, which would both be the second-most in school history. Kaitlyn Skinner is on pace for 140 block assists, which would rank as the second-most at BGSU and her 1.43 blocks per set would be sixth-best. Ashley Dunn is digging at a rate that would give her 462, tied for sixth-most ever and her 4.71 digs per set would be fourth.

IT'S TOO EARLY TO TELL
Although Bowling Green is off to an 0-2 start, it's way too early to make a prediction on how the rest of the season will play out. In history, the Falcons have started 0-2 on 12 other occasions and seven of those teams ended the year above .500. Three of those teams won at least 20 matches and the 2000 squad promptly reeled off seven consecutive victories and shared the East Division crown. The 1993 team bounced back from an 0-2 start (and a 2-4 mark) to go 14-4 in MAC play and qualify for the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC).

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. She is expected to compete for time as both a middle and right side hitter.

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.

HOME COURT ADVANTAGE
The Stroh Center has proven to be a strong home court advantage for all three BGSU athletic teams that compete in the arena. For volleyball, BGSU stunned Michigan State a year ago in the arena in four sets behind a record crowd of 2,961. In fact, that was the largest crowd any MAC team played in front of a year ago, home or away.

DUNN IS DIGGING IT
Ashley Dunn finished the 2011 season with 19 consecutive double-digit dig matches and has reached at least 10 digs in each of the first two matches in 2012. Her streak of 21 consecutive double-digit dig matches is the longest at BGSU since Chelsey Meek's NCAA record 89 consecutive matches with double-digit digs from 2006-08. In fact, Dunn's 457 digs as a freshman rank as the eighth most in a single in school history and her 450 last year is the 10^th most. She needs 234 more to break into the top 10 in career digs as a Falcon.

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 was the only set of teammates in the MAC to both rank in the top 10 in the league in kills and points a year ago. Both have recorded more than 300 kills in each of their first two years. Only one player in program history, Corey Domek, reached 300 kills in all four years of a career.

DOUBLE-DOUBLES
Five 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). With one this year, Paige Penrod has a team-high 17 career double-doubles, followed by Laura Avila with 10, Erica Fullenkamp with five, Danielle Tonyan with two, and Ashley Dunn with one. Tonyan, in fact, had her first two career double-doubles in the first two matches of this season.

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

20 KILLS OR 20 DIGS
Danielle Tonyan enters the 2012 season having recorded 20 kills in a match seven times in her career, while Paige Penrod has reached that total five times. Tonyan's seven career 20-kill matches are the most since Corey Domek had nine from 2006-09. Ashley Dunn posted seven 20-dig matches as a freshman, three more as a sophomore, and then had 23 this past weekend against Northwestern for a career total of 11. Her career total is the most since Chelsey Meek had 44 career matches with at least 20 digs from 2005-08.

20-Dig Matches In 2012
8/25/12 vs. Northwestern – Ashley Dunn 23 digs

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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