Mid American Conference Volleyball Teams Weekly News
Upcoming Schedule Tuesday, October 19Bowling Green at Cleveland State 7:00 PM
Western Michigan vs. Notre Dame 7:00 PM
Friday, October 22Ball State at Miami * 7:00 PM
Central Michigan at Akron * 7:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Buffalo * 7:00 PM
Northern Illinois at Kent State * 7:00 PM
Toledo at Bowling Green * 7:00 PM
Western Michigan at Ohio * 7:00 PM
Saturday, October 23Toledo at Miami * 5:00 PM
Ball State at Bowling Green * 7:00 PM
Central Michigan at Buffalo * 7:00 PM
Eastern Michigan at Akron * 7:00 PMNorthern Illinois at Ohio * 7:00 PM
Western Michigan at Kent State * 7:00 PM
* Conference Game
Italic - MAC Game of the Week
Players of the Week (10.11.10-10.17.10)
East Division Offensive Player of the Week
Sue Jacobi, Ohio, Sr., OH, Louisville Ky.Jacobi had a match-high 20 kills in the contest at Ball State. She also had a match-high 19 kills and recorded her third double-double in the last four matches with a team-high 18 digs in the win at Toledo. She currently eads the team in aces and picked up two more this weekend. She is s econd in the league and 24th nationally in kills with 4.22 per set (averaged 4.33 kills per set this weekend). She is also second in the league at 4.91 points per set.
East Division Defensive Player of the Week
Katie Post, Ohio, Jr., OH, Streamwood, Ill.
Post had a career-high 11 blocks to go along with eight kills in the match at Ball State. She followed that with a 13-kill performance at Toledo where she also racked up a match-high seven blocks. Post leads the MAC in total blocks and is 34th in the nation with 1.25 blocks per set (2.00 blocks per set this past weekend) ... Sixth in the MAC in hitting percentage and second on the team in kills.
West Division Offensive Player of the Week
Kaitlyn Schultz, Central Michigan, Jr., MH, Highland, Mich./Milford
Kaitlyn Schultz was dominant, jumpstarting the Central Michigan offense to a pair of sweeps over BGSU and Miami last weekend. Schultz averaged 3.67 kills, 1.0 blocks and .33 aces per set over the weekend while hitting .452. She averaged 4.67 points per set. The junior middle blocker had nine kills in 17 swings on Friday against BGSU (.353), to go with two aces and three blocks. She followed the effort up with 13 kills in 25 swings (.520) with three blocks against Miami.
West Division Defensive Player of the Week
Lena Oliver, Western Michigan, Fr., L, Battle Creek, Mich./St. Philip Catholic Central
Freshman libero Lena Oliver recorded her eighth and ninth 20-dig matches of the season as she averaged 7.00 digs per set and had a .969 serve reception percentage (31-of-32). Oliver’s defensive effort helped Western Michigan limit Buffalo and MAC East leader Akron to a combined .122 attack percentage and set up the WMU offense to hit .310. Oliver started the weekend with 20 digs, one kill, one assist and one ace against Buffalo and then added 22 digs, two assists and one kill against the Zips. Oliver increased her season averages to 5.44 digs per set in all matches and 5.93 digs per set in conference matches.
West Division Team Notebooks
l The Ball State women’s volleyball team snapped a pair of losing streaks with its two wins last weekend. Friday, the Cardinals ended an 11-match drought versus Ohio with a 3-2 victory. Prior to OU’s last 11 wins, the Cardinals had won the previous 26 contests in the series. Saturday, Ball State snapped a four-match losing streak to Kent State with a 3-1 win. Prior to KSU’s four-straight wins, BSU had a four-match winning streak of its own in the series. Ball State freshman defensive specialist Catie Fredrich continued her solid serving run for the Cardinals last weekend, racking up a team-best four aces in 39 attempts with no errors. Fredrich currently paces the team with a .986 serving percentage, having tallied just four errors in 278 serves. She also has 14 aces on the year.
l The Chippewas got their offense in gear last weekend, hitting .317 as a squad and averaging 15.17 kills ... Lauren Krupsky averaged 4.17 kills and Kaitlyn Schultz averaged 3.67 kills ... CMU also got back to their tough serving ways, averaging 2.50 aces per set ... the Chippewas’ defense also amped up its efforts, averaging 3.25 blocks per frame.
l EAGLES LOOK TO CONTINUE STREAK VERSUS AKRON: The Eagles will look to continue their recent success over the University of Akron Saturday, Oct. 23, at James A. Rhodes Arena in Akron, Ohio. Akron leads the all-time series, 17-12, but the Eagles have won five of the last seven matches versus the Zips dating back to Oct. 1, 2004. The Zips pulled out a 3-2 thriller last season, Oct. 23, 2009, at the Convocation Center in Ypsilanti. SHOOTING FOR VICTORY NUMBER 20: When the Eagles take to the court Friday, Oct. 22, at Alumni Arena in Buffalo, N.Y., Head Coach Kim Berrington’s squad will be shooting for their 20th victory of the season. Eastern Michigan has posted at least 20 wins in a season just nine times in the program’s 35-year history, and it would mark the first-time since 2007 when the squad finished with a 20-14 mark. Berrington has been the mentor for five of those nine season in which the Eagles have posted more than 20 victories. CHECKING THE CAREER STATS: Junior Ashley Mason is now just 160 assists shy of surpassing Gretchen Olsen (1991-94) for fourth place in the EMU record books. Mason has 3,226 assists in 345 career sets played. Meanwhile, junior Haley Stein needs one more dig for 1,300 in her career and 28 more to pass Becky Baltare (2005-05) for fourth place with 1,327 digs. Rachel Iaquaniello is inching her way towards the career charts list with 779 kills, 483 digs and 51 service aces in 221 sets.
l The Huskies extended their winning streak to seven matches with a pair of home wins over Akron and Buffalo ... NIU is now 21-2 overall, a mark that has never been seen in the 40-year history of the program ... With a 7-1 MAC record, NIU is off to its best start in the league since 2006 ... Freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) captained the Huskie offense with a team-best 47.5 points (6.79/set), 41 kills (5.86/set) and .321 hitting percentage, adding two assists and an ace to boot ... Sophomore middle blocker Mary Kurisch (La Crosse, Wis./West Salem) fronted the net for the NIU defense very well with a team-high 11 blocks.
l Toledo will hit the road this weekend to face arch-rival Bowling Green on Friday and Miami on Saturday. Junior OH Cassie Kleepsies is leading the Rockets with a .310 attack percentage and posted a team-best .471 hitting mark against Kent State and Ohio last weekend. Sophomore OH Sondra Parys is leading Toledo with 3.15 kills per set and averaged 3.86 kps last weekend. A 2009 All-MAC Freshman Team member, Parys saw limited action the first six weeks of the season due to injury and illness but has started UT’s last three matches.
l Junior setter Sam Viox had the best attacking match of her career against Akron with a career-high eight kills in nine attempts to hit .889. She propelled the Western Michigan offense to a .310 attack percentage with 11.33 assists per set. Outside hitters Allyson Doyle and Ali Gossen were hard to stop as they hit .450 and .464, respectively. Doyle moved into 15th in school history with 1,087 career kills and ninth in career total blocks with 321. Doyle also had a pair of double-doubles to increase her career total to 42. The Broncos remain unbeaten at home this season (5-0) and have won 23 in a row at University Arena against conference opponents. The Broncos welcomed a season-high 1,501 to University Arena vs. Buffalo.
East Division Team Notebooks
l Akron struggled over the weekend taking two tough losses against the leaders of the west division. Despite the losses, junior Tina Dimitrijevs showed consistency at the net leading UA offensively posting 17 kills on 31 attempts. Allowing only five errors, Dimitrijevs continued to be at the top of the league in hitting percentage registering a .387 mark. Also strong defensively, Dimitrijevs had seven block assists and two solo blocks. Akron will wrap up its tour of the west division this weekend welcoming Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan to James A. Rhodes Arena.
l Bowling Green fell to 6-16 overall and 1-7 in MAC play with a pair of three-set losses this weekend, losing to Central and Eastern Michigan ... Freshman left side Lindsey Butterfield set a career high with 10 kills in the loss to Central Michigan and then followed that up with 11 kills the next night against Eastern Michigan ... Paige Penrod now has 258 kills on the season, the fifth-most by a freshman in program history. She still has nine regular season matches, plus all postseason play, to move up the chart.
l Freshman Dani Reinert led the Bulls for the final two sets on Friday night against Western Michigan and in addition to her 23 assists on the weekend also added two kills, two digs and tow solo blocks. Senior Marisa Hornbaker had 10 kills against Northern Illinois on Saturday night, while recording just one error in 28 total swings. Hornbaker also added a service aces for the Bulls against the Huskies.
l The Golden Flashes head home next weekend for two more matches against MAC West schools, facing Northern Illinois Friday (Oct. 22) and Western Michigan Saturday (Oct. 23). Both matches are slated to begin at 7 p.m. at the M.A.C. Center. KSU is scheduled to play six of its final eight matches at the friendly confines.
l Miami broke a four match losing streak against Ohio. Her final attack of that match was Michele Metzler’s 2000th attack attempt at Miami. With rally scoring now instituted it will be difficult to break the RedHawks’ all-time record of attack attempts set by Stephanie Otten (1992-95) at 4,317. Miami hits the road for the only time in October this weekend when it travels to Central and Eastern Michigan.
l Ohio split this weekend, losing in five sets at Ball State on Friday night and winning in four sets at Toledo on Saturday afternoon. They were the only MAC East division team to earn a win all weekend against opponents from the western half. Despite Katie Post’s career-high 11 blocks and a season-high 17.5 total team blocks, Ohio fell on the road to Ball State. Sue Jacobi finished with a match-high 20 kills and Mandy Nichols added 12 for Ohio. Six different players recorded kills and Lexie Hartnett hit a team-best .429 for the match. Michelle Jantsch finished with a team-high 41 assists and 10 digs, while Meryl Bender led the team with 15. Faith Robins added seven kills and seven blocks with Nichols also knocking down six attacks. On Saturday Ohio (13-8, 5-2) got back on the winning track with a solid four-set win at Toledo. Bender’s performance moved her into eighth during the rally-scoring era with 163 career assists. Jacobi finished with 19 kills and Post added 13 while Nichols chipped in 12. Post and Jantsch both hit over .500 for the match with Hartnett hitting .417 on her 12 attacks. Jantsch also finished with a match-high 48 assists. Jacobi led the team in digs for her third double-double in the last four matches. The senior finished with a match-high 18 with Bender adding 13 and Nicole Staverman picking up 11. Post led the team in blocks with seven (six block assists) and Faith Robins added five (four block assists) and six kills on 16 attempts.