Horizon League Volleyball Release #4
Sept. 10, 2007
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Butler senior middle blocker Michelle DeGeeter was named Offensive Player of the Week, while Milwaukee libero Natalie Schmitting was awarded Defensive Player of the Week honors after the third week of Horizon League Volleyball action.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Michelle DeGeeter
Butler
Sr., Middle Blocker, Warsaw, Ind.
Senior Michelle DeGeeter collects her second career weekly League honor and her first Offensive Player of the Week award. DeGeeter was named Defensive Player of the Week on Oct. 23, 2006. This past weekend, the 6-foot-1-inch senior helped guide the Bulldogs to a 3-0 mark as Butler won the West Virginia Volleyball Classic. During the three matches, BU did not lose a game to East Tennessee State (3-0), West Virginia (3-0) and Indiana State (3-0). In the three matches, DeGeeter hit .297 with 42 kills, 91 assists, six service aces, 23 digs and six total blocks en route to being named Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Natalie Schmitting
Milwaukee
Fr., Libero, Neenah, Wis.
Freshman Natalie Schmitting is the third Milwaukee player to earn one of the League's weekly awards this season, and she is the first Panther to be named Defensive Player of the Week. Schmitting receives the weekly award after she helped UWM to a 3-0 record at the Panther Invitational. After dropping its first match of the season against Wisconsin, UWM has won eight in a row. In the match victories over Virginia Tech (3-1), Cincinnati (3-2) and Bradley (3-0), the Panther freshman recorded 22 total blocks as she was named to the all-tournament team.
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Nina Inic
Butler
Jr., Defensive Specialist, Belgrade, Serbia
Inic paced the Bulldogs in the back row, notching 40 digs in three matches to lead the team. In 50 reception attempts, she committed just two errors for a .960 reception percentage.
Jenni Ramminger
Cleveland State
Jr., Middle Hitter, Cincinnati, Ohio
Ramminger hit .326 (45-15-92) en route to a spot on the all-tournament team at the Southern Illinois Invitational over the weekend. Ramminger, who was also named to the all-tournament team at the Toledo Invitational earlier this season, finished the week with 16 blocks, seven digs and four aces. She opened the tournament with a nine-kill, five-dig effort in a 3-2 loss to SIU on Friday night. She then recorded a match-high 14 kills in a 3-0 sweep of Murray State on Saturday afternoon before finishing the tournament with a career-high 22 kills and seven blocks as CSU defeated UMKC, 3-2, on Saturday evening.
Katerina Hanackova
UIC
So., Outside Hitter, Zlin, Czech Republic
Sophomore Katerina Hanackova helped guide the Flames to a 3-1 record last week, which included the 2007 UIC Invitational title. In four matches, Hanackova averaged 3.42 kills (60) and 3.41 digs per game (58). The sophomore totaled four blocks, three service aces and a .232 attack percentage. Hanackova was named to the UIC Invitational All-Tournament Team and was named tournament Most Valuable Player.
Alyse Serritella
Loyola
So., Libero, Darien, Ill.
This past weekend at the Hurricane Invitational, Serritella averaged 6.80 digs per game in three matches en route to being named the tournament's Most Outstanding Libero. Serritella had 20 or more digs in all three matches, totaling 20 in the opener against Miami (three games) and 21 in Saturday morning's contest with Delaware (three games) before digging a career-best 27 balls in a four-game loss to Brown to wrap up tournament play. Serritella leads the Ramblers with 121 digs (5.50 dpg) for the season.
Becky Peters
Milwaukee
Jr., Outside Hitter, Germantown, Wis.
Peters made her first career start as an outside hitter against Virginia Tech Friday afternoon, and by the time the weekend was over, Peters had been named the tournament's most valuable player. She tallied a pair of double-figure kill efforts to go along with her usual strong defensive numbers. On Friday night in a five-game win over Cincinnati, when she collected 13 kills, 30 digs and hit .314 for the match. She then followed that up with 10 kills and 11 digs in a three-game win over Bradley on Saturday. In addition, Peters averaged 4.83 digs per game.
Angie Porche
Valparaiso
So., Outside Hitter, Lynwood, Ill.
Porche guided the Crusaders to a 2-1 mark this past weekend and was named to the Popcorn Classic All-Tournament Team. For the week, the Illinois native hit .319 and totaled 54 kills. Against Western Michigan, she recorded 22 kills and had a hitting percentage of .500 in 3-0 sweep. Against Marshall, she registered 19 kills and matched a career-high with nine digs in the win over the Thundering Herd.
Tara Geegan
Wright State
Sr., Middle Blocker, Algonquin, Ill.
Geegan was named to the Raider Challenge All-Tournament Team after hitting .347 with 36 kills and 11 blocks during the three-match tournament. Earlier in the week against Eastern Michigan (Sept. 4), the Illinois native hit .394 with eight digs and six block assists in a 3-2 loss. For the week, the Raider senior totaled 52 kills, 17 digs and 17 total blocks as she hit at a .362 clip.
Dana Leslie
Youngstown State
So., Outside Hitter, High Point, N.C.
Leslie led the Penguins defensively as she totaled 56 digs (4.31) in four matches. The YSU sophomore paced the squad in digs against Kent State (19), Binghamton (15) and Canisius (15).
-Green Bay did not compete last week.
News From Around the League
Butler
Butler claimed the West Virginia Volleyball Classic as it swept past East Tennessee State, West Virginia and Indiana State with nine-straight game victories. The Bulldogs' three-consecutive match sweeps are the most since Butler took three-straight 3-0 wins to the 2005 season.
Senior Michelle DeGeeter claimed tournament Most Valuable Player honors, while sophomore Porshia Allen and freshman Jessica Wolfe earned spots on the All-Tournament Team.
The Bulldogs will be playing for their fourth straight win on Friday (Sept. 14) when they play host to Youngstown State at 7 p.m. Butler last scored four consecutive victories in 2004 when it topped Wright State, North Dakota State, Youngstown State and Cleveland State.
Porshia Allen has been the Bulldogs' top offensive player this year, leading the team with 4.15 kills per game and a .235 attack percentage.
Cleveland State
Junior Jenni Ramminger and sophomore Beth Greulich were named to the Southern Illinois All-Tournament Team over the weekend. It was the second time this year that Ramminger was named to an all-tournament team (Toledo Invitational), while Greulich was named to the second all-tournament team of her career.
Of CSU's seven wins, six have come via 3-0 sweeps. The lone exception was Saturday's 3-2 win over UMKC. In contrast, three of the Vikings four losses have come by 3-2 scores.
Senior setter Mel Snyder surpassed the 3,000 career assist mark for her career as she posted 160 in three matches over the weekend. She is fourth all-time in assists at CSU with 3,091.
Head Coach Chuck Voss has now won 148 career matches, including 115 at CSU. He is two wins shy of 150 career wins and also moving into second place on the all-time wins list at CSU (117).
Green Bay
Green Bay was idle last week and will return to action Sept. 14 at the Minnesota Gopher Invitational. The team will take on the host Gophers as well as Creighton and Charlotte in the four-team event.
UIC
After falling to Eastern Illinois in five games in their home opener, the Flames bounced back to drop North Dakota State, McNeese State and Elon to capture the 2007 UIC Invitational title on Sept. 7-8.
Sophomore Katerina Hanackova was named the tournament Most Valuable Player after totaling a team-best 53 kills and a .328 attack percentage. The outside hitter picked up three-consecutive double-doubles with 53 digs and four blocks in 12 games.
Sophomore Lana Lobdell dominated on defense with 15 blocks and a team-best .341 attack percentage in four matches. Lobdell averaged 2.24 kills and notched six service aces.
Freshman Taylor Szatkowski paced UIC with a team-best 73 digs. Senior Amanda Kenny also posted two double-doubles and two double-digit-kills outings in four matches.
Loyola
In Loyola's first two matches, sophomore Dana VanDiggelen put together one of the best single-match efforts in LU history on Saturday afternoon against Brown, hammering down 30 kills against just two errors in 62 swings (30-2-62, .452) to go with 11 digs and seven blocks. VanDiggelen is the first LU player to reach the 30-kill mark since Nichol Amberg did it against Cleveland State in the final match of the 2005 Horizon League Championship match and became just the second Rambler to notch 30 kills in a match that did not go five games, joining Missy Sartorelli who did it twice in the early 1990s.
Milwaukee
Milwaukee won the Panther Invitational title for the first time since 2000. UWM is off to its best start since 2003. The Panthers are also 27-7 all-time at the Panther Invitational.
UWM's eight-straight wins means the Panthers have had a winning streak of at least seven matches in each of the last 11 seasons.
Milwaukee has now won 108 of its last 120 home matches.
Leanne Felsing recorded triple-doubles against both Virginia Tech and Cincinnati, giving her a streak of three-straight matches with triple-doubles. Felsing is the only player in UWM history to record triple-doubles in three straight contests.
Milwaukee now has two wins over the Big East and a win over the ACC during its non-league slate.
The Panthers collected a season-best 12 service aces against Bradley.
Valparaiso
Valpo went 2-1 to claim second place in the Popcorn Classic. The Crusaders are now 11-1 all-time under Carin Avery in the Popcorn Classic.
The Crusaders continued to excel from the service line, tallying 11 aces against Marshall and 21 for the week end. Valpo already has 67 aces on the season and is averaging 2.39 per game this year compared to 1.48 per game last season. The Crusaders currently lead the league in aces per game by 0.56.
Senior Sara Hughes recorded her second double-double of the season in the sweep of Western Michigan (48 assists, 10 digs) and tallied 119 assists this past weekend.
Just eight days after registering her 1,000th career dig, junior Brittany Malicoat reached 1,100 with the last of her 15 digs in the sweep of WMU. She is only 37 digs shy of cracking Valpo's all-time top-10 in the category. Malicoat also extended both of her dig-related streaks to 50 straight matches leading Valpo and 26 straight matches with double digits.
Wright State
The nine teams that Wright State has lost to this season have a combined record of 63-25.
Senior middle blocker Tara Geegan was named to the Raider Challenge All-Tournament Team as she recorded 36 kills over three matches, while hitting .347 with 11 blocks. It is Geegan's fifth all-tournament selection since the start of the 2006 season.
The Raiders start Horizon League play this week by hosting Cleveland State on Friday and Youngstown State on Saturday. Following this week, WSU will be at home for just four of its next 13 matches through October.
Youngstown State
Junior setter Karla Everhart ranks sixth place on the all-time YSU assist list with 1,555 career assists. She dished out 140 assists last weekend. She needs 445 more to become the fifth player to net 2,000 assists in a career. Everhart also needs 622 more to move into fifth place on the all-time list.
Sophomore Ruth Boscaljon needs just 14 more kills to reach the 500 kill mark for her career. She also has recorded 167 total blocks in 43 career matches.
Senior Jessica Fraley needs just two more kills to reach the 700-kill plateau. Fraley leads the Penguins with 3.24 kills per game while averaging 2.53 digs per game.
This past weekend at the Kent State Golden Flash Invitational, junior Ebony Barbosa was selected to the all-tournament team.
