Horizon League Volleyball Release #5
Sept. 17, 2007
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Valparaiso junior Allison Sears was named Offensive Player of the Week, while Milwaukee outside hitter Becky Peters became the second straight player from UWM to be awarded Defensive Player of the Week.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Allison Sears
Valparaiso
Jr., Middle Blocker, Elkhart, Ind.
Junior Allison Sears becomes the second Valparaiso player this season to receive one of the League's Player of the Week honors (Brittany Malicoat was named Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 3) and she is the first Crusader to be named Offensive Player of the Week. Sears receives the award after helping Valpo to wins over Duquesne (3-0) and DePaul (3-0) at the Bowling Green Best Western Invitational. During the three-match tournament, she hit .507 with 42 kills and nine total blocks as she was named to the all-tournament team.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Becky Peters
Milwaukee
Jr., Outside Hitter, Germantown, Wis.
Junior Becky Peters is the second consecutive Milwaukee player to be named Defensive Player of the Week (Natalie Schmitting was named Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 10). She is also the fourth Panther to receive weekly honors from the League this season. Peters earns the weekly honor after she helped guide UWM to its 10th win in a row as the Panthers collected League victories over UIC (3-0) and Loyola (3-0). During the week, the junior outside hitter averaged 6.83 digs per game. In addition, Peters contributed in the front row as she registered 13 kills.
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Michelle DeGeeter
Butler
Sr., Middle Blocker, Warsaw, Ind.
DeGeeter provided the Bulldogs a boost on the defensive end against Youngstown State and Cleveland State last weekend, leading the team with 11 total blocks while averaging 3.44 digs per game. She posted back-to-back double-doubles with 19 kills and 20 digs against the Penguins before notching 17 kills and 11 digs against the Vikings.
Beth Greulich
Cleveland State
So., Outside Hitter, Troy, Ohio
Greulich hit .293 (24-7-58) as the Vikings split a pair of road matches to open League play. In Friday's five-set loss at Wright State, Greulich finished with 12 kills and nine block assists. She came back in Saturday's 3-1 win at Butler to produce 12 more kills as she hit .333. Greulich also tallied three digs and an assist on the weekend.
Betty Slinger
Cleveland State
Sr., Setter, Fairbault, Minn.
Slinger was named to the Gopher Invitational's all-tournament team for her performance in Green Bay's three matches. During the tournament, she averaged 8.78 assists, 2.11 kills and 3.00 digs per game, while hitting .311 for the week.
Lana Lobdell
UIC
So., Middle Hitter, Lena, Ill.
Lobdell led UIC with a .400 attack percentage in two matches last week, while totaling 19 kills, nine digs, two service aces and six blocks in six games. In a sweep over Northern Illinois on Sept. 11, Lobdell notched 11 kills, two service aces, four blocks and a team-best .625 attack percentage. The middle hitter then totaled eight kills and two blocks in UIC's Horizon League opener against Milwaukee on Sept. 14.
Melissa Craig
Loyola
Sr., Middle Blocker, Magnolia, Texas
Craig blocked her way into the Loyola record book as she averaged 2.38 blocks per game in Loyola's two matches last week. After posting five blocks against Western Illinois, Craig set the school-record with 14 blocks in just three games against Milwaukee. Craig's effort broke the previous record of 13 blocks set by Jill Waddell on Oct. 20, 1995, against Wright State. It was the first double-digit blocking performance by any Loyola player since Carrie Culos had 10 blocks against UIC in 2003.
Leanne Felsing
Milwaukee
Sr., Outside Hitter, Hartland, Wis.
Felsing posted another triple-double as the Panthers won a pair of league road matches. Her triple-double came Saturday at Loyola, as the senior tallied 16 kills, 16 digs and 28 assists in a three-game win. That added to her efforts of six kills, 19 digs and 28 assists in a quick three-game win at UIC Friday. For the weekend, Felsing averaged 3.67 kills, 5.83 digs and 9.33 assists per game. She now has six triple-doubles this season and 13 in her career.
Brittany Malicoat
Valparaiso
Jr., Libero, Elkhart, Ind.
Malicoat collected 18 digs against Duquesne, 14 versus DePaul and 24 while facing Bowling Green, at the Bowling Green Best Western Invitational. The Valpo junior extended her streak of 53 straight matches leading Valpo in digs. She has also had 29 straight matches in reaching double-figures in digs.
Tara Geegan
Wright State
Sr., Middle Blocker, Algonquin, Ill.
Geegan helped led the Raiders to two League wins this past week. In WSU's first League match of the week, Geegan collected 17 kills and seven block assists in a five-game win over Cleveland State. In the Raiders' final match of the week against Youngstown State, the WSU senior hit .406 with five block assists and three digs in a 3-2 win over the Penguins.
Laurie Shives
Youngstown State
Fr., Defensive Specialist, Grove City, Ohio
Shives led the Penguins with 49 assists over the weekend. In the Penguins' five-game losses to Butler and Wright State, she collected 27 digs and 22 digs, respectively. For the week, she averaged 4.90 digs per game.
News From Around the League
Butler
Butler extended its season-long winning streak to four matches with a 3-2 win over Youngstown State (Sept. 14) before falling in a 3-1 match to Cleveland State (Sept. 15).
Sophomore Porshia Allen has been the top offensive player for the Bulldogs this year, averaging a team-high 3.77 kills per game, while hitting .202.
Butler continues to be one of the top defensive teams in the Horizon League this year. The Bulldogs rank second in the League with 18.91 digs per game and are third with 2.34 blocks per game. BU also has held its opponents to a hitting percentage of just .163.
Jessica Wolfe's 29 kills against Youngstown State this past Friday is tied for the sixth-highest single match total in Butler history. The school record of 32 was set by Kali Carter against Western Illinois on Sept. 10, 2004.
Cleveland State
Sophomore Alexis Korovich leads the team with six double-doubles this season after producing a pair over the weekend. She concluded the week averaging 2.67 kills and 4.00 digs per game.
Freshman Amy Benz tallied a season-best 11 block assists Friday night at Wright State. In addition, she hit .522 (12-0-23), which was the ninth time (out of 13 matches) that she hit better than .300 this season. She leads the team in both hitting percentage and blocks.
CSU's 3-1 win at Butler on Sept. 15 marked the first time this year that the Vikings played a four-set match. Prior to Saturday, the Vikings had played seven three-set matches and were involved in five-set matches five times.
CSU head coach Chuck Voss is one win shy of reaching two milestones. He needs one win to reach 150 for his career and to move into second place on the all-time wins list at CSU (117).
Green Bay
Green Bay begins Horizon League action on Tuesday night at UIC. The Phoenix will have their home opener on Friday night after playing its first 10 matches of the year on the road.
UWGB collected its second sweep win of the season as it downed Charlotte on Saturday night 3-0. Both of the wins for the Phoenix this season have been sweeps.
UIC
UIC went 1-1 last week with a sweep over Northern Illinois on Sept. 11 and 3-0 loss to Milwaukee on Sept. 14.
Sophomore Katerina Hanakcova totaled 21 kills, while senior Amanda Kenny led UIC on offense with 24 in six games. Sophomore Lana Lobdell notched a team-high .400 attack percentage and added six blocks,
Freshman Epiphany Davis led UIC at the net with 11 blocks and added nine kills. Freshman Taylor Szatkowski owned a team-high 32 digs.
The Flames remain at home when they host Green Bay on Tuesday.
Loyola
Loyola has now lost its conference home opener in three of the last four years.
The Ramblers had four different game points in the first two games against UWM, including three in the opening game, but squandered all of them en route to a three-game loss.
Loyola's 17 team blocks were a season high despite having the match only go three games.
Sarah Singer posted her third match with 20 or more kills when she hammered down 21 against Western Illinois (Sept. 11).
Alyse Serritella posted a match-high 28 digs to lead a strong defensive effort against Milwaukee. She is averaging 5.50 dpg this season.
Milwaukee
When the Panthers return to the Klotsche Center this weekend, they'll be putting their tremendous home resume' on the line. UWM has won 108 of its last 120 home matches and has a current streak of 11 straight. Plus, the Panthers have a 21-match home winning streak in League play, and no team outside of Loyola or Green Bay has beaten UWM in Milwaukee since 1996.
UWM's current 10-match winning streak has extended a remarkable run of winning streaks by the Panthers. Milwaukee has now had a winning streak of at least seven matches in each of the last 11 seasons and a streak of at least 10-straight in each of the last five years. In 2006, the Panthers set a school record by winning 15 straight matches.
The Panthers are off to a 10-1 start, the best by a UWM squad since 2003, when the Panthers also opened the season 10-1. Milwaukee's best-ever Division I start came in 1999, when the Panthers won their first nine contests and 22 of their first 23 outings.
Valparaiso
The Crusaders finished second at the Bowling Green Best Western Invitational this past weekend.
Valpo hit .426 (59-13-108) against Duquesne and .425 (43-9-80) against DePaul in the first two matches.
Angie Porché earned all-tournament honors after she hit .409 with 4.18 kills and 2.18 digs per game.
Valpo will host its first Horizon League match in any sport on Friday when the Crusaders kick of League play against UIC
Wright State
The Raiders are off to a 2-0 start in Horizon League play for the first time since 2002 after defeating both Cleveland State and Youngstown State in five games over the weekend. Wright State has not started 3-0 in conference play since going 4-0 in the Mid-Continent Conference in 1993.
After recording just eight kills over the first 11 matches this season due to injury, senior Alisha Kimbro made a big return last weekend by posting double-doubles in both matches. Kimbro posted 10 kills and 20 digs against Cleveland State and 18 kills with 10 digs versus Youngstown State.
She also had four aces and four blocks against the Vikings and two aces and five blocks against the Penguins.
The Raiders head to the Badger State for matches this week against Green Bay on Friday and Milwaukee on Saturday. Starting this week, WSU will be at home for just four of its next 13 matches through the end of October.
Youngstown State
Junior setter Karla Everhart ranks sixth place on the all-time YSU assist list with 1,658 career assists. She dished out 104 assists last weekend. She needs 341 more to become the fifth player to net 2,000 assists in a career and 518 more to move into fifth place on the all-time list.
Sophomore Ruth Boscaljon reached the 500 career-kills mark in just 44 career matches with 21 against Butler on Friday. Boscaljon now has 516 career blocks and 179 career blocks. The Penguins are now 1-2 this season in five-game matches.
