Horizon League Volleyball Release #7
Oct. 1, 2007
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Cleveland State becomes the second school to sweep the League's weekly awards this season as CSU juniors Jenni Ramminger and Jordan Bateman were tabbed Offensive and Defensive Players of the Week, respectively. Both players helped the Vikings to two League wins this past weekend.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Jenni Ramminger
Cleveland State
Jr., Middle Hitter, Cincinnati, Ohio
Junior Jenni Ramminger earns her third career Player of the Week award and her first career Offensive Player of the Week honor. Ramminger was named Defensive Player of the Week in the first week of the season (Aug. 27). This past week the CSU junior guided the Vikings to League victories over Green Bay (3-0) and Milwaukee (3-2). In the win over UWM, the Ohio native set a career-high with 23 kills to help CSU snap the Panthers' 14-match winning streak. For the week, Ramminger hit .354 with 30 kills and four service aces. She leads the team with 196 kills and is second on the team in hitting percentage (.301) and blocks (68).
Defensive Player of the Week:
Jordan Bateman
Cleveland State
Jr., Libero, Nelsonville, Ohio
Junior Jordan Bateman collects her third career Defensive Player of the Week award and her first this season. Bateman helped anchor a defensive unit that held Green Bay and Milwaukee to attack percentages of .074 and .134, respectively. The CSU junior began the week with a 14-dig effort in the Vikings' 3-0 sweep against Green Bay on Friday. Against Milwaukee on Saturday, Bateman helped the Vikings snap the Panthers' 14-match winning streak as she set a career-high with 36 digs, which was one shy of tying the CSU single-match record. For the week, Bateman tallied 50 digs (6.25 dpg).
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Michelle DeGeeter
Butler
Sr., Middle Blocker, Warsaw, Ind.
DeGeeter was the Bulldogs' top offensive player last weekend, finishing with a team-best 24 kills. She led the team with 14 kills and a .417 hitting percentage (14-4-24) in a three-game win over Chicago State on Friday. She also added seven digs and three block assists. The following night against Valparaiso, she notched the team's first triple-double of the season, recording 10 kills, 10 digs and 10 blocks against the Crusaders.
Liesl Tesch
Green Bay
Jr., Outside Hitter, New Berlin, Wis.
Tesch led the Phoenix in kills (44), kills per game (4.00) and digs (42) and was second in total points (48.5) for the week. The Green Bay junior also had a pair of 20-kill matches, as she posted 21 against Loyola on Tuesday and Youngstown State on Saturday. In addition, Tesch had 15 digs against LU and 20 digs against YSU.
Christin Hunt
UIC
Jr., Outside Hitter, Freeburg, Ill.
Junior Christin Hunt posted a team-high .333 attack percentage in two matches last week for the Flames to go along with a team-best 21 kills. The outside hitter also led the Flames with six total blocks. Hunt paced UIC with seven kills versus Western Michigan on Sept. 15. The junior also totaled three blocks in the four-game victory over Loyola on Friday.
Sarah Singer
Loyola
Jr., Outside Hitter, Waukesha, Wis.
Singer averaged 4.0 kills per game and 4.2 digs per game with a pair of double-doubles, as the Ramblers split a pair of Horizon League matches last week. Singer opened the match as she hammered down 15 kills at a .414 clip. She also added 12 kills as the Ramblers earned their first conference win with a 3-1 decision over Green Bay. She was just as effective on Friday against UIC as she posted match-highs of 17 kills and 22 digs (which was also a career-high) in a four-game loss.
Natalie Schmitting
Milwaukee
Sr., Outside Hitter, Hartland, Wis.
Schmitting put together a pair of strong performances at the net for the Panthers, finishing the week with 13 blocks in two outings. Friday at Youngstown State, she collected six blocks and then Saturday at Cleveland State, the true freshman added seven blocks. Schmitting leads the Panthers with 65 blocks this season.
Brittany Malicoat
Valparaiso
Jr., Libero, Elkhart, Ind.
Malicoat set a career high with six service aces against Bradley. The Valpo junior also posted 20 digs against Wright State and 14 versus Butler. In addition, the Indiana native had a string of 56 straight matches leading Valpo in digs snapped against Wright State. Malicoat has reached double figures in digs in 34 consecutive matches.
Tara Geegan
Wright State
Sr., Middle Blocker, Algonquin, Ill.
Geegan helped the Raiders to a 1-1 mark this past week as she hit .556 with two block assists and two assists at Xavier (Sept. 25) and had 10 kills with eight blocks against Valparaiso (Sept. 28).
Karla Everhart
Youngstown State
Jr., Setter, Elyria, Ohio
Everhart set a career high with 34 digs in YSU's five-game loss to Green Bay on Saturday. She also set a career high with 69 assists against the Phoenix. Everhart averaged a team-best 4.78 digs and 12.56 assists per game last week. She also posted three blocks.
News From Around the League
Butler
The Bulldogs open up six-match road swing this week when they head to Chicago for matches against Loyola on Tuesday (Oct. 2) and UIC on Wednesday (Oct. 3). The trip continues with stops at Wright State, Cleveland State and Youngstown State before concluding at Valparaiso on Oct. 19.
With her 13 block assists last weekend, senior middle blocker Michelle DeGeeter moved past Candice Washington into ninth place in the Butler record books with 293 career block assists. She is now just three behind Chris DeWell's mark of 296 for eighth place all-time.
Sophomore Porshia Allen continues to be the Bulldogs' top scorer this season, pacing the squad and ranking fifth in the League with 3.62 kills per game.
Freshman Jessica Wolfe ranks third on the team with 3.17 kills per game. Wolfe's 29 kills against Youngstown State on Sept. 14 is a single-match high for a Bulldog this year and is tied for the sixth-highest single match total in school history.
Cleveland State
The Vikings ended Milwaukee's 14-match win streak with a 3-2 win on Saturday. It was also the first time CSU defeated the Panthers since a 3-2 win in the League Championship semifinals on Nov. 20, 2004.
Junior Jenni Ramminger set a career-high with 23 kills and junior Jordan Bateman finished with a career-best 36 digs against Milwaukee. Bateman's 36 digs were one shy of tying the school record.
Junior Alexis Korovich recorded her fourth straight double-double in Friday's win over Green Bay. The streak came to an end Saturday against Milwaukee when she tallied eight kills and 12 digs. During the last five matches, Korovich is averaging 12.0 kills and 15.0 digs per match.
CSU's match against Valparaiso on Tuesday will be the first time the Vikings play the Crusaders since Sept. 5, 2003.
Green Bay
On Tuesday, Green Bay plays the final contest of a four-match road trip. That means that 14 of the squad's first 16 matches of the year will have been away from home. Green Bay starts a season-long five-match home stand Saturday against Valparaiso.
With a 3-2 win at Youngstown State, the Phoenix picked up its first win this season in a match that went longer than three games. Green Bay is now 1-6 in non-sweeps.
After winning just seven total games in its first eight matches (while compiling a 1-7 record), Green Bay has won 14 games in its last seven matches (fashioning a 3-4 record).
UIC
Junior Christin Hunt posted a team-high .333 attack percentage in two matches last week for the Flames with a team-best 21 kills. The outside hitter also led the Flames with six total blocks.
Sophomore Lana Lobdell totaled 19 kills, a team-best six blocks and added two service aces in seven games last week, Freshman Taylor Szatkowski owned a team-best 29 digs, while senior Amanda Kenny totaled three blocks.
Sophomore Katerina Hanackova picked up her eighth season double-double against Loyola with 12 kills and 14 digs.
Loyola
With the win over Green Bay on Tuesday night, Loyola upped its career mark against the Phoenix to 36-6 overall and 18-1 at Alumni Gym.
Sarah Singer's two double-doubles in as many matches give her seven for the season.
With her season-high 16 kills on Friday at UIC, senior attacker Keily Zins reached 900 kills for her career. She is attempting to become the 11th Rambler to reach the 1,000 plateau.
Milwaukee
UWM's 14-match winning streak that was snapped at Cleveland State Saturday is the second longest in school history. The Panthers had a 15-match streak last season.
The Panthers kick off a stretch of seven straight home matches with two home contests this week. UWM has won 13 in a row at home overall and 23 straight at home in League play.
Valparaiso
Val Bollenbacher posted double-digit dig totals in all three matches last week, highlighted by 14 kills on .435 hitting in the sweep of Bradley.
After seeing no action in the first 10 matches of the year, freshman middle Katie Layman has paced Valpo in blocks in each of the last four matches. Layman recorded team-high totals of five rejections against Bradley, four versus Wright State, and matched her career best with six against Butler.
The Crusaders continued to excel from the service line, posting 29 aces over their three matches, bumping their season average to 2.31/game.
Only two other Valpo teams have gone this far into their season before suffering their fourth loss: the 2004 squad was 20-3 before losing its fourth match, while the 2005 edition began the year 14-3.
Wright State
Wright State recorded 38 block assists against Valparaiso, which tied for the second most in a match for the Raiders since joining Division I in 1987. WSU had 39 block assists at Cincinnati in 1994 and 38 versus Indiana State in 1989.
Lizzy Gunn had 12 block assists, good for second-best in WSU's Division I history behind Micki Harris' 13 against Indiana State in 1989. Becca Awaa added 10 block assists, which tied for fourth with four other players.
Wright State's .328 hitting percentage at Xavier this past Tuesday was the highest recorded by the Raiders in a match since hitting .344 against Youngstown State on November 21, 2003, in the opening round of the Horizon League Championship. Tara Geegan hit .556, while Samantha Connor hit .524. It marks the third .500 or better hitting match of the season for Geegan. The senior hit .500 at Indiana State on August 28.
Youngstown State
Junior setter Karla Everhart ranks sixth place on the all-time YSU assist list with 1,817 career assists after dishing out 113 assists last weekend. She needs 183 more to become the fifth player to net 2,000 assists in a career and 359 more to move into fifth place on the all-time list.
Senior Jessica Fraley moved closer to the 800 career kills mark with 32 last week. She now has 783 career kills. She also has 530 career digs.
Junior outside hitter Ebony Barbosa posted her fifth and sixth double-doubles of the season. In addition, Barbosa posted 11 and 19 digs against Milwaukee on Friday and 19 kills and 13 digs against Green Bay on Saturday.
