Horizon League Volleyball Release #8
Oct. 8, 2007
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Wright State senior Alisha Kimbro was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week, while Milwaukee junior Becky Peters was named Defensive Player of the Week for the sixth time in her career. Both players helped their respective teams to unbeaten records in League play last week.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Alisha Kimbro
Wright State
Sr., Outside Hitter, Lisle, Ill.
Senior Alisha Kimbro collects her first career Offensive Player of the Week award. Kimbro is the first player from Wright State to receive the award since Sarah Poling was named Defensive Player of the Week in 2006 (Sept. 25). This past week, the Raider outside hitter helped WSU to three straight League wins over UIC (3-1), Loyola (3-0) and Butler (3-0) as she posted double-doubles in all three contests. The Raiders' three-match winning streak is their longest of the season. For the week, the Illinois native hit at a .287 clip, while averaging 5.1 kills and 3.4 digs per game. Defensively, Kimbro added three total blocks.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Becky Peters
Milwaukee
Jr., Outside Hitter, Germantown, Wis.
Junior Becky Peters earns her second Defensive Player of the Week award this season. For her career, Peters has been named player of the week six times dating back to 2005. The Wisconsin native is tied for first with Notre Dame's Christy Peters and Green Bay's Janelle Tomlinson for the most weekly honors in Horizon League volleyball history. The Panther senior receives the award after she helped guide UWM to its 16th win in 17 matches and a 2-0 mark this past week. For the week, Peters tallied 34 digs (4.86 dpg) and five total blocks. She also chipped in offensively with 12 kills.
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Michelle DeGeeter
Butler
Sr., Middle Blocker, Warsaw, Ind.
DeGeeter was the Bulldogs' top offensive player last week, averaging more than four kills per game while tallying a .243 hitting percentage in three matches. She tied for the team lead with 20 kills while notching her seventh double-double of the season in helping Butler to a win over Loyola. She followed up that match with another 20-kill performance and her eighth double-double of the year at UIC before finishing with a team-high 13 kills and eight digs in three games at Wright State.
Kayla Lefeld
Cleveland State
So., Outside Hitter, St. Henry, Ohio
Lefeld helped CSU to a perfect 3-0 week as she averaged 3.81 kills per game and hit .380 in wins at Valparaiso and at home against UIC and Loyola. In Tuesday's 3-1 win at Valparaiso, finished with 11 kills and just one error in 18 attempts (.556). She totaled seven of her kills in the deciding fourth game. In Friday night's 3-2 win over UIC, Lefeld amassed a career-best 22 kills and hit .386 with just five errors in 44 attempts. She ended the week with a nine-kill, five-dig effort in a sweep of Loyola on Saturday.
Liesl Tesch
Green Bay
Jr., Outside Hitter, New Berlin, Wis.
Tesch led the Phoenix offensively as she averaged 4.43 kills per game. Against Milwaukee, the Green Bay junior had a match-high 17 kills and hit .220 in a 3-0 loss. Against Valparaiso, Tesch paced Green Bay with 14 kills.
Dana VanDiggelen
Loyola
So., Right Side, Arlington Heights, Ill.
VanDiggelen recorded three double-doubles in four matches as Loyola played four matches in five days. For the week, VanDiggelen averaged 3.44 kills and 3.00 dig per game.
Leanne Felsing
Milwaukee
Sr., Outside Hitter, Hartland, Wis.
Felsing posted a pair of triple-doubles as UWM remained atop the Horizon League standings. For the week, the Panther senior averaged 4.29 kills, 3.43 blocks, 7.71 assists and 0.57 blocks per game, while hitting .387 in UWM's two wins. She started the week with 11 kills, 13 digs and 26 assists in a three-game win over Green Bay. On Sunday against Valparaiso, she tallied 19 kills, 11 digs, 28 assists and three blocks, while hitting .529 for the match.
Christin Hunt
UIC
Jr., Outside Hitter, Freeburg, Ill.
Hunt posted a team-best .287 attack percentage with 72 kills and 14 blocks. The outside hitter averaged 4.00 kills and 0.78 service aces per game. The Illinois native totaled 14 kills and a team-high .225 attack percentage against Wright State on Tuesday. Against Butler, the junior led the Flames with 15 kills in a 3-2 win on Wednesday. During the weekend, Hunt paced the Flames with 19 kills, two blocks while hitting at a .304 offensive clip on Friday against Cleveland State. Hunt then led UIC with a career-high 24 kills versus Youngstown State on Saturday.
Brittany Malicoat
Valparaiso
Jr., Libero, Elkhart, Ind.
Malicoat posted 116 digs over four matches last week (6.82 per game). She registered 39 against Youngstown State and 37 against Green Bay. She moved from 10th to sixth on Valpo's all-time digs list (1,369) and is just 26 digs out of the top-five.
Lexi Leonhard
Wright State
So., Libero, Temperance, Mich.
Leonhard help guide the Raiders to a 3-0 week in League play. The sophomore libero began the week as she recorded 21 digs in a 3-1 win at UIC on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Kimbro posted 15 digs during a 3-0 victory at Loyola. On Saturday, Leonhard concluded the week as she tallied 22 digs in a 3-0 win against Butler.
Jessica Fraley
Youngstown State
Sr., Right Side, LaGrange, Ohio
Fraley led the Penguins to a 3-0 week as she averaged 3.50 kills, 2.64 digs, 0.93 blocks and 4.21 points per game. The YSU senior began the week with 13 kills, nine digs and five blocks in a five-game win over Valparaiso. She then followed that performance as she posted back-to-back double-doubles against Loyola (21 kills and 10 digs) and UIC (15 kills and 18). YSU downed Loyola and UIC by a counts of 3-2 and 3-1, respectively.
News From Around the League
Butler
Butler wraps up its six-match road swing this weekend in Ohio as the Bulldogs face Cleveland State on Friday (Oct. 12) and Youngstown State on Saturday (Oct. 13). The Bulldogs dropped a 3-1 match to the Vikings in Hinkle Fieldhouse earlier in the year after scoring a 3-2 victory over the Penguins the previous night.
The Bulldogs have out-blocked their opponents 183.0 to 147.5, a difference of 35.5 total blocks, while ranking third in the league with 2.51 blocks per game.
Butler is one of the top defensive teams in the Horizon League this season, ranking third in blocks (2.51) and opponent hitting percentage (.163) while ranking fourth in digs (18.18).
Cleveland State
Sophomores Kayla Lefeld (22) and Beth Greulich (20) both set career highs in kills in Friday's 3-2 win over UIC.
Junior Jordan Bateman has recorded 391 digs this season, the ninth-best total in school history. She is on her way to shattering her own single season school-record of 457 digs set last season.
The Vikings are 4-1 at home this season and will host Butler and Wright State in Woodling Gym this weekend.
CSU has won seven straight matches, including two five-set matches. It is the second straight season the Vikings have had a win streak of at least seven matches as they had a nine-match win streak last season.
Green Bay
Green Bay is in the midst of a season-long five-match home stand. After falling 3-1 to Valparaiso on Saturday afternoon, Green Bay is just 1-7 in matches that are longer than three games.
Junior Abby Bergsma has moved into 10th place on the school's all-time career kills list with 640 and into seventh on the total blocks list with 278.
UIC
UIC went 1-3 last week in Horizon League action. The Flames totaled 270 kills, 312 digs and 32 blocks in 18 games.
Freshman Epiphany Davis led the Flames with 17 blocks in four matches last week. Junior Christin Hunt posted a team-best .287 attack percentage with 72 kills and 14 blocks. The outside hitter averaged 4.0 kills and 0.78 service aces per game.
Freshman Taylor Szatkowski totaled 57 digs and sophomore Lana Lobdell totaled a team-best five service aces in four matches.
Loyola
Libero Alyse Serritella dug 87 balls in Loyola's four matches this past week (5.44 dpg) including a 33-dig effort against Butler that was one shy of the school's single-match record. The performance equaled Kerri Childress' mark against Ohio in 1991 and was one short of Arian Adams' school-record of 34 digs set in 1997 against Milwaukee. Serritella also posted 25 digs in a five-game match at Youngstown State last week and has 316 digs for the season (5.27 dpg).
Milwaukee
UWM won for the 16th time in its last 17 matches. The Panthers have won 32 of their last 34 regular-season League contests overall and 25-straight league matches at home. UWM's 16 blocks against Valpo marked a season high, besting the 15 the Panthers had against Cleveland State (Sept. 29). It was also the sixth time this season UWM has reached double figures in blocks. In the match with the Crusaders, Maddie Sueppel set a new collegiate-best for blocks with eight while Nicole Vilter (5) and Becky Peters (3) each equaled their collegiate-bests. UWM's .294 hitting percentage against Valpo was its second-best of the season. The Panthers hit .448 against St. Francis (NY) Aug. 31.
The Panthers have stayed atop the Horizon League despite seeing key contributors sidelined by injury. Kellye Zaporski had missed four matches before returning for the match Tuesday with Green Bay, while Maddie Sueppel missed most of the loss to Cleveland State and the contest with the Phoenix.
Valparaiso
Five different Crusaders combined to match or break 10 different career highs against the Phoenix on Saturday.
The Crusaders tied their season high for digs (93) in the victory over the Phoenix. Angie Porché recorded three double-doubles last week, giving her seven over the last ten matches. Valparaiso registered just 59 digs to Milwaukee's 69 on Sunday, marking the first time this season in its 20 matches that the Crusaders were out-dug
The Crusaders now have a 12-day break from League action during which they meet former Mid-Continent Conference foe IUPUI on Friday.
Wright State
The four-game win at UIC along with the sweep of Loyola marked the first time ever that Wright State won both ends of the Chicago trip since the Raiders joined the League in 1994. It was WSU's first regular-season win at UIC since September 26, 2003.
After hitting .162 over the first 15 matches of the season, Wright State has hit .232 in winning four of its last five. The Raiders have hit .248 or better in each of those four wins, including .301 at Loyola last Wednesday and .273 at UIC last Tuesday. Prior to the last five matches, WSU had hit higher than .216 only twice this season.
A trio of seniors have keyed Wright State's rise in hitting percentage over the last two weeks as setter Lindsey Frank has hit .375 with 24 kills, Samantha Connor .277 and Tara Geegan .275.
The Raiders head to Northeast Ohio to start the second round of Horizon League play this week as WSU takes on Youngstown State on Friday and League co-leader Cleveland State on Saturday.
Youngstown State
Youngstown State's three League victories are the most in a season since joining the Horizon League in 2001. It also marks the first three-match winning streak against Horizon League foes since joining the league.Sophomore Ruth Boscaljon averaged 3.29 kills and 1.07 blocks per game with a .363 hitting percentage last week. Boscaljon also just passed the 600 career kills plateau and now has 602 kills in just 51 career matches.
Senior Jessica Fraley eclipsed the 800 career kills mark this week against Loyola. Fraley now has 832 kills and needs 168 more to reach 1,000. Junior setter Karla Everhart now has 1,970 career assists and needs just 30 more to become the sixth player in school history to record at least 2,000 career assists. She also needs 207 more to move into fifth place on the YSU all-time assists chart.
