Horizon League Volleyball Release #9
Oct. 15, 2007
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INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Milwaukee senior Jamie Gabrielsen was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week, while Youngstown State freshman Laurie Shives was named Defensive Player of the Week. Both players received Horizon League Player of the Week honors for the first time in their respective careers.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Jamie Gabrielsen
Milwaukee
Sr., Outside Hitter, Menomonee Falls, Wis.
Senior Jamie Gabrielsen earned her first Offensive Player of the Week honor of her career. Gabrielsen became the eighth player from Milwaukee this season to be named Player of the Week. The Wisconsin native received the award after she hit .337 with 40 kills and 23 digs for the week to help the Panthers to a pair of League wins this past weekend. The senior began the week as she hit .386 and tallied 19 kills in a 3-0 sweep of Loyola on Friday. Gabrielsen then followed that performance with a team-best 21 kills in a 3-1 win over UIC on Saturday. On the season, Gabrielsen leads the League with 4.56 kills per game.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Laurie Shives
Youngstown State
Fr., Libero, Grove City, Ohio
Freshman Laurie Shives was named Defensive Player of the Week for the first time this season and is the first Youngstown State player to receive a weekly honor since Ebony Barbosa was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week in 2006 (Sept. 11). The YSU freshman received the award after she guided the Penguins to a 1-1 mark this past week. Shives began the week by totaling 22 digs in a 3-1 win over Wright State. In her second match of the week against Butler, the Ohio native collected a match-high 23 digs in a 3-2 loss against the Bulldogs. For the week, Shives posted 45 digs (5.0 digs per game) and tallied three service aces.
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Porshia Allen
Butler
So., Outside Hitter, Indianapolis, Ind.
Allen led the Bulldogs' offensive charge last weekend, averaging 5.12 kills per game while posting a .329 attack percentage. She paced the squad with 17 kills and a .290 hitting percentage in just three games against Cleveland State before notching a match-best 24 kills at a .354 attack percentage in helping the Bulldogs past Youngstown State. She also added 14 digs against the Penguins for her eighth double-double of the season.
Alexis Korovich
Cleveland State
So., Outside Hitter, Geneva, Ohio
Korovich helped CSU extend its win streak to nine with a 3-0 win over Butler and a 3-1 triumph over Wright State. In the two matches, Korovich hit .298 (37-12-84), while averaging 5.29 points, 4.43 digs and 6.00 points per game. In Friday's win over Butler, she finished with a match-high 18 kills and 11 digs before following that up with a season-best 19-kill, 20-dig effort against WSU. The double-doubles were Korovich's team-leading 12th and 13th and also her fourth and fifth consecutive. She finished the week with 37 kills, 31 digs, four blocks, three assists and three aces.
Abby Bergsma
Green Bay
Jr., Middle Blocker, Appleton, Wis.
Bergsma led Green Bay in total blocks (13.0) and finished second on the team in points (29.5). The Green Bay junior also had 20 kills (2.22 per game) and a .200 hitting percentage in two matches last week. Against Loyola, the Wisconsin native posted 12 kills, eight digs and seven blocks.
Dana VanDiggelen
Loyola
So., Right Side, Arlington Heights, Ill.
VanDiggelen averaged four kills per game over two matches and led a Loyola comeback with a match-high 18 kills in a victory over Green Bay on Friday. The Rambler sophomore opened the weekend with her ninth double-double of the season as she racked up a team-high 14 kills and 13 digs at Milwaukee before ringing up 18 kills and eight digs to lead the charge as LU rallied from a 2-0 hole to pull out a five-game win over at Green Bay for its first road win of the season. For the season, VanDiggelen leads the team with 242 kills (3.14 kpg).
Lauren Felsing
Milwaukee
So., Libero, Hartland, Wis.
Felsing helped the Panthers to a pair of League wins this past weekend as she totaled 34 digs (4.86 dpg) for the week. On Friday, Felsing had 16 digs as UWM recorded 73 digs in a 3-0 win over Loyola. She then followed that performance with 18 digs against UIC on Saturday. The sophomore was one of five Panthers who reached double figures in digs as UWM claimed a four-game triumph over UIC.
Amanda Kenny
UIC
Sr., Outside Hitter, Oak Lawn, Ill.
Kenny led the Flames with a team-best 28 kills for the week. The UIC senior picked up a double-double with 12 kills and 12 digs in a 3-1 victory over Green Bay on Friday. Kenny then led the Flames with 16 kills against Milwaukee on Saturday. The Illinois native also totaled seven digs and two blocks assists in the matchup versus the Panthers.
Brittany Malicoat
Valparaiso
Jr., Libero, Elkhart, Ind.
Malicoat recorded a match-high 21 digs against IUPUI on Friday. The Valpo junior has posted at least 20 digs in 12 matches this season, including each of the last five. Malicoat has 1,390 career digs, which is just five digs shy of moving into Valpo's all-time top-five. In 2007, she has tallied 442 digs, which is only three digs shy of cracking Valpo's single-season top 10.
Alisha Kimbro
Wright State
Sr., Outside Hitter, Lisle, Ill.
Kimbro ran her double-double streak to five with two last week. Against Youngstown State, Kimbro hit .324 with a career-high 27 kills and 12 digs. The Raiders concluded the week as she recorded 21 kills and 20 digs at Cleveland State.
Jessica Fraley
Youngstown State
Sr., Right Side, LaGrange, Ohio
Fraley led the Penguins to a 1-1 week as she averaged 4.67 kills, 4.11 digs, 0.78 blocks and 5.1 points per game. The YSU senior nailed 23 kills and 22 digs with a .309 hitting percentage in a four-game victory over Wright State and also posted 19 kills and 15 digs in a five-game loss to Butler.
News From Around the League
Butler
Butler concludes its six-match road trip on Friday when it takes on Valparaiso beginning at 8 p.m. ET. A six-match home-stand begins on Sunday as the Bulldogs step out of conference play to host UMKC at 1 p.m.
Michelle DeGeeter continued her trek through the Butler blocking record books last week. The senior middle blocker has 307 block assists in her career, including 76 this season, and ranks eighth all-time at BU. She also boasts 357 total blocks in her four seasons with the Bulldogs (94 this year) for the 10th-best mark and is just six behind Candice Washington's ninth-place total of 363.
The Bulldogs' 83 kills against Youngstown State on Oct. 13 were a single-match season high and were just one shy of the 10th-highest total all-time.
Butler continues to be one of the top defensive teams in the League, ranking third with 2.46 blocks per game and with a .164 opponent hitting percentage while ranking fourth with 18.20 digs per game.
Cleveland State
CSU has won nine straight matches, marking the second straight season that they have had a nine-match win streak. The school-record for most consecutive wins is 11, set in 1983.
The Vikings have posted nine league wins this season, the second-most in program history. That mark trails only the 2005 team, which won 11 League matches.
With Friday's win over Butler, the Vikings clinched their sixth consecutive winning season (2002-07). That is the second-longest streak in school history, trailing the seven straight from 1972-78.
Junior Jordan Bateman has recorded 421 digs this season and needs just 37 more to break her own school record of 457 set last season.
Green Bay
Green Bay is just 1-9 in matches that have gone more than three games this season.
On Saturday against Cleveland State, the Phoenix will play its final match at the Phoenix Sports Center. Green Bay will make its debut at the brand-new Kress Events Center on Nov. 2 against Milwaukee.
The Phoenix has won the opening game in each of its last three matches, all by the score of 30-22. However, it has not been a good omen, as Green Bay has dropped all three contests.
UIC
UIC went 1-1 last weekend with a 3-1 victory over Green Bay on Oct. 12. The Flames averaged 12.62 kills and 16.38 digs per game in two matches.
Sophomore Katerina Hanackova totaled 19 kills and a .team-best .236 attack percentage, while sophomore Emily McGinnis owned a team-high 25 digs. Senior Amanda Kenny totaled a team-best 28 kills with four blocks and 19 digs.
Freshman Epiphany Davis powered UIC at the net with eight block assists and three solo blocks. Sophomore Lana Lobdell added 11 kills, while junior Christin Hunt tabbed 14 kills and three blocks.
The Flames return to Chicago, visiting cross-town rival Loyola on Friday.
Loyola
After recording just 26 digs all season last year, Dana VanDiggelen has stepped up her all-around game this year. Through 21 matches, the sophomore right-side has 186 digs and nine double-doubles to her credit.
Loyola's five-game win at Green Bay was its first win in a five-game match this year and marked the first time the Ramblers' had rallied from an 0-2 deficit to win a match since knocking off Oregon State on Aug. 30, 2006.
In addition, the 3-2 victory over the Phoenix was the Ramblers first on the road this year.
Milwaukee
UWM now has won 18 of its last 19 matches. The Panthers have now won 34 of their last 36 regular-season League contests overall and 27-straight League matches at home.
Milwaukee is now 88-7 in October during the last 10-plus seasons.
UWM had 14 blocks against UIC and has now reached double figures in blocks seven times this season.
The Panthers will be looking to move to a perfect 3-0 against Big East Conference teams when it hosts Marquette Wednesday night.
Leanne Felsing surpassed 1,000 career kills on Saturday and is now the only Panther in Division I history to collect at least 1,000 kills, 1,000 digs, 1,000 assists and 100 aces in a career. She has also moved to fourth on UWM's career digs list with 1,197.
Valparaiso
Valpo's victory over IUPUI was its eighth straight over its downstate rival and former Mid-Continent Conference foe.
Freshman middle hitter Tara Newton returned to her hometown of Indianapolis and posted 14 kills on .440 hitting.
Sophomore Val Bollenbacher was forced to start at middle blocker for the first time in her collegiate career after Katie Layman was injured in practice. Bollenbacher responded as she posted nine kills and three blocks from the middle on Friday.
Sophomore Kim Bukowski earned the start at setter against the Jaguars and posted a career-best 59 assists.
Junior Jill Meyer continued her strong play from the right side with 11 kills on Friday. Meyer has reached double figures in kills in each of her last three matches and seven times total this season.
Wright State
Senior Alisha Kimbro extended her double-double streak to five with two more this past week. Kimbro hit .324 as she recorded a career-high 27 kills at Youngstown State on Friday. Kimbro also added 12 digs. On Saturday at Cleveland State, Kimbro had 21 kills with 20 digs. During the last five matches, the senior outside hitter has tallied 99 kills and 66 digs.
The Raiders reached double figures in blocks in both matches last week with 11 at Youngstown State and 17 at Cleveland State. Wright State has been in double figures in blocks 11 times this season and has had eight or more in all four matches.
The Raiders have a light week ahead as they travel to Valparaiso on Saturday for their only match of the week. Following that match, Wright State will have six of its final seven regular-season matches at home.
Youngstown State
Junior setter Karla Everhart became the sixth player to reach 2,000 career assists with 132 assists last week. She now has 2,102 assists and needs 75 more to move into fifth place on the all-time list. Everhart averaged 14.67 assists per game last week.
Senior Jessica Fraley moved closer to the 900 career kills mark with 42 kills last week. She now has 874 career kills and needs 126 more to reach 1,000 career kills. She also has 604 career digs.
Junior outside hitter Ebony Barbosa posted her 10th and 11th double-doubles of the year last week. She posted a career-high 23 kills and 17 digs against Wright State and recorded 13 kills and 13 digs against Butler.
