Volleyball Weekly Release #13

Nov. 14, 2005

Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader

Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week

Rachel Kuebbing

UW-Milwaukee, Senior, RS, Burlington, KY

Kuebbing notched her seventh-straight double-figure kill effort with 21 kills on .486 hitting in the Panthers' win over UW-Green Bay on Friday.  She now has 318 kills this season--a career best--and has moved into eighth on UWM's all-time Division I kills list.

Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week

Becky Lowery

Wright State, Sophomore, L, Fremont, Ohio

Lowery tallied 62 total digs on the week, including a career-high 35 in a four-game win over Butler on Friday.  She also recorded 17 digs early in the week in a loss to Xavier and 20 digs in the regular season finale against Dayton. For the week, Lowery averaged 7.20 digs per game.

Other Top Performances

Susana Henri

Butler, OH, Jr., Vancouver, B.C.

Henri recorded a career-high 20 kills to go along with 11 digs against Wright State on Friday for her 11th double-double of the season.  The match marked her 18th double-figure kill effort of the season.  Henri leads the Bulldogs with an average of 3.22 kills per game.

Danielle Siefker

Cleveland State, MH, Jr., Kalida, Ohio

Siefker hit .355 to help the Vikings to a pair of come-from-behind five-game victories over the weekend. On Friday at UIC, Siefker recorded 11 kills and a pair of blocks, then tallied 12 kills and five blocks on Saturday at Loyola.  On the week, Siefker averaged 2.33 kills and 0.67 blocks per game.

Sarah Poling

Wright State, OH, Jr., St. Henry, Ohio

Poling recorded three double-figure kill efforts last week as she tallied 14 kills plus 19 digs  against Xavier, 19 kills and 22 digs in a win over Butler and 13 digs in the regular season finale against Dayton on Saturday.  For the week, Poling averaged 3.80 kills and 5.40 digs per game.

Katarina Nedeljkovic

UIC, OH, So., Serbia & Montenegro

Nedeljkovic tallied a team-high 18 kills in UIC's close 3-2 loss to Cleveland State on Friday. She also recorded one service ace. Nedeljkovic followed that performance with 14 kills, 38 total attacks and one service ace in UIC's 3-2 win versus Youngstown State.

Abby Ettenhofer

Youngstown State, MH, Sr., Hebron, Ohio

Ettenhofer averaged 4.38 kills and 0.62 blocks per game while hitting .328 for the week. She posted 10 kills against Loyola and tallied a career-high 25 kills in a five game loss to UIC. Ettenhofer ended the regular season with 3.10 kills per game and a .292 hitting percentage.

Shelby Henriksen

Loyola, MB, So., Lakeville, Minn.

Henriksen averaged 3.25 kpg and 1.63 bpg while hitting .404 as Loyola split a pair of League matches last weekend. She tallied 12 kills and a career-high seven blocks against Youngstown State Friday night, then added 14 kills and six blocks as the Ramblers fell to Cleveland State on Saturday. For the season, Henriksen is averaging 2.00 kpg and 0.72 bpg, numbers that jump to 2.59 kpg and 0.84 in Horizon League play.

Becky Peters

UW-Milwaukee, L, Fr., Germantown, Wis.

Peters tallied 29 digs in a three-game sweep of UW-Green Bay on Saturday, giving her 506 digs on the season, enough for the sixth-best single-season total in League history. Peters also became the only player in UWM's Division I history to record more than 500 digs on a season. 

Megan Knightly

Butler, L, Sr., Chicago, Ill.

Knightly had a team-high 27 digs against Wright State on Friday to push her career total to 1,711.  She is now just 11 digs shy of Jessica Taylor (1989-1992), who holds both the Butler and Horizon League career mark with 1,722 digs.  Knightly has had 10+ digs in 55 of her last 56 matches and continues to lead the Horizon League with 5.41 digs per game.

Katie Calhoon

Cleveland State, DS, Sr., Mansfield, Ohio

Calhoon notched 32 digs on the week, including 15 against UIC, 10 at Loyola and seven in non-League action in a loss to Kent State.  For the week, Calhoon averaged 2.13 digs per game.

Maura McCarthy

UIC, OH, Jr., Orland Park, Ill.

McCarthy picked up her fourth and fifth straight double-doubles on UIC's 1-1 weekend. In the Flames 3-2 loss to Cleveland State on Friday, she posted 12 kills and 17 digs with five blocked shots. McCarthy had 14 kills and 11 digs with five blocked shots on Saturday against Youngstown State.

Amanda Cindric

Youngstown State, DS, Jr., Pittsburgh, Pa.

Cindric averaged 2.88 digs per game for the Penguins last week, including 15 against UIC on Saturday. For the year, Cindric leads the Penguins with 3.87 digs per game and a total of 379 digs.

Hatcher sets school record for digs, Kennedy reaches career milestone.

Seniors Alisa Hatcher and Nickole Kennedy made the final weekend of the regular season one to remember as Hatcher set the single season school record for digs with 424, and Kennedy became only the ninth player in school history to record 1,000 kills.  After a 16-kill performance against Loyola, Kennedy now had 1,002 kills for her career.  With wins over UIC and Loyola last weekend, the Vikings completed their first weekend road sweep in 12 seasons in the League.

Five Bulldogs set career-highs in regular season finale

Five players recorded career-highs for Butler in a loss to Wright State on Friday.  Junior Susana Henri recorded a career-high with 20 kills, while other personal bests included Laura White (55 assists), Michelle DeGeeter (18 kills and 16 digs), Chloe Blasingame (13 digs) and Alicia Coltrane (13 digs). 

Graf tallies personal-best in last regular season match-up of her career.

UIC senior Tisha Graf marked a season and career-high of 15 kills against Youngstown State on Saturday.  Her previous career-high was 12 kills, recorded against Butler on October 15, 2004.

Pasquinelli closes in on new career-milestones

Senior Angie Pasquinelli's 1,160 assists in 2005 mark the fifth-highest single-season total in school history, and she needs just 14 more to move into fourth place on that list. Pasquinelli already owns the third-highest single-season mark with 1,276 in 2004. Pasquinelli also needs just 21 more assists to become the second player in school history to record 4,000 career assists.

Rosen ends regular season among best in school history, Rauen voted to Academic All-District V second team.

After finishing the regular season with a  nine-kill, 14-dig performance against UW-Milwaukee, senior Jackie Rosen ended the regular season among the top-five all-time in kills, digs and games played for the Phoenix.  Junior Sarah Rauen was voted to the ESPN the Magazine All-District V second team last week. In addition to leading UWGB with 450 digs and 30 service aces this season, Rauen boasts a 3.80 grade-point average as a pre-medicine major.

Lowery ties Division I school-record

Sophomore Becky Lowery tied the Division I school record with her career-high 35 digs against Butler on Friday.  That performance ties Lowery with Joanna Downie, who recorded 35 digs against Butler in 1998.  Wright State moved to Division I in 1987.

UWM earn third-straight outright title; Panthers win big on the road to close out the season

With a win over UW-Green Bay on Friday, UW-Milwaukee claimed its third consecutive outright regular-season League title.  It marks the first time a school has won three-straight outright titles since Notre Dame won four in a row from 1991-1994.  The Panthers ended the regular season with five-straight League road matches, defeating all opponents in three-game sweeps.

Ramblers fall short of perfect home record against League

The loss to Cleveland State on Saturday cost the Ramblers a perfect home record in conference play. Loyola ended the regular season with a 6-1 record at Alumni Gym.  The Ramblers had an identical 6-1 record at home last season, falling only once on its home court to UW-Milwaukee on Oct. 29.

Horizon League Championship Notes

--The No. 1 seed has not won the Horizon League Championship tournament since 2000, when regular-season champion Loyola defeated Butler 3-0 in the title match.

--The last three championship matches have gone to five games.  Loyola defeated Cleveland State 3-2 last season, UW-Green Bay beat UW-Milwaukee 3-2 in 2003 and Loyola fell to UW-Milwaukee in five games in 2002.

--Loyola and former member Notre Dame hold the lead for tournament titles won, with four apiece. The Ramblers won the tournament crown in 1995, 1999, 2000 and 2004.  Notre Dame finished first in four straight seasons from 1991-1994.  Butler (1986, 1987, 1997) and UW-Milwaukee (1998, 2001, 2002) have won three championships each.

--For the first time since 1996, the Horizon League tournament champion is guaranteed to have more than one loss in League play. Last season, UW-Milwaukee posted a 13-1 regular season record, but fell to Cleveland State in the semifinal round.

--Host UIC has not won a tournament match since a first round defeat of Cleveland state in 1999.  The tournament host has not won the championship since UW-Milwaukee hosted the event at the Klotsche Center in 2001.

--Butler holds the most tournament records of any current or former League member.  The Bulldogs hold match records for kills (94), total attempts (247), block solos (tie, 11), and tournament records for kills (234), service aces (40) and block solos (22).

--No. 2 Cleveland State heads into the Horizon League Championship with its highest seed all-time, surpassing the previous-high of fourth (2004). Prior to last year's run to the championship game, the Vikings had won only two postseason matches.

- Loyola has advanced to the tournament's championship match in seven of the last eight years, winning titles in 1999, 2000 and 2004.  The only year that it missed the final was in 2003, when the Ramblers were knocked off by UW-Green Bay in five games.