Oct. 26, 2004

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team, fresh off a 1-1 conference road trip returns home this weekend to square off with Western Michigan (Oct. 29) and Eastern Michigan (Oct. 30). Friday's action with the Broncos will begin at 7:00 p.m. while the match with EMU is set to begin at 3:00 p.m.

RECAP OF THE PAST WEEKEND
BGSU started the past weekend off on the right foot by sweeping Central Michigan (30-23, 30-26, 30-21) behind an 18 kill effort from senior Taylor Twite. She led a group of four Falcons that pounded out at least a .300 hitting percentage. Melissa Mohr (.500), Twite (.382), Amber Mareski (.308) and Maggie Karges (.304) led the Falcons to a .263 team hitting percentage.

The Falcons dominated the Chippewas defensively, pouring out 58 digs in the three games. Ashlei Nofzinger led the group will 11 digs, with Emily Manser (10), Chrissy Gothke (9) and Madeline Means (9) also chipping in.

The following night was a turn of fortunes as BGSU fell in three games to Western Michigan (28-30, 15-30, 30-32). Twite registered a team-high 12 kills, while Manser also added 11. Defensively Manser and Karges led the team with 14 digs, with Gothke also posing double-figures with 11.

A LOOK AT THE OPPONENTS
The Falcons will square off with Western Michigan (12-9, 6-4 MAC) for the second consecutive match this Friday, looking for revenge after falling in three games (30-28, 30-15, 32-30) over the past weekend. The Broncos own a 27-16 series record.

Eastern Michigan will enter Anderson Arena on Saturday night with a 14-8 overall and 9-2 conference record. Over the span of the last 10 games the Eagles have captured eight of them. BGSU owns 25-18 series record over EMU.

THREE FALCONS HAVE EARNED MAC POW
In only eight weeks of volleyball action, the BGSU volleyball team has earned three of the eight MAC Player of the Week nominations. Melissa Mohr (Sept. 13), Emily Manser (Sept. 27) and Taylor Twite (Oct. 11) have all earned the award. The last time the Brown & Orange have earned the award on three different occasions was back in 2001 when Kristin Gamby, Susie Norris and Caty Rommeck were named East Division Player of the Week.

SEARCH FOR 3,000/1,000/400
Senior setter Amber Mareski recorded her 2,900th career assist over the past weekend. For her career she now owns 2,902 assists in her BGSU career, which ranks fourth all-time in school history. She is only 98 assists shy of the magical number 3,000, a number only three Falcons have ever reached.

1.	4,406	Linda Popovich	1986-89
2.	3,779	Carey Amos	1989-92
3.	3,407	Jodi Olson	1993-95
4.	2,902	Amber Mareski	2001-SA
5.	2,766	Natalie Becker	1998-2001

Senior Taylor Twite owns 837 career kills and is a mere 163 kills from becoming only the 13th Falcon in school history to reach 1,000 career kills.

10.	1,110	Caty Rommeck	1999-2001
11.	1,024	Kristin Gamby	1999-2002
12.	1,015	Heather Murphy	1996-98
13.	   858	Nicky Mudrak	1990-93
14.	   837	Taylor Twite	2002-SA
15.	   787	Jessica Andrasko	1991-94

The final Falcon looking for a career milestone is head coach Denise Van De Walle. The coach owns 393 career wins and is only seven wins shy of 400, which would make her only the 34th DI coach in NCAA history to surpass that mark.

THREE WEEKS REMAIN
With only three weeks remaining in MAC action, the BGSU volleyball team sits in sixth place and would host Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament First Round on Nov. 16th.

HOME SWEET HOME
Anderson Arena has been very kind to the BGSU volleyball team this year. The Falcons are 4-1 this year at home with wins over Cleveland State, Toledo, Central Michigan and Northern Illinois.

FALCONS IN THE MAC
With 12.58 assists per game, Amber Mareski ranks third in the MAC. She has 969 assists on the season.

Melissa Mohr ranks sixth in the MAC in blocks per game with 1.22. She has 14 solo blocks and 81 block-assists on the season. Mohr also ranks sixth in the MAC with .37 aces/ game.

Taylor Twite ranks eighth in kills per game with 3.79 and ninth in hitting percentage with a .311.

SERVES UP When looking at deciding factors in wins and loses, most will notice a difference in kills and digs, but this year the service game has been the most telling stat for the volleyball program. Heading into this week, the Falcons are 11-1 when out serving the opponent, compared to a 2-8 disadvantage in games they do not.

On the year BGSU has 130 aces compared to only 100 for their opponents. Melissa Mohr (29), Emily Manser (21), Chrissy Gothke (21) and Elizabeth Simon (20) lead the team in aces.