Nov. 10, 2006

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University volleyball team completes the regular season portion of their season with a pair of road matches this weekend. First up is a Friday night showdown at Kent State, followed up by a match at Ohio Saturday night.

With just two matches remaining the Falcons will be either the #1 or #3 seed in the Mid-American Conference Tournament. In order to obtain the top seed, BGSU needs to win both of their matches and also a Miami win over Ohio Friday night.

Recognized by the Nation
Falcon Volleyball recorded votes in the latest CSTV/AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll, released October 5th. With four points, the Falcons rank 35th in the country. This season is Bowling Green's first appearance in the poll since 1991.

"It's great for the program and the conference to be mentioned in the poll," said Head Coach Denise Van De Walle. "It's great to have two teams in the poll. Maybe this will help turn some heads as to just how good the MAC really is."

Longest Win Streak in School History
Bowling Green ripped off seventeen consecutive wins, tying the `01 Northern Illinois squad for the third longest overall winning streak in the MAC during the rally scoring era. During that stretch, the Falcons hit a blistering .303 while suffocating the opposing attack by holding them to a .129 hitting pace.

Falcons Making National Noise
BGSU can be found all over the national statistical rankings. At the beginning of the week the Falcons were ranked 13th in hitting percentage (.275), 25th in kills (16.37/game) and 27th in assists (15.01/game). Bowling Green's .852 winning percentage was the 16th best in the country.

Lucky Numbers
Bowling Green won their 13th match in a row on Friday (Oct.) the 13th. Coincidentally, the Brown and Orange later won their 20th match overall on Oct. 20th before taking victory number 21st on Oct. 21st. Unfortunately, the Falcons came up short against the 22nd ranked team in the country (Ohio Bobcats) when looking for win number 22 as well.

Making Her Mark in Falcon Volleyball History
Senior Chrissy Gothke moved passed Holli Costein (1989-92) for second place all-time in career digs on Oct. 14. With 20 digs in a pair of sweeps over Central and Eastern Michigan, her career total increased to 1,352 digs. Gothke now trails only Susie Norris's 1,596 career digs for the all-time high. If the season were to end today, she would also notch her name in the record books with a .270 career hitting efficiency, the eighth best in Falcon history.