MAC Announces Volleyball Players of the Week

Chelsea Bilger led Ohio in kills this weekend, notching a season-high 17 in a win over Akron. She followed that with another double-digit outing, leading the ‘Cats with 12 kills vs. Buffalo. Since the start of league play, Bilger leads Ohio in kills with 3.94 per set and is hitting .287. 

 

Ashley Dunn averaged 5.25 digs per set and had a .973 serve receive percentage as Bowling Green improved to 6-0 in MAC play with a three-set sweep of Miami and a five-set win over MAC preseason favorite Western Michigan. Dunn saved her best performance for the biggest match, posting  a career-high 29 digs against WMU. In fact, she had eight digs in the fifth set, her highest single-set total of the match. Dunn was also perfect in 26 serve receive attempts against Western Michigan.

 

Lisa Scott turned in perhaps the best weekend of her collegiate career, as she blasted 35 kills and hit .567 in BSU’s matches against Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan. In BSU’s match against CMU, Scott posted a then-career-high 17 kills on 28 swings with just one error for a .571 hitting mark. She also tallied a match-best five total blocks in the contest. Against EMU, Scott did one better, posting a career-high 18 kills and hitting .562 with no errors on 32 swings. She also threw up a match-best four blocks, including three solo stuffs. Overall, Scott recorded just one hitting error on 60 swings over the weekend.

 

Central Michigan junior Jenna Coates continued her defensive prowess over the weekend, helping the Chippewas take over sole possession of first place in the MAC West wins with victories over Ball State and Toledo. Coates was served to 46 times in Friday night’s match with the Cardinals, making just one error while digging a match-high 22 attacks to limit BSU to a .187 hitting percentage on the night. She also chipped in with a season-high three aces in the match. Saturday night, Coates’ play was instrumental in the Chippewas closing the door on the Rockets in the fourth and final set as five of her match-high 15 digs came in a set in which the Chippewas held the Rockets to a -.074 hitting percentage. 

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In just six sets of play, Jill Paluch averaged 4.50 digs, leading her team against Ohio and Kent State. Against Kent State, she posted a match-high 17, which is the 12th time this year Paluch has recorded 15 or more digs in a single match.  

 

Senior middle blocker, Kristen Baker, posted stellar offensive and defensive numbers throughout the last weekend helping EMU sweep a pair matches in Mid-American Conference play. Baker averaged 12.5 kills per match, while posting five blocks per match. She earned a 1.11 block per set average as she helped the Eagles make it back to the .500 mark in conference play. Baker did not make an attack error until the final set of the Eagles’ match with Ball State Saturday, Oct. 6. The senior opened up the weekend with an 11-kill performance at Toledo Friday, Oct. 5. The Mentor, Ohio native did not make an attack error in 24 attempts, good for a .458 attack percentage (11-0-24) at UT. Not only was she a force offensively against the Rockets but she posted seven block assists to help EMU to a five-set victory.  Baker followed up the win at Toledo with another outstanding performance against Ball State Saturday, Oct. 6. She hit .458 (14-3-24) yet again, while picking up three block assists.

 

Kent State junior middle blocker Kathy Krupa (Burbank, Ill.) posted a team-high 12 total blocks and and 1.71 blocks per set as the Golden Flashes split a pair of matches against Mid-American Conference East Division opponents last week. Krupa tallied six blocks (1 solo, 5 assists) in a 3-1 win over Buffalo on Friday (Oct. 5) and added six blocks (1 solo, 5 assists) in a 3-0 loss to Akron on Saturday (Oct. 6). She leads the Golden Flashes on the season with 0.95 blocks per set and has recorded at least five blocks on five occasions.

 

Amber Walker led the defense with a 3.83 digs average.

 

Warner, who came into the weekend leading the MAC in blocking, led the Bobcats once more this weekend. The sophomore had seven blocks against the Zips, along with six kills. She then hit double figures in points once more with seven kills, three aces, and a pair of blocks againt the Bulls. She is averaging 11.7 points per match, 3.9 points per set, in league play. 

 

Junior MB Dakota Harkins dominated the net in the Rockets’ matches last weekend vs. Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Harkins tallied a team-high 2.11 blocks per set and played a part in 13 of UT’s 16 total blocks against the Eagles and six of 10 blocks vs. Chippewas. Harkins also was a key contributor offensively with a team-best .444 attack percentage along with 2.56 kills per set. Against EMU, Harkins tallied a career-high 13 blocks in addition to being error-free offensively en route to posting 12 kills and a .462 hitting mark. She then tallied a team-high six blocks against CMU as well as 11 kills and a .421 ATK%.

 

Oliver was a key part of the Broncos’ successes this past weekend, helping them win an important MAC West road match at Northern Illinois on Friday and pushing the first-place Bowling Green State Falcons to five sets on the road on Saturday.  Oliver contributed nine digs in the Broncos’ sweep victory at Northern Illinois, the first time the Broncos have swept the Huskies in DeKalb since the 2005 season.  Oliver recorded a team-high 23 digs against the first-place Falcons on Saturday, a performance that moved her into second place on the career digs list at Western Michigan, passing Katy Duffy and Allyson Doyle in the process.

 

 

Reigning MAC East Offensive Player of the Week Tina Dimitrijevs was a key component in Akron’s historic shutout victory over Kent State. She tallied eight kills with just a single error in 18 attempts for a .389 attack percentage, but she really came up big with the serve. Dimitrijevs posted five aces over the course of the Zips’ two matches, including a career-high four in three sets against Kent State. Three of the four aces came on consecutive plays in the midst of a 9-0 Akron run in the third set, when she served nine straight times successfully without an error. Dimitrijevs finished the weekend averaging 0.83 aces per game, considerably higher than her season average of 0.33.

 

Sophomore Liz Scott continued to lead the way for Buffalo this past weekend as she recorded 29 kills in road matches at Kent State and Ohio.  In the four set loss to the Golden Flashes, Scott finished with 20 kills, hitting into just two errors on 36 total swings.  Against Ohio, Scott also led the Bulls in the kills department with nine and just one error on 23 swings.  Scott currently leads the Bulls in kills and hitting percentage.

 

 

Paige Penrod had 33 kills to lead BGSU to a pair of conference wins this week, including a victory over MAC preseason favorite Western Michigan. Penrod had 12 kills, two aces and two blocks in a three-set sweep of Miami that gave the Falcons a perfect 5-0 record the first time through the East Division. She followed that up with a double-double performance of 21 kills and 14 digs in a five-set victory over Western Michigan that pushed the team’s conference record to 6-0. 

 

Central Michigan junior Danielle Gotham poured in back-to-back double-digit kill efforts to help lead the Chippewas past Ball State and Toledo and into sole possession of first place in the MAC West over the weekend. Gotham 80 points above her season average over the weekend, attacking at a .327 clip en route to 24 kills in the victories over the MAC West foes. Her play was instrumental in the Chippewas’ come-from-behind five-set victory over the Cardinals Friday when she recorded 13 kills and a block assist for 13.5 points. Her stellar play continued Saturday night when she racked up 13 points on 11 kills and four block assists. 

 

Junior setter, Kim Hildreth, helped lead the Eastern Michigan Eagles to a 2-0 weekend by setting up the offense in a pair of EMU victories. Hildreth notched her two highest assist totals of the season while posting 13 assists per set through a pair of matches. The Novi, Mich. native had four assists on the weekend, while also picking up 26 digs. Hildreth notched a career-high 61 assists in the opening match of the weekend against Toledo. The junior posted a career-high three service aces and notched 12.2 assists per set, while posting four block assists against the Rockets. She picked up 56 assists in four sets against Ball State Saturday, which was good for 14 assists per set.  

 

Sarah Angelos led the offense with 3.17 kills per set and a .459 attacking clip during the week.

 

Junior MB Dakota Harkins dominated the net in the Rockets’ matches last weekend vs. Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan. Harkins tallied a team-high 2.11 blocks per set and played a part in 13 of UT’s 16 total blocks against the Eagles and six of 10 blocks vs. Chippewas. Harkins also was a key contributor offensively with a team-best .444 attack percentage along with 2.56 kills per set. Against EMU, Harkins tallied a career-high 13 blocks in addition to being error-free offensively en route to posting 12 kills and a .462 hitting mark. She then tallied a team-high six blocks against CMU as well as 11 kills and a .421 ATK%.

 

 

Freshman Stephenee Yancy was the top offensive player for the Broncos this past week, helping them win an important MAC West road match at Northern Illinois on Friday and pushing the first-place Bowling Green State Falcons to five sets on the road on Saturday.  Yancy led the Broncos with an average of 2.88 kills/set and a .459 hitting percentage through eight sets.  Yancy posted a team-high 12 kills against the Huskies on Thursday and contributed 11 kills against the Falcons on Saturday, marking the first time in her young career that she has posted double-digit kills in back-to-back games.  Yancy’s 12 kills against Northern Illinois came on just 16 swings, coming with just two errors for an impressive .625 hitting percentage; Yancy added a solo block as well.  Yancy’s 11 kills against Bowling Green came with just four errors on 21 swings for a .333 hitting percentage.  Yancy’s has recorded four straight matches with better than a .333 hitting percentage, and has hit .431 total in that span.