Horizon League Volleyball Release #12
Nov. 5, 2007
Complete Release in PDF Format 
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Wright State swept the Horizon League volleyball weekly honors as senior Tara Geegan was tabbed Offensive Player of the Week, while sophomore Lexi Leonhard was named Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Both players helped the Raiders to two League wins as WSU moved into third place in the conference standings.
Offensive Player of the Week:
Tara Geegan
Wright State
Sr., Middle Blocker, Algonquin, Ill.
Senior Tara Geegan was named Offensive Player of the Week for the second time in her career. She also becomes the second player from Wright State to be named Offensive Player of the Week this season (Alisha Kimbro Oct. 8). Geegan receives the award after she helped WSU to two League wins this past weekend to move the Raiders up to third place in the standings. The WSU middle blocker began the week by recording eight kills in a 3-0 loss to No. 17 Dayton on Wednesday. She then registered 14 kills in a 3-2 win over Loyola on Friday and 12 kills during a 3-0 triumph against UIC. For the week, Geegan hit .370 and totaled 34 kills.
Defensive Player of the Week:
Lexi Leonhard
Wright State
So., Libero, Temperance, Mich.
Sophomore Lexi Leonard was selected Defensive Player of the Week for the first time in her career. Leonard is the first Wright State player to receive defensive honors since Sarah Poling received the award in 2006 (Sept. 25). The Michigan native helped anchor a defensive unit that held League opponents Loyola and UIC to team attack percentages of .153 and .071, respectively. Leonhard began the week by recording 20 digs against Dayton on Wednesday. The WSU libero then followed that performance with a career-high 30 digs versus Loyola on Friday and 14 digs against UIC on Saturday. For the week, Leonard averaged 5.82 digs per game.
Other Top Performances from Around the League
Porshia Allen
Butler
So., Outside Hitter, Indianapolis, Ind.
Allen continued to be the driving force behind the Butler offense last weekend, helping the Bulldogs to wins over UIC and Loyola. She recorded a match-high 16 kills and came just one dig shy of a double-double with nine digs in guiding Butler to a 3-0 sweep of the Flames on Friday (Nov. 2). The following afternoon (Nov. 3) against the Ramblers, she again led all players with 21 kills and added 20 digs for her 11th double-double of the season. Allen also totaled eight block assists on the weekend.
Beth Greulich
Cleveland State
So., Outside Hitter, Troy, Ohio
Greulich averaged 3.86 kills and 1.00 blocks per game as the Vikings split a pair of home games over the weekend. In Saturday's 3-1 triumph over Valparaiso, Greulich tallied 15 kills and six blocks, while hitting .235. She came back on Sunday against No. 17 Dayton to post a match-best 12 kills to go along with a block. Greulich is now hitting .303 this season and leads the team with 321 kills.
Liesl Tesch
Green Bay
Jr., Outside Hitter, New Berlin, Wis.
Tesch had a match-high 19 kills in a near-upset win over Milwaukee. The Wisconsin native hit .222 for the match and scored a match-high 20.5 points. In addition, she had the game-winning kills in games three and four for Green Bay, both of which were two-point wins.
Alyse Serritella
Loyola
So., Libero, Darien, Ill.
Serritella averaged 6.78 digs per game in two matches last week for the Ramblers. Serritella opened the weekend with 29 digs as Loyola rallied to force a game five in an eventual loss at Wright State. On Saturday at Butler, the Illinois native had match-high 32 digs in just four games. Serritella has reached double figures in digs in each of the last 23 matches and has 12 matches with 20 or more digs, a total which includes three matches with 30-plus digs. Her 494 digs this season rank second on Loyola's single-season chart, 68 behind Ann Deelo's school record set last season.
Leanne Felsing
Milwaukee
Sr., Outside Hitter, Hartland, Wis.
Felsing collected her national-best 15th triple-double of the season in helping the Panthers to a five-game win at Green Bay and at least a share of the league regular season title. Felsing tallied 14 kills, 33 assists and a season-high 25 digs while also adding six blocks. She was at her best in the decisive fifth game, playing a role in eight of UWM's 15 points (three kills, four assists, one block). Her 25 digs made her one of three Panthers to collect 20 or more digs in the game while her six blocks led the team.
Lana Lobdell
UIC
So., Middle Hitter, Lena, Ill.
Lobdell paced the Flames last week with 16 kills and a .310 attack percentage. Lobdell also contributed defensively for the team with six total blocks in six games. Lobdell totaled six kills, six blocks and a .312 offensive clip versus Butler on Nov. 2. The middle hitter then led the charge against Wright State on Nov. 3 with 10 kills and a .308 attack percentage. The Illinois native added four digs and three blocks in the matchup against the Raiders.
Jessica Fraley
Youngstown State
Sr., Right Side, LaGrange, Ohio
Fraley averaged 3.38 kills and 2.50 digs per game in YSU's 1-1 week. She posted her 15th double-double with 14 kills and 10 digs in a 3-2 win over Valparaiso and her 16th double-double with 13 kills and 10 digs against No. 17 Dayton. She also recorded six blocks and averaged 3.75 points per game.
News From Around the League
Butler
Butler has won four of its last six matches to pull even at 13-13 overall while moving up into fifth place in the League standings with a 6-8 conference mark.
The Bulldogs can move up to as high as fourth in the League standings with wins over Green Bay and Milwaukee and losses by fourth-place Valparaiso to Loyola and UIC. The Crusaders are currently a game ahead of Butler with a 7-7 League mark and hold the tie-breaker over the Bulldogs thanks to a 2-0 series sweep in the regular season.
Senior Michelle DeGeeter touts 102 block assists this season and is just eight shy of tying Sharon Casper for the 10th-best single-season mark with 110. DeGeeter also boasts 33 block assists in her career, moving her past Beth Christiansen for fourth all-time, and has 383 total blocks in her career, the eighth-most in school history.
Cleveland State
Cleveland State has won a program-record 12 League matches this season, surpassing the previous record of 11 set in 2005.
The Vikings assured themselves of finishing no lower than second place in the regular-season standings with Saturday's win over Valparaiso.
CSU is a perfect 7-0 in League play at home this season. The only two home losses for the Vikings this season are to non-conference foes Kent State and Dayton.
Jordan Bateman has recorded 993 career digs and is seven shy of becoming the 11th player in school-history to reach 1,000 career digs.
Alexis Korovich has posted a team-best 16 double-doubles this season, including 13 in 15 conference matches.
Green Bay
After falling 3-2 to League leader Milwaukee on Friday, the Phoenix is 1-5 in five-game matches on the year, which includes a 1-4 mark in league play.
The attendance of 1,027 for the Milwaukee match was the largest in school history. The match was the first-ever played at the Kress Center. Against Milwaukee, senior Betty Slinger moved into second place on the school's all-time assist list with 3,684.
Green Bay closed out its home season with a 2-6 record and finishes the regular season with a pair of road games this weekend. The Phoenix is 3-12 outside of Green Bay this year, including 1-7 in road contests.
UIC
UIC suffered a setback last week after its three-game winning streak was snapped by Butler on Friday.On Saturday, the Flames fell 3-0 at Wright State.
Senior Amanda Kenny owned a team-high 18 kills, while sophomore Lana Lobdell totaled 16 kills and a team-best .310 offensive clip. Sophomore Katerina Hanckova picked up 16 kills, while also leading the team with 26 digs.
Sophomore Emily McGinnis added 21 digs on the week and junior Christin Hunt owned a team-high 10 blocks.
UIC returns to the Flames Athletic Center for its final two regular-season home matches against Valparaiso on Nov. 10 and Western Illinois on Nov. 11. The Flames then head to Milwaukee to battle in the 2007 Horizon League Tournament on Nov. 15-18.
Loyola
Loyola dropped both of its League matches this past weekend losing to Wright State (3-2) and Butler (3-1).
In the two losses, sophomore Alyse Serritella averaged 6.78 digs per game in two matches.
The Ramblers welcome Valparaiso on Friday to close out the regular season.
Milwaukee
The Panthers enter the final week of the regular season in the hopes of winning their 25th match of the season. Milwaukee has never won 25 matches in the regular season.
UWM is 6-1 in five-game matches with the six wins equaling the six UWM won in 2003. The school record for five-game wins is eight, set in 1998.
Senior Kelley Olson set a collegiate-best with 16 kills on Friday night at Green Bay. She has reached double figures in kills in two-straight matches after doing it just once in her entire career before then.
UWM had six players reach double figures in kills for the first time this season. Plus, the Panthers had three players collect 20-plus digs for the second time this year.
Valparaiso
Brittany Malicoat broke the Horizon League single-season digs record against YSU on Friday. Malicoat has 599 on the season, which is third-best in a single season in Valpo history.
The Crusaders continued their strong serving last weekend, posting 17 service aces. Valpo's 206 aces this season are the most under Carin Avery. In 2007, nine different players have registered at least 10 aces this year.
Tara Newton had a strong blocking weekend, registering six blocks against YSU and eight (three solo) against CSU.
Wright State
With 13 kills against Dayton on Wednesday, Alisha Kimbro concluded a big month of October as she recorded 171 kills in nine matches during the month while hitting .256 with 104 digs, 24 blocks and 13 service aces.
Kimbro started November on a high note as she tied a career-high with 27 kills against Loyola, which tied her career high that she set at Youngstown State on October 12.
Lexi Leonhard set a career best with 30 digs, eclipsing the 28 she had in two matches earlier this season. Kimbro led Wright State with 15 kills in the win over UIC, while Connor posted a double-double of 12 kills and 12 digs.
Wright State wraps up the regular season this week with two more home matches, taking on League-leading Milwaukee on Friday followed by Green Bay on Saturday. The Raiders hope to reverse their recent fortunes against both teams as WSU has defeated Milwaukee only twice in the last 23 encounters since the start of the 1997 season and has won just twice in 14 meetings versus the Phoenix dating back to the 2001 Horizon League Tournament.
Youngstown State
Senior Jessica Fraley moved into sixth place on the YSU single-season kills list with 395 kills and needs 11 more to move into fifth place and just five more to become the fifth player in school history to post 400 kills in a season. Fraley also needs 31 more kills to become the ninth player in school history to record 1,000 career kills.
Freshman Laurie Shives became the first YSU player since 1999 and the first YSU player in the rally-scoring era to record at least 400 digs in a season. Shives currently has 413 digs, which ranks fourth on the single-season list.
With 1,138 assists this season, junior Karla Everhart moved into sixth place on the single-season assists list. She also ranks fifth all-time with 2,320 career assists. She is also just the third player in school history to post consecutive 1,000 assists seasons.
With 309 kills and 374 digs, junior Ebony Barbosa became just the eighth player in school history to record 300 kills and 300 digs in a season.
