Horizon League Volleyball Release #13

Nov. 12, 2007

Complete Release in PDF Format

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. - Milwaukee freshman Natalie Schmitting was named Offensive Player of the Week, while Valparaiso junior Brittany Malicoat was tabbed Defensive Player of the Week for the third time this year. In 2007, Malicoat is the only player to win three weekly defensive honors.

Natalie Schmitting
Milwaukee
Fr., Middle Blocker, Neenah, Wis.
Freshman Natalie Schmitting collected her second Horizon League Player of the Week award this season. Schmitting's first weekly honor came when she was named Defensive Player of the Week on Sept. 10. The UWM middle blocker receives the award after she helped guide the Panthers to wins over Wright State and Butler as UWM captured its fifth straight regular-season crown. Schmitting opened the week on Friday against Wright State as she posted a hitting percentage of .367 and collected 15 kills during a 3-1 victory. She then followed that performance with 14 kills while hitting .591 on Saturday in a 3-0 sweep over Butler. For the week, Schmitting hit .462 and averaged 4.14 kills per game.

Brittany Malicoat
Valparaiso
Jr., Libero, Elkhart, Ind.
Junior Brittany Malicoat collected her third Defensive Player of the Week award becoming the only player to win three weekly honors this season. This past week, the Valparaiso libero helped the Crusaders to League wins over Loyola and UIC and move into a third-place tie with Wright State. In her first match of the week, the Indiana native led Valpo with 27 digs in both the Loyola and UIC matches. In addition, Malicoat recorded her 1,600th career dig late in the match against UIC. For the week Malicoat averaged six digs per game. In 2007, the Valpo junior leads the leads the League in digs (5.78) and aces per game (0.38).

Other Top Performances From Around The League
Michelle DeGeeter
Butler
Sr., Middle Blocker, Warsaw, Ind.
DeGeeter was one of the Bulldogs' top all-around players last weekend, leading the squad with 3.62 kills per game and 2.00 blocks per game in matches against Green Bay and Milwaukee. She tallied her second triple-double of the year against the Phoenix, tallying 14 kills, 23 digs and a career-high 11 blocks, including 10 block assists, in leading the Bulldogs to a 3-2 victory. DeGeeter then paced the team with 15 kills and 12 digs to notch her 12th double-double of the season while adding a team-high five total blocks against the Panthers.

Amy Benz
Cleveland State
Fr., Middle Blocker, Tiffin, Ohio
Benz helped CSU to a 3-1 victory over Youngstown State on Saturday in their lone match of the week. The freshman middle blocker posted a match-best 17 kills and hit .500 (17-3-28) on the afternoon. In addition, she added nine blocks, including two solo, to run her season total to 168 which is second-best in a single season at CSU.

Holly Visser
Green Bay
So., Outside Hitter, Waupun, Wis.
Visser led the Phoenix in kills (40), kills per game (4.44), attack percentage (.271) and total points (42.5) on the week. Visser tied her career high in kills with 20 on back-to-back nights against Butler and Wright State. In addition, she hit an impressive .415 with 20 kills and just three errors in the Phoenix's win over the Raiders.

Melissa Craig
Loyola
Sr., Magnolia, Texas
Craig broke her own school-record, finishing with 16 blocks (3 solo, 13 block assists) to go with 16 kills in Loyola's five-game loss to Valpo in its regular-season finale. For Craig, the performance surpassed her previous mark of 14 stuffs (set earlier this season against Milwaukee) and was her third effort this season with 10 or more blocks and second double-double.

Lauren Felsing
Milwaukee
So., Libero, Hartland, Wis.
Felsing led UWM's back-row defensive efforts, averaging 5.29 digs per game in the Panthers' two road wins. Friday night at Wright State, she tallied 18 digs as the Panthers limited the Raiders to a .140 hitting percentage. Then Saturday, the sophomore had 19 digs in a three-game win over Butler. Felsing leads the team in digs during League play and stands eight digs behind Becky Peters for the overall team lead.

Lana Lobdell
UIC
So., Middle Hitter, Lena, Ill.
Lobdell averaged 3.11 kills for the Flames in a 1-1 week against Valparaiso and Western Illinois. The UIC sophomore owned a team-high .463 attack percentage, while also ranking second on the team with eight blocks. Lobdell totaled 12 kills and owned a team-best .385 offensive clip against Valpo on Nov. 10. Against Western Illinois, Lobdell owned a team-high .536 attack percentage with two blocks as the Flames defeated WIU 3-2.

Angie Porche
Valparaiso
So., Outside Hitter, Lynwood, Ill.
Porche led all players with 27 kills against Loyola on Friday and 24 kills against UIC on Saturday. The Valpo sophomore hit at a .345 clip against the Flames. In addtion, Porche added 17 digs versus the Ramblers and 15 digs against the Flames to give her 13 double-doubles on the season. She moved into second on Valpo's single-season kills list with 517 and is just 19 kills shy of the top spot. The sophomore outside hitter is just three kills away from 1,000 in her career.

Alisha Kimbro
Wright State
Sr., Outside Hitter, Lisle, Ill.
Kimbro averaged 4.5 kills per game and hit .248 for the week. Against Milwaukee she totaled 25 kills and 15 digs, she then followed that performance with 11 kills and 15 digs versus Green Bay on Saturday.

Jessica Fraley
Youngstown State
Sr., Right Side, LaGrange, Ohio
Fraley averaged four kills and three digs per game last week. She posted her 17th double-double with 16 kills and 12 digs in a 3-1 loss to Cleveland State last week. She also added four blocks and averaged 4.63 points per game.

News From Around the League
Butler
Butler finishes the 2007 regular season with a 14-14 overall record and a 7-9 mark in Horizon League play, the best records since the 2004 season. The Bulldogs will enter the league championship as the No. 5 seed and will face No. 4 Valparaiso beginning at 5:00 p.m.

Senior Michelle DeGeeter concluded the regular season with 116 block assists, which is tied for the seventh-best single-season total in school history. DeGeeter also boasts 347 block assists in her career, moving her past Keely Norris for third all-time, and has 399 total blocks in her career, the eighth-most in school history.

With 405 kills this season, sophomore Porshia Allen is the first Butler player to surpass the 400 kills in a season since Areal Bienemy registered 428 in the 2004 season.

Cleveland State
CSU finished a perfect 8-0 at home in League play (8-2 overall). It is the first time in program history that the Vikings did not lose a conference match at home.

CSU had five players record double-digit kill totals in Saturday's match against Youngstown State. Amy Benz led the way with 17 and was joined by Beth Greulich (15), Alexis Korovich (14), Liz Fazio (12) and Jenni Ramminger (10).

CSU won a school-record 13 League matches this season, surpassing the old mark of 11 set in 2005.

The Vikings have won 20 games this season, marking the first time CSU reached the 20-win plateau since the 1988 squad went 20-22.

Green Bay
Green Bay finished the season without splitting a series with any teams in the Horizon League. The Phoenix swept Wright State and Youngstown State, but was swept by the other six schools.

Seven of Green Bay's last nine matches have gone at least four games. Over its last three matches (Milwaukee, Butler and Wright State), Green Bay has won as many games (7) as its opponents, but is just 1-2 over that time.

The seven game victories over the last three matches are the most since the team had seven in the first three matches of the Horizon League season (Sept. 18-22).

Betty Slinger was named first team ESPN the Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-District for the second season.

UIC
UIC went 1-1 last weekend in its final regular season contests at the Flames Athletic Center. The Flames fell to Valpo in four games, but bounced back and dropped Western Illinois in five on Nov. 11.

Sophomore Katerina Hanackova led the team with 33 kills and totaled 18 digs. Sophomore Lana Lobdell averaged 3.11 kills and owned a team-high .463 attack percentage. Lobdell totaled eight blocks. Freshman Epiphany Davis totaled a team-best 11 blocks.

Freshman Taylor Szatkowski tabbed a team-high 28 digs and senior Liz Hrebic totaled 24 digs in two matches.

Loyola
The Ramblers concluded their season on Friday with a 3-2 loss against Valparaiso. Two of Loyola's last three losses have been by five-game decisions.

Against Valpo, Melissa Craig had a team-best 16 kills and 16 blocks (three solo, 13 assists). In 2007, Craig ranks second among League individuals in blocks per game (1.51 bpg).

Loyola will begin the Horizon League Championship as the No. 8 seed and will meet Green Bay on Friday (Nov. 15) at 6:00 p.m. (central time). During the regular season, Loyola swept the season series against Green Bay.

Milwaukee
Milwaukee's 25 wins tie a Division I school record that had been set four times. The Panthers have never won 25 matches in the regular season alone until this fall.

The Panthers are the first League school to ever win 15 conference matches in a season, and UWM has lost just six regular-season League matches in the last five years.

UWM has won 11-straight matches after winning 14-straight earlier this season.

Milwaukee continues to shine defensively, leading the League in opponent hitting percentage. The win over Butler marked the 24th time in last 25 matches an opponent has hit less than .200 against the Panthers.

UWM is 16-7 all-time in League tournament play, the best record of any current League school. Milwaukee's four League tournament titles are second only to Loyola's five tourney crowns.

Valparaiso
Carin Avery registered her 200th career victory following a 3-1 decision over UIC.

Valpo needs just one more win to reach 20 this season. If the Crusaders win on Friday against Butler, it would mark sixth consecutive year Valpo has won 20 matches.

Senior Tiffany Meikle registered her first two double-doubles of the season this past weekend (12 kills, 12 digs at Loyola; 12 kills, 18 digs at UIC).

Sophomore Val Bollenbacher reached 20 kills for the third time this year at UIC, recording 20 terminations.

This season marks the first year since 1991 that Valpo has had two setters each reach at least 500 assists on the season (Sara Hughes, 915; Kim Bukowski, 596).

Wright State
Wright State fell in four games to both Milwaukee and Green Bay. WSU has defeated Milwaukee only twice in the last 24 encounters since the start of the 1997 season and has won just twice in 15 meetings versus the Phoenix dating back to the 2001 Horizon League Tournament.

The Raiders take on UIC in the quarterfinal round of the Horizon League Championship on Friday. Wright State has defeated UIC in three games in the first round of the 1998 tournament in Dayton and again in 2000. In 2005, the Raiders won a second-round matchup in five games at the Flames Athletic Center en route to reaching the championship match.

Youngstown State
Senior Jessica Fraley moved into fifth place on the YSU single-season kills list with 411 kills and needs 12 more to move into fourth place. She is just the fifth player in school history to post 400 kills in a season. Fraley also needs 15 more kills to become the ninth player in school history to record 1,000 career kills. Fraley also became just the fifth player in school history to record at least 400 kills and 300 digs in a season.

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 431 digs, which ranks tied for third on the single-season list.

With 1,180 assists this season, junior Karla Everhart moved into fifth place on the single-season assists list. She also ranks fifth all-time with 2,362 career assists. She is also just the third player in school history to post consecutive 1,000 assists seasons.