Marquette University Athletics
Marquette Volleyball Hosts Holiday Inn Challenge
9/4/2002 12:00:00 AM | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 4, 2002
TOURNEY INFO - The 2002 Marquette volleyball team makes its lone home appearances during the month of September this Friday and Saturday (Sept. 6-7) when it hosts the Holiday Inn Challenge. Joining the Golden Eagles in this year's tournament is Valparaiso, Lehigh and Austin Peay State University. This year's venue will be the MU Gym and the schedule of games for the tourney is listed at the end of the release.
THE COACHES - Marquette is directed by first-year head coach Pati Rolf (North Dakota State, '92) who was appointed to her current position on May 10, 2002. Rolf joined the Golden Eagles following a successful 14-year career at Minnesota-Duluth where she compiled a 310-169 won-lost slate. During his stint at UMD, she led the program to 11 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference titles along with three trips to the NCAA Division II Regional Tournament. In addition, Minnesota-Duluth compiled 10 seasons of 20 or more wins and her conference record was a glittering 165-20.
Lehigh Head Coach Patrick Nicholas (George Mason, '86) is in his sixth season at the helm of the Mountain Hawks' program and owns a school and career mark of 84-67.
Austin Peay State Head Coach Cheryl Holt (Ohio State, '69) is in her 21st season with the Lady Guvs and owns a 323-333 won-lost ledger. In 26 campaigns, her career record stands at 459-411-1.
Carin Zielinski-Avery (Ball State, '96) is in her first season as the head coach of Valparaiso. She was named to her current post in July of 2002 after serving as an assistant with VU since 1998.
THE RECORDS -- Marquette will enter the weekend with an overall record of 2-1 following its appearance at the Chippewa Classic in Mount Pleasant, Mich., last weekend. The Golden Eagles opened the tourney with a five-game decision over Cleveland State on Friday evening before coming out on the short end of a five-game outcome to eventual champ Wyoming on Saturday morning. In its finale, MU rallied for a come-from-behind five-game triumph against host Central Michigan.
Lehigh posts a record of 2-2 and is coming off a four-game loss at Loyola on Tuesday evening (Sept. 3).
Austin Peay stands 1-2 after its opening its season at the Saint Louis Invitational. APSU came out on the short end of three-game decisions to Butler and Saint Louis in its first two outings of the tourney before besting Providence in four games.
Valparaiso will be making its season debut this weekend at the Holiday Inn Challenge. Last season, VU finished with a 12-17 overall record.
This past weekend marked the first time in school history that a Marquette team had opened the year with three consecutive five-game affairs.
SERIES NOTES - Marquette leads in the all-time series against Valparaiso by a 12-9 margin. The teams last meet in 1997 when MU claimed a five-game win at the Western Michigan Earlybird Tournament.
Marquette stands 1-0 vs. Austin Peay with the lone meeting taking place in 1993.
When Marquette squres off vs. Lehigh, it will represent the first time those teams have met in volleyball.
GREER CRACKS 2,000 CAREER ASSISTS -- Junior Gemma Greer (Winfield, Ill.) cracked the 2,000-career assists plateau this past weekend at the Chippewa Classic. Greer doled out 185 assists over the course of the three matches, boosting her career mark to 2,128. Heading into the Holiday Inn challenge, Greer holds down the No. 3 spot on the school's all-time chart.
DEVINE AND GREER EARN ALL-TOURNEY HONORS -- Sophomore Shannon Devine (Harris, Minn.) and Greer were Marquette representatives to the Chippewa Classic All-Tournament Team. Devine led all players with 69 kills while her 38.3 hitting percentage (69-20--128) was good for third place. In the five-game win over Cleveland State, Devine led all players with 25 kills while chipping in nine digs. She followed that performance with team highs in both attacks (23) and hitting percentage (37.8%) vs. Wyoming. In the tourney finale against Central Michigan, Devine came up with 21 attacks and a career-best 17 digs.
Greer's 185 assists paced all players and her 71 assists vs. Central Michigan was her second-highest total during her Marquette career.
MARQUETTE PLAYER NOTES - Senior co-captain Danielle Hagen (Milwaukee) tied her career high in digs with 21 vs. Cleveland State ... Hagen also recorded five block assists over the weekend, increasing her career total to 179, ninth on the school's all-time list ... Freshman Theresa Coughlin (Chicago, Ill.) posted double-figure attacks in all three matches and her 29 kills vs. Central Michigan was just one shy of tying the school record ... Coughlin totaled 63 kills during the Chippewa Classic ... Sophomore Erica Heisser (Greenville, Mich.) saw her first collegiate action in the Wyoming match and totaled five kills, six digs and four block assists.
WISCONSIN REUNION - The state of Wisconsin will be well represented at this weekend's Holiday Inn Challenge with all four teams featuring players from the state. The Golden Eagles claim Danielle Hagen and Caitlin O'Brien (Wauwatosa) while Lehigh's Katie Dukatz hails from La Crosse. Valparaiso has a pair of players from Wisconsin -- Katie Bova (Milwaukee) and Jessi Novak (Antigo) -- while Austin Peay has the most representation with four spikers; senior Casey Kelley (Menomonee Falls), junior Cindy Wall (Cedarburg), sophomore Sarah Schramka (Menomonee Falls) and freshman Amber Stein (Appleton).
MARQUETTE ON THE INTERNET - Up-to-date Marquette Volleyball information can be found on Marquette's website, located at: www.gomarquette.com
Schedule of Holiday In Challenge Games
Friday Sept. 6 Lehigh vs. Austin Peay 5:00 p.m. (CDT) Sept. 6 Marquette vs. Valparaiso 7:00 p.m. (CDT)Saturday Sept. 7 Austin Peay vs. Valparaiso 10:00 a.m. (CDT) Sept. 7 Marquette vs. Lehigh Noon (CDT) Sept. 7 Valparaiso vs. Lehigh 5:00 p.m. (CDT) Sept. 7 Marquette vs. Austin Peay 7:00 p.m. (CDT)
