Dec. 5, 2007

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - Senior Stephanie Swiger and junior Chelsey Meek have been honored for their achievements in the classroom and on the court as they were named to the 2007 Academic All-MAC team with 15 of their fellow student-athletes. The MAC office announced the team Tuesday (Dec. 4), which was voted on by the faculty athletic representatives at MAC institutions.

Swiger's selection to the team is the second of her career as she was named to the team last year. She maintains a 3.75 GPA as a political science major, President of BGSU's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Chairwoman of the MAC SAAC, and MAC representative to the NCAA Division I SAAC.

Swiger, a Findlay, Ohio native (Findlay H.S.) and first team All-MAC honoree, started all 31 matches for the Falcons this season. Her presence at the net was key for the Falcons this season as she ranked second on the team in kills, hitting percentage, and blocks. Swiger terminated 344 kills hitting a .290 with 17 double-digit kill performances, including a career high 22 kills against Valparaiso. Swiger recorded her 1,000th career kill against Akron (10/15/07) and ranks ninth in BGSU history for career kills (1,144). She also put up 103 blocks this season. Swiger was named to the Comcast Lobo Invitational All-Tournament Team (9/8/07), the Best Western Invitational MVP (9/15/07), and MAC East Player of the Week (9/17/07).

Junior Chelsey Meek

Meek's selection to the team is the first of her career. She maintains a 3.83 GPA as a pre-early childhood education major.

Meek, a Bowling Green, Ohio native (Bowling Green H.S.), played libero for the Falcons in 112 games this season recording double-digits in digs in all 31 matches with 15 20-plus dig matches and three 30-plus dig matches. Meek led the Falcons with 629 digs this season, broke four BGSU records, and became the best digger in BGSU history. She set the BGSU record for digs in a five game match with a career high 38 digs against Eastern Michigan (10/13/07), the BGSU record for digs in a season (629 digs), the BGSU record for digs per game in a season (5.62 digs per game), and the BGSU record for career digs with 1,624 career digs. Meek is only the second player in BGSU history to hold all of the dig records. She was named All-Tournament at the Cal State Fullerton Invitational (9/2/07) and the Best Western Invitational (9/15/07) along with appearing on the AVCA 30-dig club three times (34 digs vs. Dayton 8/25/07, 32 digs vs. Valparaiso 9/15/07, and 38 digs vs. Eastern Michigan 10/13/07).

A total of 15 student-athletes were named to the team. The number of honorees on the MAC All-Academic Team are the number that is set for the specific sport or 33% of the number of nominees, whichever is greater.

The Academic All-MAC honor is for a student-athlete who has excelled in athletics and academics. To qualify, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and have participated in at least 50 percent of the contests for that particular sport. First-year students and junior college transfers in their first year of residence are not eligible for the award.

% Stephanie Swiger, Bowling Green
Chelsey Meek, Bowling Green
% Sarah Warner, Central Michigan
% Kate Sulewski, Eastern Michigan
Jillian Wolosiansky, Eastern Michigan
% Anja Knabe-Paulsen, Kent State
% Anne Zakelj, Kent State
% Carli Reihman, Miami
Megan Griffin, Miami
Irene Johnson, Northern Illinois
% Stephanie Blackburn, Ohio
$ Melissa Griffin, Ohio
Ellen Herman, Ohio
Katie Eberling, Western Michigan
% Ashley Vogl, Western Michigan

$ Three-time Academic All-MAC selection
% Two-time Academic All-MAC selection