Monique Gerlach

Colorado State

Sep 19 (Fri)

7 PM

Position:
Middle Blocker
Height:
5-11
Class:
Senior
Hometown:
Monarch Beach, Calif.
High School:
Santa Margarita

Gerlach in 2003...

The team captain in 2003, Gerlach will be looked upon greatly both on and off the court. An All-America, All-Central Region and All-Big 12 candidate, she has been the inspirational leader since her freshman season. She displays a unique exuberance for the game and is always a positive influence on those around her. She has been the Buffs go-to player since her sophomore season. She will fill the Middle 1 position for the fourth straight year. Already a force in the CU record book, she is the school's career leader in attack percentage with a .332 mark and is also CU's returning career leader in matches played, matches started, games played, kills, attacks, service aces, digs, blocks, points and plus/minus. In the career charts, she is in the top 10 in plus/minus (third, 815.0), block assists (seventh, 226), total blocks (eighth, 260), points (eighth, 1,226.0) and kills (ninth, 1,051). In terms of middle blockers, she is first in attack percentage, second in points and plus/minus and third in kills, attacks and assists. Her 3.61 kills per game average is on pace to be the third-best in school history and she is looking to be the first middle in program history to average over three kills per game for a career. All this is even more impressive when you factor in that she missed the first eight matches of her career as a freshman with an abdominal injury, she has been plagued with tendonitis in both her knees throughout her career and has also had surgery on her right shoulder.

As a Junior in 2002...

For the second straight season, Gerlach had one of the best performances in CU history. She was named first-team AVCA All-Central Region, first-team All-Big 12 and first-team Academic All-Big 12. She was the CU Athlete of the Week twice and Big 12 Player of the Week once. In CU's three early season tournaments, she was honored on each of the All-Tournament teams including being named the Most Valuable Player of the Colorado PowerBar Invitational. She led the Buffs in 13 statistical categories and was second on the team in five more. For the second year in a row, she led the team in kills, the first middle in program history to do so, and she also became the first middle to reach 400 kills in one season, breaking her own position record for kills with 419, the 12th most in CU history for any player. She became just the second player (Sonja Russell) since Sarah Lodge in 1997 to reach 400 kills in a season. She also set the CU single season middle blocker records for kills per game (3.77), points (499.0), attacks (879) and attacks per game (7.92). Her 29 assists ranks second while her 29 service aces and 315.0 plus/minus mark both rank fourth in terms of middle blockers in CU history. She led the Buffs in kills in 18 of 30 matches, points 17 times, plus/minus 15 times, attack percentage 10 times and both aces and total blocks nine times throughout the season. She holds the individual season high in 10 of the 24 categories including kills for both a four game (27 vs. Baylor on Sept. 18) and five-game (21 vs. Texas A&M on Nov. 2). Her 27 kills against Baylor ranks as the second-highest total for a middle in CU history (28, Kristin Engelking). Also in her stellar match against Baylor, hit .548, had a point total of 30.0 and a plus/minus total of 23.0. Also against the Aggies on Nov. 2 she hit .477 off her 21 kills and recorded a plus/minus of 17.0. All over the Big 12 charts, she ranked sixth in kills per game, eighth in points per game and ninth in attack percentage. She was one of just four players, the other three All-Americans, who were in the Big 12 Top 10 in both kills per game and attack percentage. In terms of conference-only matches, she was 10th in attack percentage and her kills per game jumped to fifth and her points per game average jumped to sixth.

As a Sophomore in 2001...

Gerlach topped a very impressive freshman campaign having one of the finest seasons in CU history as a sophomore. She was the first middle in CU history to lead the team in kills, recording 387 (3.62 per game). Her 387 kills also set a new season record for middle blockers and was the fifth-most ever recorded by a sophomore. The honorable mention All-Big 12 selection was also a first-team Academic All-Big 12 nominee in her first season eligible. The epitome of a 'clutch' player, Gerlach was at her best in the NCAA Tournament, where in two matches and eight games, she had only two hitting errors on 53 swings while recording 31 kills for an amazing .547 hitting percentage. Against Colorado State on Dec. 1, she put up an amazing plus/minus mark of 24.0, the second highest total for a match in CU history. She set a career high with 25 kills against Baylor on Halloween night in a thrilling 3-2 comeback after the Buffs trailed 2-0. Her 25 kills in that match are the fourth most by a sophomore and fifth most by a middle in CU history, and she had seven kills and hit .700 in the fifth and deciding game alone. Her .344 hitting percentage on the season set the record for sophomores and is the seventh-highest mark in CU history. She led the Buffs with 465.0 points, the 16th most in CU history and most ever for a middle blocker, while her plus-minus mark for 2001 was 310.0, the second highest in CU history. One of just a handful of middles to get substantial time in the back row, Gerlach had 212 digs on the season, the seventh-most for a middle in program history, while her 18 digs against Kansas State in a critical victory for the Buffs is the seventh-most for a middle. Second on the team with 803 attacks, she is just the second middle in program history to take 800 or more swings in a season. Also a solid blocker, her 89 blocks are in the top 20 in CU history and her 15 solo blocks were a close second on the team. All over the Big 12 charts, she was eighth in hitting percentage and ninth in kills in both overall and conference-only matches. On the kills charts, she was the third-highest sophomore and second-highest middle in the Big 12.

As a Freshman in 2000...

Gerlach wasted no time making an immediate impression as she scored on her very first play in a CU uniform, a kill at Denver on Sept. 19 after sitting out preseason workouts and the first eight matches of the year with a torn abdominal muscle. She came to Boulder projected as an outside, but she quickly made a name for herself in the middle as she had one of the most dominating freshman seasons in CU history. In 21 matches and 73 games, she averaged 3.36 kills per game, second on the team and the second highest average for a freshman in CU history (Karrie Downey, 3.86 in 1991). Her .313 hitting percentage set a new freshman record and was the first time in CU history the Buffs were led in hitting percentage by a freshman. In her sixth match back, she recorded a season-high 19 kills at No.24 Texas Tech and was an integral part of the Colorado upset in Lubbock. On top of her amazing offensive numbers, her defense was solid as well, as she averaged 1.08 blocks per game, a number that is also the second highest in CU history for a freshman (Meghan Barkman, 1.31 in 1999) and was second on the team behind Barkman. She had a pair of 13-dig matches vs. No. 21 Texas A&M and No. 1 Nebraska and found her way into six-plus blocks in six different matches. In the final week of the regular season she paced the Buffs to a 2-0 mark over Texas and Missouri with 36 kills, 9 digs, 10 blocks and a pair of service aces. Her numbers were among the Big 12's best as she was ranked 11th in hitting percentage (.304), 14th in service aces (.30) and 15th in kills (3.40) in conference-only games and 15th in all games in hitting percentage. Colorado's hottest player entering the NCAA Tournament, she lived up to her billing with 34 kills on 79 swings, 4 assists, 3 service aces, 14 digs and 6 blocks against Georgia Tech and No. 6 Colorado State, including another season-best 19 kills against the Rams.

High School...

Gerlach graduated from Santa Margarita Catholic High School in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., after lettering three times in volleyball at the middle blocker position. She averaged 4.52 kills, 2.54 digs, and 1.10 blocks per game her senior year while hitting .372 and having 63 service aces. Her teams compiled a 64-16 record from her sophomore through senior seasons, and she also practiced with the varsity team as a freshman but didn't play. Her team was 28-7 her senior year when they won the State Championship and she was the CIF Division II Player-of-the-Year. She was also named to the All-State Tournament team, was an All-County selection by the Los Angeles Times and the Orange County Register, and was also an All-League selection. SMCHS was also state finalists in 1997 and '98 and the CIF Champions four times from 1996-99. She played on the Orange County volleyball Club for five years. Academically, she was on the honor roll and won an academic excellence in economics award.

Personal"

Monique Marie Gerlach was born on Dec. 7, 1981, in San Clemente, Calif., and her parents are Ron and Chriss Gerlach. Her brother, Tim, played volleyball at Pacific. Prior to playing volleyball, which she began in the eighth grade, Gerlach danced in the Nutcracker for three years with Ballet Pacifica before she moved on to competitively showing her horses where she did very well in both Hunter and Jumper class.

Academics"

Gerlach is an advertising major from the School of Mass Communication at Colorado. She is coming off an impressive semester in the Spring of 2003 where she attained a 3.806 GPA, the highest of any returning player, and has a career GPA of 3.36, the second highest on the team. She has been named to the Big 12 Conference's Commissioner's Honor Roll four times in her six semesters in Boulder, including each of the past two semesters.