Nov. 2, 2004
Final Stats
KENT, Ohio -
Junior Britt Anderson's goal late in the second overtime gave the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team a 2-1 win over Kent State University Tuesday afternoon (Nov. 2). The contest, a quarterfinal match in the Mid-American Conference Tournament, was held at the Kent State Soccer Field.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 8-11-2 on the season. BGSU, the eighth seed in the eight-team tourney, advances to face fourth-seeded Western Michigan University in Friday's (Nov. 5) semifinal round. KSU, the tournament's number-one seed, is 11-4-5.
Tuesday's win marks the second consecutive year that the Falcons have opened league tourney play with a win over the top seed. In program history, BGSU is now a perfect 5-0 in the MAC Tournament's quarterfinal round.
Senior Kristy Coppes got the Falcons on the board at the 32:23 mark of the first half. Both of BG's goals began with free kicks by junior Julie Trundle. On the Coppes goal, Trundle's ball found the head of sophomore Lindsay Carter, who knocked the ball back to Coppes in the middle of the six-yard box. The Falcons' all-time leading scorer one-timed the ball past KSU goalkeeper Alicia Fernandez into the lower right corner of the net.
The Golden Flashes answered right back on a Kimberly Dimitroff goal, coming at the 37:35 mark. Dimitroff took a pass from Amanda Messer on the left side of the penalty area, settled the ball and fired it into the far (right) corner of the goal.
The teams battled through a scoreless second half and first overtime, with BGSU held without a shot during both of those periods. During that time, KSU took a total of nine shots, including six on goal. BGSU 'keeper Ali Shingler made several tough saves, including pinching away a free kick by Lisa Kurz with 18 minutes left in regulation.
The Falcons and Flashes played through nearly nine minutes of the second OT before the goal.
KSU outshot the Falcons by a 3-0 margin in the first OT, with Ashley Bohinc arguably coming the closest to ending the match during that session. Her curving shot from the left side whistled just wide of the right goalpost with three-and-a-half minutes elapsed in the period.
In the second OT, the Flashes had a pair of shots, as Dimitroff's effort was saved with nearly three minutes gone, and Jen Frey's shot was blocked by the Falcon defense two minutes later.
The winning play was set up by a Carter run. She deked a KSU defender in the right corner of the field, and brought the ball along the end line. Carter was fouled in the vicinity of the 18-yard box, setting up a Falcon free kick.
Trundle took the kick, and the ball found the head of Anderson in the six-yard box. Anderson knocked the ball into the lower right corner of the goal at the 108:52 mark, sparking off a BGSU celebration. That shot was the Falcons' first attempt of any kind in over 75 minutes of action.
"We talked right before the second overtime about how the little things were going to make a difference," said BG head coach Andy Richards. "And, the little things were really important.
"We served the ball into the correct area (on the winning goal), and Britt didn't panic on the header. She put the ball back across the goal into the 'power corner,' as we call it. That is exactly what we preach in practice, and for us to do it at that point, in a game of such magnitude is incredibly heartwarming to see."
The Falcons, the lone lower seed to win on Tuesday, will face Western in Friday's first semifinal, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Third-seeded Central Michigan University will face host Ohio University, the second seed, in the other match, slated for a 2:00 p.m. start. Both matches will be held at Chessa Field.
NOTES
The Falcons are now 6-4-1 all-time in MAC Tournament matches ... BGSU's tourney winning percentage of .591 is the third-best among MAC Tournament schools, trailing only Miami (11-1-1) and Northern Illinois (5-1-0).
As mentioned earlier, the Falcons are now a perfect 5-0-0 in MAC Tournament quarterfinal matches ... BGSU was the lower seed in four of those five matches, and the Falcons have been the lower-seeded team in 10 of the team's 11 tourney matches all-time ... BG again will be the lower seed on Friday against WMU.
Only twice has an eighth seed advanced past the first round of the league tourney ... last year's Falcon team, also seeded eighth, upset top-seeded Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinal round and advanced all the way to the final.
In fact, in the 49 matches in MAC Tournament history (through Tuesday's action), the lower-seeded team has advanced on 17 occasions ... the Falcons have been that team on six occasions, including five times under head coach Andy Richards.
Only six times has a team seeded five or more spots lower than the opponent won a MAC Tournament match, and BGSU has been that successful lower-seeded team on five of those six occasions ... prior to the success of the eighth-seeded Falcons in each of the last two seasons, the 2000 Falcons (seeded seventh) had pulled the biggest upset in tourney history, with a first-round win over EMU.
Nine of BGSU's 11 MAC Tournament matches have been decided by one goal or fewer, including all five quarterfinal-round wins ... the lone exceptions have been the 2002 semifinal loss at Miami (3-0) and last year's championship-match setback to WMU (4-1).
The Falcons are now 2-1 against the #1 seed in MAC Tournament play ... BGSU is 1-1 against both the #2 and #3 seeds over the years ... BG is 0-1 all-time against the fourth seed, heading into Friday's match against fourth-seeded WMU.
Richards now has a MAC Tournament record of 5-3-1 in his Falcon tenure ... he trails only Miami's Bobby Kramig (11 tourney wins) on the MAC coaches' tournament victories list ... NIU's Frank Horvat and Ohio's Stacy Strauss each have five MAC Tournament victories as well ... both Kramig and Horvat have been head coaches at their respective schools during the entire history of MAC women's soccer.
The Flashes held a 21-9 shots advantage, including an 11-6 margin in shots on goal ... KSU's 21 shot attempts marked the highest total by a BG opponent this season, and the Flashes' 12-shot advantage marked the widest margin by which the Falcons have been outshot in 2004 ... Kent State's total of 11 SOG was the most against BG since the season opener (13 Duquesne SOG on Aug. 27).
Redshirt junior Ali Shingler made a career-high 10 saves in the win ... her previous high had been eight saves, amassed on four occasions.
The Falcons' overtime win was the team's first since last year's final MAC regular-season match, a 4-3 win at Marshall (Oct. 26, 2003) that propelled the Brown and Orange into the 2003 league tournament ... BGSU is now 1-0-2 in overtime matches this season and 10-11-14 in OT in school history.
Senior Kristy Coppes added another record to her long list ... believe it or not, the school's career scoring leader did not own the BGSU single-season scoring record until Tuesday ... Coppes scored the first goal of the match, giving her 31 points this season ... Tracy Gleixner held the old mark with 29 points in the 1998 campaign ... Coppes had scored 26 points in each of her freshman (2001) and sophomore (2002) seasons.
Coppes now has 49 goals in her BGSU career ... she is the school's career goals leader, 29 ahead of the second-place Falcons on that list ... Coppes is tied for third place on the MAC's career goals list, deadlocked with Eastern Michigan's Jessica Hupe ... the two share the active career lead, as Hupe scored a goal in the Eagles' MAC Tournament loss at Ohio Tuesday.
Coppes now has a total of 104 career points, nearly 40 points more than any other player in school history ... Coppes has moved into a tie for fifth place on that MAC list, with former Ohio standout Christel Schiering (2000-03).
Junior Britt Anderson has now scored a goal in each of her three matches at the Kent State Soccer Field ... as a freshman, her header proved to be the lone goal in the Falcons' 1-0 win at KSU (Sept. 29, 2002) ... Anderson scored one of BGSU's goals in the 4-2 regular-season loss at Kent last month (Oct. 15, 2004), before scoring the match-winner Tuesday.
Julie Trundle had assists on both BGSU goals Tuesday, her second multi-assist match this year and the fifth of her career ... Trundle has seven assists this season to rank second on the team ... she has nine total points on the year, with seven of those coming over the last five matches.
Trundle now has 22 assists to rank third in school history ... just a junior, she is only three away from equalling the school record ... Jill Conover (1999-2002) holds that record, with 25 career assists, while Janice Mentrup (1997-2000) had 23 in her Falcon career.
Trundle is the first Falcon to pick up at least seven assists in each of three different seasons.
Trundle moved into a tie for first place on one BGSU career records list ... she assisted on the match-winning goal Tuesday, bringing her total to eight career match-winning assists ... that total deadlocks her with Conover for the most in school annals.
Sophomore Lindsay Carter has used her head lately, and the results have been positive for the Falcons ... the 5-foot-2 Carter scored the first two goals of her collegiate career in Thursday's (Oct. 28) 3-0 win at Toledo, a victory which clinched a MAC Tournament berth for the Brown and Orange ... then, after sitting out the Wright State match, Carter was back at it on Tuesday ... she headed Trundle's cross to Coppes for the first goal of the MAC Tournament match at KSU, picking up her first assist of the season.
The Falcons now lead Kent State, 5-3-2, in the all-time series between the teams, and BGSU is 3-2-0 in road matches vs. the Golden Flashes ... five of the 10 series meetings have gone to overtime, with the Falcons owning a 2-1-2 record in those five matches ... Tuesday's match marked the first time the teams had met in the league tourney.
MORE QUOTES FROM BGSU COACH Andy Richards
"It was an outstanding victory. This team has learned, from a very inauspicious start to the season, to value winning a soccer game. They have also learned how to play in pressure situations and in big games. That experience really held us in good stead for today, and I always have 100 percent faith that my team will play well in a pressure situation. I can't guarantee that they are going to win, but I always know they will perform well, because they have learned to play in such situations. That is a very valuable tool to have, and a wonderful personality for the team to possess, from a coaching perspective."
"We talked, at the end of regulation time, about the team having to find a way to win the game. We also talked about doing the little things that are so important in athletics, and in soccer. And, that's exactly what we did. Ashley Wentzel put the ball into the danger area, which is something we talk about. Lindsay Carter ran her heart out, not only to keep the ball in play, but to beat the (KSU) player and earn the free kick."
"Then, the next duo, Julie Trundle and Britt Anderson ... Julie served the free kick into the danger area, near the back post. And, Britt got up and scored with a tremendous leaping header to the far post to win us the game. Just as we had said, the little things made a big difference."
The difference between winning and losing in any sport can be very minute, but the difference in the feeling is huge. We're very excited to take part in the semifinals, and we look forward to this weekend."
