Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Soccer Starts MAC Play At 2-0-0
January 04, 2000 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 20, 1999
TOP STORIES:
* - Bowling Green is off to a 2-0-0 start in Mid-American Conference play for the first time in school history ... the Falcons' two league wins came over teams that, like BG, advanced to the MAC Tournament semifinals last season ... the Brown and Orange downed visiting Kent, 2-0, then went on the road and beat two-time defending MAC Tourney champs Northern Illinois, 3-2.
* - Freshman forward Jill Conover scored three goals and added an assist last week ... she had a goal and an assist in the Kent match, then scored BG's first two goals at NIU ... Conover has had a hand in 11 of BGSU's 17 goals this year, including four of the five in MAC play.
* - Freshman goalkeeper Erika Flanders set a school record for consecutive shutout minutes ... Flanders, who posted back-to-back shutouts vs. Niagara and KSU before finally giving up a goal at NIU, had a streak of 216:22 without allowing a score.
THIS WEEK: The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team plays just one match this week, hosting Mid-American Conference foe Buffalo Sunday (Sept. 26). The Falcons (5-2-0, 2-0-0) and Bulls (6-0-1, 0-0-0) will do battle in a 1:00 p.m. contest at BGSU's Cochrane Field.
The match marks the third of 10 consecutive contests against MAC foes.
TOM PICCIRILLO: BGSU head coach Tom Piccirillo is in his third season at the helm of the Falcons, and has a 19-25-1 record. His overall record, which includes five years at Tiffin and three seasons at Keuka (N.Y.), is 102-84-9. BGSU's Sept. 12 win over Niagara was Piccirillo's 100th victory as a collegiate head coach.
Julie Reule is in her third season as Piccirillo's assistant.
ABOUT THE FALCONS: Bowling Green is 5-2-0 on the season, and the Falcons opened MAC play with a pair of wins last week. After opening the season with a pair of home wins over Michigan State (3-2) and Valparaiso (5-1), the Brown and Orange dropped two matches in Athens, Ga. BG fell to Georgia (1-0) before losing a neutral-site contest to East Carolina (4-2).
Since returning from that trip, the Falcons have won three matches in a row, over Niagara (2-0) and MAC foes Kent (2-0) and Northern Illinois (3-2).
Through seven matches, freshman Jill Conover paces the Falcons with 16 points, followed by junior Michelle Lisy, with eight. Sophomore Desiree Erb has scored seven points this season, while junior Autumn Harris and freshman Susan Wallace have five apiece. Freshman goalkeeper Erika Flanders has recorded all seven of BG's decisions and has a goals-against average of 1.44.
BGSU finished the 1998 season with an overall record of 8-11-1. The Falcons went 4-5-1 in MAC play to finish sixth. In the MAC Tournament, BG posted a 1-0 win at third-seeded Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinals before losing to the number-two seed and eventual tourney champ, Northern Illinois, in the semifinals by a 2-1 count.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Buffalo is off to a 6-0-1 start. The Bulls were perfect in the first six matches of the campaign, including last week's road wins over Canisius (5-0, Wednesday) and Miami (Fla.) (3-0, Friday). Yesterday (Sept. 19), however, host Florida International earned a 1-1 tie with UB. The Bulls, who play a Friday (Sept. 24) contest at Toledo before meeting the Falcons two days later, have scored 20 goals and allowed just two this season. Last year, UB went 10-6-2 overall and finished seventh in the MAC with a 3-5-2 league ledger. Jean-A. Tassy is 38-29-10 in his fifth year as a head coach, all with Buffalo.
THE SERIES: The Falcons hold a 2-0 advantage in the series with Buffalo, having recorded 2-1 home wins in each of the past two seasons. Last year (Sept. 25), Stephanie Heller had a goal and an assist for BG, while Tracy Gleixner's late goal was the match winner. Two years ago (Oct. 24, 1997), Michelle Lisy found the back of the net against the Bulls, while Heller had an assist.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK:
FALCON NOTES:
FALCON QUICK FACTS
THIS WEEK
LAST WEEK
BGSU 3, at Northern Illinois 2
1999 RECORDS
HEAD COACH - Tom Piccirillo (third year)
ASSISTANT COACH - Julie Reule (third year)
BOWLING GREEN RECORDS
1999 MAC STANDINGS
Bowling Green got off to the team's best-ever MAC start with a pair of wins ... the Falcons posted wins over two 1998 league tournament semifinalists, Kent and Northern Illinois ... junior Jamie Eshleman and freshman Jill Conover found the back of the net in Wednesday's (Sept. 15) win over KSU ... freshman goalie Erika Flanders recorded her second consecutive shutout ... Eshleman got BG on the board midway through the first half ... on the play, freshman Melissa Galitz took a Conover pass, split two defenders and fired a shot that eluded KSU goalie Lindsey Mitchell, but caromed off the goalpost ... the ball ricocheted directly to Eshleman, who found the empty net for her first goal of the season ... the Falcons, who outshot the Golden Flashes by a 24-10 margin, did not score again until the 83:38 mark ... Conover recorded her third goal of the year off a pass from sophomore Mandy Smith ... junior Autumn Harris also drew an assist on the play ... the Falcons held a 10-2 advantage in shots on goal, and Flanders was called upon to make just two saves ... the BG win knocked Kent from the ranks of the unbeaten ... on Saturday (Sept. 18), BG recorded a 3-2 road win vs. Northern Illinois ... Conover scored a pair of goals against the two-time defending MAC tourney champions, while junior Janice Mentrup had the match-winning goal and added an assist ... the Falcons drew first blood on a Conover goal exactly one minute into the match ... junior Michelle Lisy and sophomore Leslie Hepfinger assisted on the play ... Hepfinger's assist marked the first point of her collegiate career ... NIU's Renay DeNicolo equalized at 14:46, but Conover gave BG the lead once again at 38:40 ... Mentrup assisted on the scoring play ... the Huskies tied matters once again with 3:22 left in the half ... Mentrup, off a feed from sophomore Desiree Erb, scored on a header at the 50:50 mark ... that goal would hold up as the match winner ... the hosts outshot BG, 22-17, including a 10-8 edge in shots on goal ... Flanders madea season-high eight saves to earn the win.
Bowling Green's win over Kent enabled the Falcons to tie the school record for home victories in a season ... the Brown and Orange will take a perfect 4-0-0 home record into Sunday's match vs. Buffalo ... BGSU went 4-4-0 at Cochrane Field during the team's inaugural season of 1997, then posted a 4-5-1 home record last year ... with the shutout of Kent, freshman goalkeeper Erika Flanders set a new school record for consecutive scoreless minutes ... Flanders gave up a goal 14:46 into the NIU match, ending the scoreless streak at 216:22 ... freshman Jill Conover's first goal of that match, scored exactly one minute in, set a school record for earliest goal in a match ... junior Jamie Eshleman scored the first match-winning goal of her career in the win over Kent ... overall, the goal was Eshleman's third as a Falcon, but her first since an Oct. 17, 1997, win over KSU ... classmate Janice Mentrup, held without a point in the first six matches of the season, scored three points at NIU ... she had an assist before registering the winning goal ... Mentrup is the BGSU career leader in assists, with 12 ... Flanders' consecutive shutouts vs. Niagara and Kent marked BG's first-ever back-to-back blankings ... in fact, Flanders tied Michelle Lisy for the most complete-match shutouts in a season and a career, with two ... no other BG goalie has recorded a complete-match shutout ... the Falcons' current three-match win streak ties the school record for consecutive wins in a season ... BG won five-straight contests over two seasons, winning the last two outings of 1997 and last year's first three matches ... prior to last week, BG had never won back-to-back MAC contests ... a total of 12 different players have scored at least one point this season ... eight different Falcons have scored a goal, while 11 BG players have at least one assist this season ... for the second time in three years, BGSU is believed to have scored the first "Golden Goal" (OT match-ending goal) of the season ... two years ago, Kerry McKee scored the NCAA's first-ever "Golden Goal" at Kent ... this year, Michelle Lisy won the Michigan State match (Aug. 27) with an OT marker.
Buffalo at BGSU
Sun., September 26 - 1:00 p.m.
Cochrane Field - Bowling Green
at BGSU 2, Kent 0
Wed., Sept. 15 - Cochrane Field
Sat., Sept. 18 - DeKalb, Illinois
Overall: 5-2-0 (.714)
Mid-American Conference: 2-0-0
Alma Mater: Upsala, 1986
Record at BGSU: 19-25-1
Career Record: 102-84-9 (11th yr.)
Alma Mater: James Madison, 1995
All-Time: 19-25-1 (.433) (1997-present / third year)
MAC: 7-11-1 (.395) (1997-present / third year)
Team (Overall)_______________MAC___Pts. Bowling Green (5-2-0)______2-0-0____6 Kent (5-1-0)_______________1-1-0____3 Ball State (1-7-0)_________0-0-0____0 Buffalo (6-0-1)____________0-0-0____0 Central Mich. (5-2-1)______0-0-0____0 Eastern Mich. (6-1-0)______0-0-0____0 Marshall (3-2-1)___________0-0-0____0 Miami (6-0-0)______________0-0-0____0 Ohio (1-5-0)_______________0-0-0____0 Western Mich. (4-1-0)______0-0-0____0 Northern Ill. (0-7-0)______0-1-0____0 Toledo (3-3-0)_____________0-1-0____0 (three points for a win, one for a tie)
BGSU RESULTS LINE
419/372-7076, choose option 4
(same-day scores and brief summaries from all Falcon athletic teams)
