Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Soccer Hosts UWGB, Michigan State This Weekend
October 24, 2000 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 24, 2000
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after completing the Mid-American Conference portion of the schedule last weekend, will end the regular season with a pair of home matches this weekend. The Falcons (7-8-1 overall, 5-5-1 MAC) will host Wisconsin-Green Bay (5-10-0) in a Friday afternoon (Oct. 27) contest. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at BGSU's Cochrane Field.
Following the UWGB contest, the Falcons of first-year head coach Andy Richards will play the season's final match at Cochrane, hosting Michigan State University (11-4-2) in a Sunday matine‚. That contest is also scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.
Sunday's match will be "Senior Day," as the seven seniors on the Falcon women's soccer team - Leslie Buse, Ashley Enser, Jamie Eshleman, Autumn Harris, Stephanie Heller, Michelle Lisy and Janice Mentrup - will be honored prior to the match.
This weekend's action will serve as preparation for BGSU's Mid-American Conference Tournament quarterfinal match (Oct. 31). The Falcons, who finished league play in seventh place, will head to Eastern Michigan University to open the tournament. Kickoff time for the match, which will be played at EMU's Scicluna Field, is 2:00 p.m.
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS: Andy Richards is in his first year as a head coach, and has a 7-8-1 record heading into the UWGB match. Richards, who came to BGSU after five years as an assistant coach at Oregon State University, was hired in April.
Ashlee Orr was named the BGSU assistant coach in late August.
THE OPPONENTS: Wisconsin-Green Bay will bring a 5-10-0 overall record into Friday's match at BGSU, and the Phoenix will come to town riding a three-match winning streak. Last weekend, UWGB posted a pair of non-conference home wins, downing Northern Iowa, 3-0, Friday (Oct. 20) before posting a 4-0 win over Western Illinois Sunday (Oct. 22). The Phoenix completed Midwestern Collegiate Conference play with a 1-4 league mark. Freshman Kristin Lau and senior Kim Woldt are tied for the scoring lead with 16 points apiece. Lau has a team-high seven goals, with Woldt one behind. Sophomore Darci White has played the bulk of the minutes in goal, and is 5-8-0 with a 2.26 goals-against average. Last year, UWGB went 3-17-0 overall and 1-4-0 in the MCC. Head coach Quinn Ross is 25-64-4 in his fifth year at the Phoenix helm. More information on the team can be found at www.uwgb.edu/athletics.
Michigan State begins the week with an overall record of 11-4-2, and the Spartans will take a 5-3-1 Big Ten Conference record into Friday's home match vs. Penn State. Last weekend, MSU split a pair of one-goal matches out west, with a 2-1 overtime loss at Saint Mary's (Calif.) Friday, and a 3-2 win at San Francisco Sunday. Freshman Tiffany Laskowski leads the team with five goals and 13 points, while junior Nicole LePlae is second with nine points, including a team-high seven assists. Senior goalie Sara Kloosterman has played in all 17 matches, and has a stellar 0.77 GAA. Last year, the Spartans went 6-12-3 overall and tied for eighth with a 3-6-1 league mark. More information can be found at www.msuspartans.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons trail the all-time series with Michigan State by a 2-1 margin, and the teams have split the previous two matches at Cochrane Field. The Spartans captured the first two contests in the series, 2-1 at BGSU (Oct. 29, 1997) and 5-1 in East Lansing (Oct. 21, 1998). Janice Mentrup scored BG's goal in the first meeting, with Michelle Lisy getting an assist. In the 1998 match, Stephanie Heller scored the Falcons' lone goal. Last year, Lisy's overtime goal gave the Brown and Orange a 3-2 win in the season opener at Cochrane (Aug. 27, 1999). Lisy also had an assist in the win, while both Jill Conover and Beth Wechsler had a pair of assists.
The Falcons will be meeting Wisconsin-Green Bay for the first time in women's soccer.
LAST TIME OUT: The Falcons had an up-and-down weekend, earning a tie against the MAC regular-season champions, but losing to the ninth-place team. BGSU earned a 1-1 tie in double overtime at Buffalo Friday (Oct. 20), with senior Michelle Lisy finding the back of the net. Classmate Janice Mentrup assisted, while sophomore Erika Flanders made three saves in goal.
The Falcons dropped a 3-1 decision at Kent State Sunday (Oct. 22), with senior Jamie Eshleman scoring the Falcons' lone goal, assisted by senior Stephanie Heller and sophomore Jill Conover. Flanders made a season-high 12 saves.
NOTING THE FALCONS: BGSU's loss at Kent State Sunday marked the first time this year that the Falcons lost a league road contest ... BG finished MAC play with a 3-1-1 road mark ... senior Jamie Eshleman has four career goals, and three of those have come against Kent ... sophomore Erika Flanders made 12 saves at KSU to move her season total to 97 ... that total breaks her own single-season mark of 91, set last year ... BGSU's 5-5-1 MAC record is the school's best ever ... the previous best was a 4-5-1 mark in 1998 ... that year, the Falcons also went to Eastern Michigan for the league tournament's quarterfinal round, and came away with a 1-0 victory ... the Falcons went 2-0-1 this year vs. the teams seeded first through third for the MAC Tournament, but BG was 3-5-0 vs. the rest of the league ... sophomore Jill Conover picked up her team-leading sixth assist in Sunday's KSU match ... she moves past senior Janice Mentrup, who had garnered her fifth assist of the year in Friday's match at UB ... the Falcons enter the final weekend of the regular season needing one win to tie the school seasonal record ... BGSU is currently 7-8-1 ... the 1998 team went 8-11-1 to set a school record for wins ... Lisy's goal at Buffalo moved her back into the school's career lead in that category ... Lisy has 17 career goals, while redshirt sophomore Tracy Gleixner has 16 ... Conover, senior Stephanie Heller and Krista Shamblin all have 10 goals to tie for third on that career list ... Lisy is the career points leader with 45, followed by Gleixner (38), Mentrup (35), Conover (34) and Heller (28) ... Mentrup is the career assist leader with 21, followed by Conover (14), junior Beth Wechsler (13), Lisy (11) and senior Ashley Enser (8) ... five players - seniors Ashley Enser and Mentrup, juniors Leslie Hepfinger and Mandy Smith, and sophomore Conover - have started every match this season ... Ashley Enser and Mentrup have started all 73 contests in the history of the program ... Conover, BGSU's leading scorer this year with 14 points, also led the Falcons in league play ... she had nine points in league action, followed by Mentrup with seven.
MAC STANDINGS
Team (Overall) MAC Pts. Buffalo (12-5-1) 8-2-1 25 Eastern Michigan (10-6-2) 8-3-0 24 Central Michigan (9-9-0) 7-4-0 21 Miami (9-7-0) 7-4-0 21 Ohio (9-8-0) 7-4-0 21 Western Michigan (8-7-2) 5-4-2 17 Bowling Green (7-8-1) 5-5-1 16 Toledo (5-10-1) 4-6-1 13 Kent State (8-8-1) 4-7-0 12 Marshall (8-9-1) 3-7-1 10 Northern Illinois (4-13-1) 2-8-1 7 Ball State (6-10-2) 2-8-1 7 (standings as of Tuesday morning, Oct. 24) (MAC records are final)
MAC TOURNAMENT QUARTERFINALS
Tues., Oct. 31 #8 Toledo at #1 Buffalo, 4:00 #7 Bowling Green at #2 Eastern Michigan, 2:00 #6 Western Michigan at #3 Central Michigan, 2:00 #5 Ohio at #4 Miami, 2:00
