Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons To Close 2001 Campaign At Ball State
October 29, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 29, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, looking to snap a six-match losing streak, will play one Mid-American Conference match this week to close the 2001 season. The Falcons (7-9-2, 2-8-1 MAC) of head coach Andy Richards will complete the schedule with a Thursday (Nov. 1) match at Ball State University. Kickoff for that contest is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at the Ball State Soccer Field.
Last weekend, BGSU suffered an overtime loss to Kent State in Friday's (Oct. 26) home final‚, 1-0, then fell by a 3-0 count at Miami two days later (Oct. 28).
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS: Andy Richards is in his second year as a head coach, and has a record of 17-19-3 heading into the BSU match. Richards, who came to BGSU after five years as an assistant coach at Oregon State University, was hired in April of 2000.
Ashlee Orr was named the BGSU assistant coach in late August of 2000.
MAC TOURNAMENT UPDATE: BGSU's losses last weekend, combined with other outcomes around the MAC, eliminated the Falcons from contention for the Mid-American Conference Tournament ... Ohio, Miami, Eastern Michigan and Central Michigan all have clinched top-four seeds and home-field advantage for the quarterfinal round ... Marshall, Buffalo and Western Michigan all will play on the road in the quarterfinals ... either Toledo or Ball State will claim the eighth and final tourney berth, depending upon the outcome of Thursday's BGSU-BSU match.
THE OPPONENT: Ball State enters the week with an overall record of 10-5-2, and the Cardinals will bring a 4-5-2 MAC mark into Thursday's BGSU match ... last weekend, BSU went undefeated against two of the top teams in the league ... the Cards earned a 1-1 tie at Miami Friday (Oct. 26), before posting a 2-1 win over then first-place Central Michigan Sunday (Oct. 28) ... senior Julie Pigozzo leads the team with 15 points on the season, while freshman Dee Nocero has 14 ... both Pigozzo and Nocero have six goals to tie for team honors ... sophomore Megan Swafford is the team's top goalkeeper, and entered last weekend's action with a goals-against average of 0.92 ... a win over the Falcons would propel the Cards into the MAC Tournament for the first time in school history (BSU is a third-year program) ... a BG win or a tie would keep Ball State out of the tourney ... last year, the Cardinals went 7-10-2 overall and 2-8-1 in MAC action ... Ron Rainey is 18-32-5 in his third year in Muncie ... he is 38-45-9 in his fifth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletic web site is www.bsu.edu/sports.
THE SERIES: The Falcons hold a 1-0-1 lead over Ball State in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU tied the Cardinals in the only previous meeting in Muncie ... in that match, a 2-2 deadlock (Oct. 1, 1999), Jill Conover scored the Falcons' first goal of the day ... the tie proved to be BSU's only point in 11 MAC matches that year ... last year at Cochrane Field (Oct. 8, 2000), Erika Flanders earned the shutout as the Falcons recorded a 3-0 win ... Leslie Hepfinger had a goal and an assist in the win, while Tracy Gleixner had one assist in the match.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK: The Falcons dropped a pair of contests over the weekend ... in the final 2001 match at home, the Brown and Orange suffered a 1-0, overtime loss to Kent State Friday (Oct. 26) ... junior Erika Flanders made eight saves in the match to set a new single-season record ... two days later, host Miami blanked the Falcons by a 3-0 score ... the Falcons held a 5-4 edge in shots on goal in that contest.
COPPES REMAINS TIED FOR GOALS RECORD: Freshman Kristy Coppes, who has been battling an injury for the past several weeks, was held scoreless last week ... the weekend prior, she scored her 12th goal of the season in the Marshall match ... she is tied with Tracy Gleixner for the single-season school record in that category ... Gleixner had 12 goals in her freshman season, 1998 ... this year, Coppes has 26 points, the second-highest seasonal total in BG annals ... Gleixner had 29 points in that 1998 campaign.
FLANDERS SETS SAVES RECORD: For the third consecutive season, junior goalkeeper Erika Flanders has set the school record for saves in a season ... Flanders made eight saves in Friday's (Oct. 26) Kent State match to surpass her own record from 2000 ... after Sunday's Miami contest, she now has 124 saves on the year ... Flanders had 91 saves as a freshman, and 118 last season ... prior to her arrival on campus, the school's single-season record for saves was 76.
BGSU SCORING LISTS - UPDATES Several current Falcons are ranked on the school's career scoring lists ... junior Jill Conover holds the BGSU career scoring lead ... her seven points vs. Youngstown State Oct. 3 (tying the single-match record) give her 55 points for her career ... junior Tracy Gleixner had two goals in that match to move past Michelle Lisy (1997-2000) and assume the top spot with 20 career goals ... Gleixner tied Lisy for second place on the points list, with 48 ... Conover's three assists vs. YSU (again, tying the single-match record) give her 23 for her career, equalling Janice Mentrup's (1997-2000) school-record total ... all three lists follow:
BGSU CAREER SCORING LEADERS (as of Oct. 29, 2001)
Points G- A=Pts. Jill Conover * 16-23=55 Tracy Gleixner * 20- 8=48 Michelle Lisy 18-12=48 Janice Mentrup 7-23=37 Beth Wechsler * 8-16=32 Stephanie Heller 10- 9=29 Kristy Coppes * 12- 2=26 Krista Shamblin 10- 4=24 Mandy Smith * 6- 9=21 Ashley Enser 6- 9=21 Autumn Harris 7- 4=18 Desiree Erb 5- 4=14Goals Assists Tracy Gleixner * 20 Jill Conover * 23 Michelle Lisy 18 Janice Mentrup 23 Jill Conover * 16 Beth Wechsler * 16 Kristy Coppes * 12 Michelle Lisy 12 Stephanie Heller 10 Mandy Smith * 9 Krista Shamblin 10 Ashley Enser 9 Beth Wechsler * 8 Stephanie Heller 9 Janice Mentrup 7 Tracy Gleixner * 8 Autumn Harris 7 * current team member
FRESHMEN FIND THE SCORESHEET: BGSU freshmen have enjoyed their share of scoring success this year ... on the season, Falcon frosh have 18 of the team's 32 goals and 18 of the 35 assists.
CAPTAIN'S LOG: Seniors Leslie Hepfinger, Mandy Smith and Beth Wechsler are BGSU's tri-captains for the 2001 season ... Hepfinger saw action in the Central Michigan contest (Oct. 14) after missing the previous seven matches due to injury ... she has played in just eight contests this year ... Smith and Wechsler are two of the six Falcons to have started all 18 matches this fall.
MAC LEADERS: BGSU's rankings in the MAC team and individual categories, as of last Tuesday (Oct. 23):
TEAM Shots: 9th, 193 Points: T-3rd, 99 Points/match: 4th, 6.19 Goals: T-3rd, 32 Goals/match: T-5th, 2.00 Assists: 2nd, 35 Assists/match: 2nd, 2.19 Goals allowed (fewest): T-9th, 27 Goals allowed/match: 8th, 1.69 Saves: 2nd, 118 Saves/match: 2nd, 7.38 Shutouts: T-5th, 4INDIVIDUAL Shots: no one in top 10 Shots/match: no one in top 10 Points: Kristy Coppes, T-1st, 26 Points/match: Kristy Coppes, 3rd, 1.62 Goals: Kristy Coppes, 1st, 12 Goals/match: Kristy Coppes, 1st, 0.75 Assists: Jill Conover, T-6th, 6 Nikki Pucillo, T-6th, 6 Katie Piening, T-6th, 6 Assists/match: Katie Piening, T-6th, 0.46 Jill Conover, T-9th, 0.38 Nikki Pucillo, T-9th, 0.38 Match-winning goals: no one with more than one Saves: Erika Flanders, 2nd, 115 Saves/match: Erika Flanders, 2nd, 7.19 Shutouts: Erika Flanders, T-4th, 4
NOTING THE FALCONS: BGSU finished the non-conference portion of the schedule with a record of 5-1-1, including a perfect 3-0 home mark vs. non-league foes ... the Falcons finished the home schedule with a record of 4-4-1 at Cochrane Field this season ... the total of four wins matches the school mark for most home wins in a single season ... interestingly, last year's team, which set a school record with 10 overall wins, is the only squad in the five-year history of the program to win fewer than four contests at home (3-5-0) ... six Falcons - seniors Mandy Smith and Beth Wechsler, juniors Jill Conover and Erika Flanders, sophomore Kasey Freeman and freshman Beth Rieman - have started all 18 matches this season ... after getting shut out just once in the season's first 12 matches, BGSU has been blanked four times in the last six contests ... the Falcons have been victims of a shutout in each of the last three matches, the first time that has happened since early in BG's first season of 1997 ... the Falcons have never been blanked in four-straight matches ... on the year, the Falcons have been outshot by a 297-209 margin, and the opponents have a 147-99 advantage in shots on goal ... but, BGSU has outscored opponents, 32-31, this season ... junior Erika Flanders has made a school-record 124 saves on the year (and freshman Ali Shingler has three), while opposing 'keepers have a total of 71 stops ... with eight saves in the KSU match, Flanders broke her own record for saves in a season ... she had set the mark with 118 saves last year ... Flanders owns the school's career records for wins (22), saves (333), complete-match shutouts (10) and goals-against average (1.68).
