Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Detroit In Sunday Exhibition, Open Regular Season On Road
August 22, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 22, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team is in the midst of preparations for the 2001 season. The Falcons of head coach Andy Richards, after a Sunday (Aug. 26) exhibition against the University of Detroit Mercy, will open the regular season on Friday, Aug. 31, with a match at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. That contest is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. locally (8:00 p.m. BG time) at Phoenix Field in Green Bay, Wis.
Following the UWGB match, the Brown and Orange will remain on the road to face Michigan State University in a Sunday (Sept. 2) morning match. That contest will begin at 11:00 a.m. at MSU's Old College Field.
BGSU then begins the home portion of the season with a Sept. 7 match vs. Samford University at Cochrane Field. That contest begins a three-match homestand for the Brown and Orange.
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS: Andy Richards begins his second year as a head coach, and has a record of 10-10-1 heading into the season opener at UWGB. 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.
THE EXHIBITION: The Falcons' lone exhibition will be Sunday (Aug. 26) vs. Detroit at Cochrane Field. Kickoff is set for 3:00 p.m. This will mark only the second-ever exhibition match for the BGSU women's soccer program inside the confines of Cochrane Field. The first came in the Falcons' first intercollegiate competition of any kind, a 1997 scrimmage vs. Findlay University. BGSU won that contest by a 1-0 count.
THE OPPONENTS: UW-Green Bay will open the 2001 campaign with the BGSU match. The Phoenix went 6-12-0 overall last season, and finished fifth in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference with a 1-4 league mark. The MCC has since changed its name to the Horizon League. UWGB went 3-6 both at home and on the road a year ago, Head coach Quinn Ross welcomes back a total of 20 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year. Ross enters his sixth season as a head coach, all at UWGB, with a record of 26-66-4. The school's athletic web site is www.uwgb.edu/athletics.
Michigan State opens the season with a Sunday (Aug. 26) exhibition at Eastern Michigan and an Aug. 31 home contest against Western Michigan, before hosting the Falcons two days later. The Spartans finished the 2000 season with an overall record of 12-6-2, the school's most wins since the 1994 squad also won 12 times. Head coach Tom Saxton's team went 5-4-1 in the Big Ten Conference last season, placing fifth. Saxton welcomes 18 letterwinners, including eight starters, from that 2000 squad. He has a record of 92-90-15 in 10 years as a collegiate head coach, all in East Lansing.
THE SERIES: The Falcons closed the 2000 regular season against the same teams with whom BGSU will open 2001. BG downed UWGB by a 3-1 count (Oct. 27, 2000) before losing to MSU, 1-0, two days later. Both matches were held at Cochrane Field.
BGSU holds a 1-0 series lead vs. UWGB, with last year's meeting marking the first time the teams had met. Jill Conover had a goal and two assists in that 3-1 victory, while returnee Tracy Gleixner had an assist in the game. Erika Flanders got the win in goal, making a total of two saves.
The Falcons trail the all-time series with Michigan State by a 3-1 count, and the Spartans won the only previous meeting in East Lansing. MSU is the lone non-conference school to have appeared on the Falcons' schedule in each of BGSU's first five seasons. The Spartans took a 2-1 decision at Cochrane Field in the teams' first-ever meeting (Oct. 29, 1997), then won a 5-1 match with five goals in the final 20 minutes of the match the following year (Oct. 21, 1998) in East Lansing. The Falcons opened the 1999 campaign with a 3-2 overtime victory over MSU at Cochrane (Aug. 27, 1999), as Jill Conover and Beth Wechsler each had two assists. Last year, the Green and White came to BG and posted a 1-0 victory (Oct. 29, 2000).
CAPTAIN'S LOG: Seniors Leslie Hepfinger, Mandy Smith and Beth Wechsler have been named BGSU's tri-captains for the 2001 season.
FAST STARTS: BGSU has won the season-opening match in each of the team's first four seasons:
^ at Kent, Ohio
SEASON OUTLOOK: The BGSU 2001 season outlook can be found elsewhere on the school's official athletics web site, www.bgsufalcons.com.
NOTING THE FALCONS: The first year of the Andy Richards Era at BGSU proved to be quite successful, as the Falcons set school single-season records for wins, both overall (10) and in MAC play (five) ... BG finished seventh in the league regular-season standings last year, but won a pair of MAC Tournament matches to advance all the way to the championship match ... the Brown and Orange lost that contest to Miami, 1-0 in double overtime ... for the first time in school history, the Falcons enter a season looking to replace a class of graduated seniors ... Ashley Enser, Jamie Eshleman, Autumn Harris, Stephanie Heller, Michelle Lisy and Janice Mentrup all earned four letters in the Brown and Orange, while Leslie Buse earned three ... prior to that class, Krista Shamblin had been the only senior to go through the program, playing two seasons (1997-98) after transferring to BGSU from Lincoln Memorial University ... BGSU won seven matches away from home last year, going 4-3-1 in road contests and 3-2 in neutral-site matches ... BG's road record included a 4-1-1 mark against MAC teams ... the seven victories away from home last fall matched the combined total for the first three years of the program's existence ... the Falcons went 7-17-3 in road matches and 0-1 in neutral-site contests from 1997-99 ... Erika Flanders enters her junior season in the Brown and Orange, already owning the school's career goalkeeping records for wins (15), saves (209), complete-match shutouts (six) and goals-against average (1.69) ... she set the single-season records in each of those categories last year (10 wins, 118 saves, four shutouts and a 1.37 GAA) ... juniors Tracy Gleixner and Jill Conover begin the 2001 season ranked second and third, respectively, in career scoring ... Gleixner has 42 career points, while Conover has 41 ... they are chasing Michelle Lisy, who ended her career with 48 points ... Gleixner has 17 goals in her career, just one behind Lisy's BGSU mark, while Conover is third with 12 goals ... Conover (17) and Beth Wechsler (13) rank second and third, respectively, on the career assists list, behind Janice Mentrup's 23.
BGSU CAREER SCORING LEADERS
(through the 2000 season)
Points G- A=Pts. Michelle Lisy 18-12=48 Tracy Gleixner * 17- 8=42 Jill Conover * 12-17=41 Janice Mentrup 7-23=37 Stephanie Heller 10- 9=29 Krista Shamblin 10- 4=24 Beth Wechsler * 5-13=23 Ashley Enser 6- 9=21 Autumn Harris 7- 4=18 Mandy Smith * 3- 8=14 Desiree Erb 5- 4=14Goals Assists Michelle Lisy 18 Janice Mentrup 23 Tracy Gleixner * 17 Jill Conover * 17 Jill Conover * 12 Beth Wechsler * 13 Stephanie Heller 10 Michelle Lisy 12 Krista Shamblin 10 Ashley Enser 9 Janice Mentrup 7 Stephanie Heller 9 Autumn Harris 7 Tracy Gleixner * 8 Mandy Smith * 8 * current team member
