Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Soccer Beats Buckeyes, 2-0
September 18, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 18, 2001
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, despite being outshot by a wide margin, posted a 2-0 victory over the Ohio State University Tuesday night (Sept. 18). The non-conference match was held at the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
The Falcons, now 3-0-2 overall, got goals from junior Tracy Gleixner and freshman Kristy Coppes, while junior Erika Flanders recorded her third shutout of the year. Gleixner, who came off the bench, was playing in her first match of the year after missing the first four contests while recovering from an injury. She had suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury in the spring.
Coppes scored for the fourth time this season, and for the third time in as many matches. The freshman leads the Falcons in both goals and points (eight).
Gleixner got BGSU on the board late in the first half, putting a ball past OSU goalkeeper Jen Heaney at the 42:21 mark. Junior Jill Conover picked up her second assist of the season on the play. Conover was tied for the team lead (for the moment) in assists, and is second behind Coppes with six points.
BG struck again early in the second half. Coppes scored on a header after a Falcon free kick, with senior Beth Wechsler and freshman Katie Piening drawing the assists. Wechsler now has a team-best three assists on the year and 16 in her career. Piening's helper was her first collegiate point.
Falcon freshmen have combined to score five of BG's nine goals this season.
At the other end of the pitch, Flanders recorded her third shutout of the season and the ninth complete-match shutout of her career. Flanders extended her own career record (the second-place total is two), and is one shutout away from tying her own BG single-season mark, set last year. She has a goals-against average of 0.53 on the season, and has stopped 51 of the opponents' 54 shots on goal this year.
On Tuesday night, the host Buckeyes outshot the Falcons by a 21-6 margin, and OSU held a 9-4 edge in the shots-on-goal department. Flanders made nine saves, while OSU's Heaney and Anna Mitchell, who played the final 19:25 of the match, had one save apiece.
Ohio State had a 13-3 advantage in corner kicks, and the Buckeyes had a whopping 10 in the second half alone.
The Buckeyes lost for the second consecutive match after beginning the season with a 3-0 record. Those three wins included a road victory against ninth-ranked Connecticut.
The win extends BGSU's best-ever start to a season. The Falcons are unbeaten through five matches for the first time in the program's five-year history. In fact, BG's five-match unbeaten streak ties the school record, originally set in 1997-98 (last two matches of '97, first three of '98).
BGSU is unbeaten over the last four road matches (3-0-1), dating to last season. That streak ties the school record, set in 2000. In fact, in the last calendar year (since Sept. 15, 2000), the Falcons are 6-1-2 in road matches and 7-2-2 in contests away from Cochrane Field.
BGSU will return to action with a neutral-site contest Friday afternoon (Sept. 21). The Falcons will take on Iowa State at Libertyville, Ill., with kickoff set for 3:00 p.m. locally (4:00 p.m. BG time). Then, BG returns home for a Sunday (Sept. 23) match vs. the University at Buffalo. That Mid-American Conference match is scheduled to begin at noon at Cochrane Field.
