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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Women's Soccer Begins Three-Match Homestand Friday
September 04, 2001 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 4, 2001
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, having begun the 2001 season on a successful note, return home to commence the home portion of the schedule. The Falcons (1-0-1) of head coach Andy Richards will play the home-opening match Friday (Sept. 7), hosting Samford University. Kickoff for that match is scheduled for 4:00 p.m. at BGSU's Cochrane Field.
Following the Samford contest, the Brown and Orange will continue a three-match homestand with a Sunday (Sept. 9) tilt against the arch-rival University of Toledo. The Falcons will open the Mid-American Conference season with a 1:00 p.m. start vs. the Rockets at Cochrane.
BGSU then hosts Youngstown State on Wednesday, Sept. 12, in the first of three matches in a five-day span. The Falcons then head to Ohio State two days later, before returning home to face Wright State on Sunday, Sept. 16.
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS: Andy Richards is in his second year as a head coach, and has a record of 11-10-2 heading into the Samford 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.
LAST WEEK: The Falcons opened the 2001 season with a win and a tie on the road. On Friday (Aug. 31), BGSU posted a 2-0 victory at Wisconsin-Green Bay. Two days later (Sept. 2), the Brown and Orange battled to a 1-1, double-overtime draw at Michigan State. Junior goalkeeper Erika Flanders made a school-record 17 saves in the MSU contest.
FLANDERS NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Junior goalkeeper Erika Flanders has been named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, the league office announced Monday (Sept. 3). Flanders earns the honor for the first time in her Falcon career.
Flanders posted a 1-0-1 record and a goals-against average of 0.43 in the season's opening weekend. She allowed only one goal in 210 minutes of action as the Falcons won a 2-0 match at UW-Green Bay Friday (Aug. 31) and posted a 1-1 tie at Michigan State Sunday (Sept. 2).
Flanders had a school-record 17 saves in the MSU match, breaking her own mark of 14 (set against Ohio State, Oct. 27, 1999). She made nine saves at UWGB to earn her first shutout of the season and the school-record seventh of her career.
In last weekend's action, Flanders had a save percentage of .963, stopping 26 of 27 opponent shots on goal.
After just over two years in the Brown and Orange, Flanders holds nearly every BGSU goalkeeping record. She has career totals of 16 wins, 235 saves and the seven shutouts.
THE OPPONENTS: Samford has yet to open the 2001 season, after heavy rains in College Station, Texas, made the field unplayable for Friday's (Aug. 31) scheduled opener at 11th-ranked Texas A&M. The Bulldogs will open the season with a Tuesday (Sept. 4) match at Montevallo before heading to BG for Friday's contest. SU has seen more game action than the average team, however, having posted a 6-4 match record in a preseason training session in Brazil in August. Head coach Barry Spitzer returns 12 letterwinners from last year's 8-8-1 squad. That team went 3-5-1 in the Trans America Athletic (now Atlantic Sun) Conference. Spitzer enters his fifth season as a head coach, all with Samford, with a 30-35-6 record. The school's athletic web site is www.samfordsports.com.
Toledo is 1-1-0 on the season after splitting a pair of matches last weekend. The Rockets will open MAC play with a Friday (Sept. 7) home contest against Eastern Michigan prior to making the short trip south to BGSU. UT headed west for the Montana Diadora Cup last weekend, beating Eastern Washington, 2-1, Friday before falling to host Montana by a 3-2 score two days later. Junior Corrie Hasenjager paces the Rockets in scoring, after tallying a goal in each match. Elise Donovan played both contests in the net, and has a 2.00 goals-against average. First-year head coach Brad Evans has 12 letterwinners, including six starters, back from a 2000 squad that went 5-12-1 overall and finished eighth in the MAC with a 4-6-1 league mark. Evans, who spent five years as the coach at Ashland, has a career record of 68-27-2 heading into Friday's EMU contest. UT's athletic web site is www.utrockets.com.
THE SERIES: The Falcons and Toledo are deadlocked, 2-2, in the all-time series between the teams, with each team having scored seven goals in the series. UT posted a 3-2 win in the schools' initial meeting (Sept. 20, 1997), before over 2,000 fans at the Glass Bowl. The following year (Sept. 17, 1998), the Falcons won a 2-1 road match at UT's Scott Park. Beth Wechsler scored a goal in that match, with Michelle Hoyng drawing an assist. In BG's 1999 season final‚ (Oct. 30, 1999), the only previous meeting in BG, an overtime goal gave the Rockets a 2-1 win. Last year (Sept. 22, 2000), the Falcons had a 2-1 win at UT, with Wechsler scoring one goal and Jill Conover picking up an assist.
Bowling Green and Samford have never met in women's soccer.
RECAPPING LAST WEEK: The Falcons opened the season with a 2-0 win at UW-Green Bay Friday (Aug. 31) ... a pair of freshman, Kristy Coppes and Jessica Sadler, scored goals less than five minutes apart in their first collegiate contest ... junior Erika Flanders made nine saves in net, as the Phoenix outshot BG by a 17-10 margin ... on Sunday (Sept. 2), the Falcons again were outshot, this time by a lopsided margin ... host Michigan State held a 29-3 advantage in that department, including an 18-2 edge in shots on goal ... but, the teams tied, 1-1, with junior Jill Conover scoring the BG marker ... Flanders made a school-record 17 saves in the match.
THIS TEAM LOOKS FAMILIAR: While the Falcons have never met Samford before, one team member may recognize a few faces from the other bench ... Falcon senior Adrienne Graessle earned a pair of letters for the Bulldogs before transferring to BGSU prior to last year ... as a freshman at SU in 1998, Graessle played in 16 matches, starting five ... she scored two goals that year ... as a sophomore in 1999, Graessle started all 19 of the team's matches, ranking fourth on the team with eight points (three goals, two assists).
CAPTAIN'S LOG: Seniors Leslie Hepfinger, Mandy Smith and Beth Wechsler have been named BGSU's tri-captains for the 2001 season.
FAST STARTS: The victory at UW-Green Bay Friday continued a trend of early success for the Falcon program ... BGSU has won the season-opening match in each of the team's five seasons:
^ at Kent, Ohio
NOTING THE FALCONS: The Falcons are unbeaten after two matches for the fourth consecutive year ... BGSU is now 5-3-2 in road matches during the Andy Richards head-coaching era ... counting a 3-2 neutral-site record, the Falcons are 8-5-2 away from home since the beginning of last season ... the Brown and Orange went 7-18-3 away from Cochrane Field during the first three years of the program ... BGSU started five freshmen in the opening contest and four in the second match of the year ... the Falcons have been outshot by a 46-13 margin through two contests ... the opponents have a 27-6 advantage in shots on goal ... half of BGSU's shots on goal have resulted in goals, however, while the foes have gotten just one shot past junior Erika Flanders ... Flanders owns the school's career goalkeeping records for wins (16), saves (235), complete-match shutouts (seven) and goals-against average (1.62) ... she set the single-season records in each of those categories last year (10 wins, 118 saves, four shutouts and a 1.37 GAA) ... junior Jill Conover has moved into second place on the school's scoring list, with 43 career points.
