Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons End Season With 12-8-2 Mark
November 23, 2002 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 23, 2002
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
End-of-season notes on the 2002 Falcon women's soccer team...
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The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after advancing to the semifinal round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament, has seen the season come to an end. The Falcons of head coach Andy Richards, seeded fourth for the tournament, lost to top-seeded and eventual tournament champion Miami University, and BGSU ends the season with an overall record of 12-8-2. The Falcons, picked to place ninth in the MAC in the preseason coaches poll, finished fourth with a 7-4-1 league record.
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS
Andy Richards performed one of the top coaching jobs in the MAC, if not the Midwest, this season. Richards has completed his third year as a head coach, all at BGSU, and has an overall record of 29-28-5. Richards, who came to BG after five years as an assistant coach at Oregon State University, was hired in April of 2000.
Ashlee Orr has finished her third season with the Falcon program as well. Orr was named the BGSU assistant coach in late August of 2000.
LAST TIME OUT
MAC Player of the Year Danielle Berkemeier scored all three goals as Miami posted a 3-0 victory over the Falcons at the Miami Soccer Field (Nov. 8) ... senior captain Erika Flanders made eight saves in goal for the Brown and Orange ... the win put the RedHawks into the championship match, where MU downed Ohio by a 5-1 count.
REMEMBERING LESLIE
The Bowling Green soccer family suffered a tremendous loss on Tuesday, November 5 ... freshman Leslie Dawley collapsed early in the first half of the MAC Tournament quarterfinal match against Buffalo and passed away later that day ... she was 18 years old.
The BGSU Department of Intercollegiate Athletics has set up the Leslie Ann Dawley Memorial Fund ... this special fund was created to honor Dawley's memory ... contributions will be used toward the establishment of a memorial in her honor ... individuals interested in making a contribution to the fund can send a check, made out to the "BGSU Foundation" to BGSU women's soccer coach Andy Richards at the following address:
BGSU Women's Soccer
Perry Stadium East
Bowling Green, OH 43403
Please make mention of the "Leslie Ann Dawley Memorial Fund" in the memo section of the check ... for more information, please contact the BGSU women's soccer office at (419) 372-9602.
FLANDERS NAMED TO ALL-MAC FIRST TEAM
Senior Erika Flanders was named to the All-MAC First Team, it was announced at the MAC Tournament banquet on Nov. 7 ... Flanders became just the second Falcon in the six-year history of the program to earn all-league first-team honors (teammate Tracy Gleixner earned the award in 1998) ... Flanders played every minute of every match in 2002, a total of 2040:18 ... she had a record of 12-8-2, a total of 137 saves, a GAA of 1.24 and seven shutouts, setting school records in each category.
MEISTER NAMED MAC FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Freshman Samantha Meister was named the MAC's Freshman of the Year for 2002, it was announced Nov. 7 ... Meister became the second Falcon in the history of the program to win a league specialty award, and she is the second consecutive BGSU player to earn the honor (Kristy Coppes won the award in 2001) ... Meister, who was sidelined for seven matches (nearly all of September) with a broken nose, had a total of 17 points in only 15 matches this year, with six goals and five assists ... she scored 10 points in just eight MAC matches ... Meister set a school record by scoring a goal in five consecutive contests.
FLANDERS, COPPES EARN ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORS
Senior Erika Flanders and sophomore Kristy Coppes were named to the 2002 MAC All-Tournament Team ... Flanders made seven stops in the Falcons' 2-1, double-overtime victory over Buffalo (Nov. 6), and had eight saves in BGSU's 3-0 loss at Miami in the semifinal round (Nov. 8) ... Coppes scored the Falcons' first goal in the win over UB ... Flanders was named to the team for the second time in her career, having earned the honor in the 2000 season as well.
CONOVER NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM
Senior Jill Conover was named to the Verizon Academic All-District IV Team, it was announced on Nov. 7 ... Conover, who was named to the team for the second time in her career, earned second-team honors ... she is the only student-athlete in the six-year history of the BGSU women's soccer program to earn academic all-district honors ... Conover entered the fall semester with a 3.81 GPA as a computer science major ... this is the second year that an all-district team has been named for women's soccer ... prior to the 2001-02 academic year, women's soccer student-athletes were part of the Fall/Winter Sports At-Large ballot.
BGSU IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons appeared in the MAC Tournament for the third time in the team's six years, having also qualified in 1998 and 2000 ... a list of match-by-match scores can be found in the box in the right column of this page ... in 1998, the sixth-seeded Falcons travelled to #3 Eastern Michigan for the quarterfinal round and posted a 1-0 victory ... Cari Combs scored the lone goal off an Autumn Harris through-ball at the 71:51 mark ... Michelle Lisy made 10 saves in net to earn the shutout in the upset win ... the Falcons then faced second-seeded Northern Illinois in the semifinal round in Athens, Ohio ... BGSU took the lead at the 28:19 mark on a Leah Rosner goal ... but, the Huskies tied the match with just 8:22 left in regulation, then scored at the 117:58 mark of the second overtime stanza ... the Falcons could not score in the remaining 2:02 (the overtime was not sudden death), and the Huskies captured the win en route to the MAC Tournament title ... Lisy again made 10 saves in goal, and she was joined by Rosner on the all-tourney team.
In 2000, the seventh-seeded Falcons again headed to Ypsilanti for the opening round ... BGSU posted a 2-1 victory over the #2-seeded Eagles ... Ashley Enser headed home a cross from Tracy Gleixner with 11:51 left in the first half, with Jill Conover also assisting on the goal ... then, with just 1:31 left in the match, Conover took an errant EMU pass and blasted a shot just below the crossbar ... Eastern would cut the lead in half just 29 seconds later, but the Falcons held the Eagles off the scoreboard for the final minute ... Erika Flanders made seven saves to earn the win ... in the semifinal round in Buffalo, N.Y., the Falcons topped #6 Western Michigan by a 2-1 count ... Gleixner started the scoring at the 33:36 mark ... WMU tied the score at 1-1 late in the first half, but Susan Wallace scored the winning goal, heading in a cross from Michelle Lisy with just under 15 minutes left in the second half ... a goal at the 111:57 mark gave Miami a 1-0, double-OT win in the championship match ... Flanders made 10 saves, several of the spectacular variety, in that contest ... Flanders, Stephanie Heller and Beth Wechsler all were named to the All-Tournament Team.
MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons, as mentioned, finished the year with records of 12-8-2 overall and 7-4-1 in MAC play ... BG scored 38 goals and allowed 28 ... sophomore Kristy Coppes scored 12 of the Falcons' goals this year, and led the team with 26 points ... freshmen Julie Trundle and Samantha Meister had 18 and 17 points, respectively, while senior Jill Conover (10 points) was fourth on the team and freshman Britt Anderson (nine points) rounded out the team's top-five scorers ... Meister was second on the team with six goals, while Trundle had five and Anderson and Conover four apiece ... Trundle had a team-high eight assists ... senior Erika Flanders played every minute (2040:18) in goal, and had 137 saves and a goals-against average of 1.24 ... all three figures set school records.
RECORD-SETTING SEASON
The Falcons set a school record for wins, with a total of 12 this season ... the 2000 team (10-10-1) held the old record ... BGSU, picked to finish ninth in the MAC's preseason coaches poll, finished fourth in the league standings ... BGSU entered the Miami match five games over the .500 mark for the first time in school history ... the Falcons, of course, ended the season four games above the .500 mark ... BGSU's winning record is the first in program history.
MAC WINS
In addition to the record for overall wins, BGSU also set new marks for MAC wins (seven) and points (22), shattering the old records (5-5-1, 16 pts. in 2000) ... for the first time in school history, the Falcons finished with a winning record in MAC matches ... last year's BG squad went 2-9-1.
HOME WINS
The 2002 Falcons also set a record for home wins, as the tournament victory over Buffalo was the fifth of the season at Cochrane Field ... four of the five previous BG teams won four matches at home ... this year's edition of the Brown and Orange went 5-5-0 in home contests.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
Andy Richards' Falcons had a great deal of success on the road this season ... the loss at Miami in MAC Tournament play was just the second road setback of the season for the Brown and Orange ... BGSU had ended the regular season with a record of 6-1-2 in away matches ... and, the Falcons finished the road portion of the MAC schedule with a 5-0-1 mark ... BG broke the school records for wins in each category ... both the 1998 (4-5-0) and 2000 (4-3-1) teams won four total road matches, and that 2000 squad held the old record of three MAC road victories, having gone 3-1-1 ... BGSU's only road setback during the regular season came at the hands of Cincinnati, a team receiving national votes in the Soccer Buzz national poll at the time of the match ... the Bearcats later rose as high as 21st in the nation in that poll.
SUCCESS IN EVEN YEARS
In the six-year history of the BGSU women's soccer program, the Falcons have had most of their success in the even-numbered years ... the Brown and Orange failed to qualify for the MAC Tournament in 1997, 1999 and 2001 ... but, the Falcons participated in the league tourney in 2002, marking the third appearance in school history ... BGSU won the opening tourney match all three years ... the Falcons advanced to the semifinals in 1998, losing in overtime to eventual tourney champion NIU ... BGSU also made the tournament in 2000, and advanced all the way to the championship match before losing, again in OT, to Miami ... in the regular season, BG is 5-21-4 (.233) in MAC play in the odd-numbered years, and 16-14-3 (.530) in even years.
COPPES TIES SEASONAL GOALS RECORD
Sophomore Kristy Coppes tied the BGSU record for goals in a season, scoring her 12th goal of the year in the win over Buffalo ... Coppes already had owned a share of the record, having scored 12 goals last fall ... senior Tracy Gleixner originally set the mark with a 12-goal season in 1998 ... Coppes increased her school mark for career goals, scoring her 24th goal in just her 40th career match as a Falcon ... she is just the second player in school history to reach the 50-point plateau for her career, and now has 52 points in her BG tenure, 13 points behind senior Jill Conover's school-record total.
CHANGES AT THE TOP OF CAREER SCORING LIST
Perhaps the school record for career goals should be written in pencil, or at least in erasable ink ... with her goal at the 72:22 mark of the Western Michigan match (Oct. 25), senior Jill Conover reached the 20-career goal plateau, tying her for the BG record with sophomore Kristy Coppes and senior Tracy Gleixner ... but, just over 14 minutes later, Coppes scored to set a new record ... she added to her brand-new mark just over two minutes later, scoring in the final minute of that match ... Coppes also found the net vs. both Wright State and Buffalo, upping her career total to 24 goals ... Conover still holds the school career records for points (65), assists (25) and match-winning goals (seven).
CONOVER, FLANDERS SET MORE RECORDS
Seniors Jill Conover and Erika Flanders already owned a number of BGSU records, and each added another one to their list ... Conover played in the 80th match of her career in the final match of the season, a new school mark ... Ashley Enser (1997-2000), Janice Mentrup (1997-2000) and Beth Wechsler (1998-2001) all played in 78 career matches in the Brown and Orange ... Flanders also played in 78 matches, starting them all ... her final start, at Miami, tied her for first place on that career list ... Mentrup also started 78 career contests, while Wechsler made 77 starts.
TRUNDLE'S SCHOOL-RECORD STREAKS
Freshman Julie Trundle saw one of her school-record streaks come to an end, but another continue, in the win over Buffalo ... Trundle did not record an assist, ending her streak of consecutive matches with at least one assist at five ... but, her match-winning goal extended her streak to seven matches with a point ... she had 13 points in that seven-match span, on three goals and seven assists ... Trundle, held scoreless vs. Miami, had 18 points on the season, good for second on the team ... she led the Falcons with eight assists this year, just one away from the school record ... Trundle had 13 points in MAC contests, just one point behind team leader Kristy Coppes.
LOSSES TO STRONG OPPONENTS
While all teams would like to win every match, BGSU's eight losses this year did not exactly come to soccer weaklings ... BG's last regular-season loss, to NIU, marked the lone time this season the Falcons fell to a team with a losing record ... BG's other three MAC losses came to Miami (final record of 19-3-2), Ball State (14-6-1) and Ohio (15-5-2), the three other teams that earned first-round home matches for the league tournament ... BG's non-conference setbacks came to Michigan State (12-7-2) at home, Cincinnati (17-4-3) on the road, Missouri (11-7-2) in neutral-site action and Miami in the league tournament ... not counting NIU (6-12-0), the other six schools had a combined record of 88-32-12, for an aggregate winning percentage of .712 ... UC, Miami and MSU all qualified for the NCAA Championships (as did 11-8-3 Eastern Illinois, a team the Falcons tied in 2002) ... UC and Miami advanced to the second round of the national tourney.
THEY START YOUNG
All 10 freshman field players on the BGSU roster started at least one match this season ... in fact, of the 21 players who saw action for the Falcons this year, a total of 19 made at least one start ... eight different frosh scored at least one point this season ... the Falcons' starting lineup featured at least three freshmen in each of this season's 22 matches, and at least four frosh in each of the final 21 matches ... head coach Andy Richards started five or more freshmen on 15 occasions.
The .pdf version of this release contains individual player notes and statistics, as well as a page on senior Erika Flanders, who ends her career as one of the top goalkeepers in Mid-American Conference history
NOTING THE FALCONS
Sophomore Kristy Coppes had 26 points this season, tying her for the second-highest total in BG history ... she matched her scoring output from last season, and fell just three points shy of Tracy Gleixner's school-record total of 29 points, amassed in 1998 ... Coppes' career total of five MWGs places her second behind senior Jill Conover's seven ... the Falcons' seven-goal margin of victory vs. Western Michigan (Oct. 25) matched the second-highest figure in school history, and was by far BGSU's most lopsided win in a MAC contest ... BG downed Youngstown State by nine goals last year (10-1; Oct. 3, 2001), and the Falcons also posted a seven-goal win over Robert Morris (Sept. 6, 1998) ... in fact, prior to the WMU contest, BG had never led by more than three goals in a MAC match ... the old school record for margin of victory in a MAC match was three, in 3-0 wins over Ball State (Oct. 8, 2000), Akron (Oct. 5, 2001) and Marshall (Oct. 4, 2002) ... here's a statistical note that would seem to indicate the Falcons' depth and balance this season ... in the 22 matches of the year, BGSU's players in the starting lineups accounted for 20 goals and 25 assists ... the Falcon substitutes accumulated 18 goals and 18 assists on the year ... a total of 17 different players registered at least one point on the season ... that total included eight freshmen ... the frosh combined for 18 of BG's 38 goals and 30 of the team's 43 assists ... only three players -- senior Erika Flanders, junior Kasey Freeman and freshman Julie Trundle -- started all 22 matches ... Coppes, BG's leading scorer overall, also led the team in scoring in MAC matches ... she had 14 points in conference play, one ahead of Trundle and four in front of freshman Samantha Meister ... Trundle's goal vs. Buffalo came on the Falcons' first penalty-kick attempt of the season, and the first since Oct. 9 of last year ... the Falcons now have an all-time record of 7-8-9 in overtime matches, including a 2-1-2 mark this year ... both of this year's extra-time wins came vs. Buffalo ... BGSU is 3-0-7 in road OT matches, and the Falcons have a 3-1-2 mark in overtime contests with non-MAC opponents.
