Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Prepare For MAC Tournament With Friday's OSU Match
October 29, 2003 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 29, 2003
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, having qualified for the Mid-American Conference Tournament, briefly steps outside of league action this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards (7-10-2, 5-5-2 MAC) will close the regular-season schedule, and the home slate, with Friday's (Oct. 31) match vs. The Ohio State University ... the Falcons and nationally-ranked Buckeyes will meet at Cochrane Field, with kickoff set for 2:30 p.m.
Then, the Falcons will head to Ypsilanti, Mich., for a MAC Tournament Quarterfinal match vs. top-seeded Eastern Michigan University on Tuesday (Nov. 4) ... that contest will begin at 1:30 p.m. at Scicluna Field ... the BGSU-EMU winner will advance to the semifinal round, which will be held Friday, Nov. 7 ... the championship match is slated for Sunday, Nov. 9.
FALCONS MAKE MAC TOURNAMENT
The Falcons, as mentioned, have qualified for the MAC Tournament ... BGSU's win at Marshall on Sunday (Oct. 26), plus the Miami win over Akron that afternoon, gave the Falcons the eighth and final berth in the tourney ... BGSU has qualified for the MAC Tournament for the fourth time in the seven-year history of the program ... for the first time ever, though, BG will make back-to-back league tourney appearances ... the tourney begins on Tuesday (Nov. 4) with the first- through fourth-place teams hosting the four quarterfinal matches ... the four winners move to the site of the highest-remaining seed for the semifinals (Nov. 7) and championship (Nov. 9).
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
 Senior Carrie Richards  |
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Friday's Ohio State match will mark 'Senior Day' at Cochrane Field, as the Falcons' two seniors will be recognized prior to the 2:30 p.m. match ... co-captains Kasey Freeman and Carrie Richards are the lone seniors on the 2003 Falcon squad.
HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS
Andy Richards is in his fourth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 36-38-7 ... he has led BGSU to the two finest seasons in school history to date ... last season, Richards performed one of the top coaching jobs in the MAC, if not the Midwest, guiding the Brown and Orange to a 12-8-2 record and a fourth-place MAC finish ... Richards, who came to BG after five years as an assistant coach at Oregon State University, was hired in April of 2000 ... he led his first Falcon team all the way to the championship match of the MAC Tournament.
Ashlee Orr is in her fourth season with the Falcon program as well ... Orr was named the BGSU assistant coach in late August of 2000 ... Darin Karbler is in his second season as a volunteer assistant coach.
LAST TIME(S) OUT
The Falcons played two more close matches last week, splitting a pair of one-goal contests on the road ... on Friday (Oct. 24), Ohio's Tiffany Horvath scored after a collision with Falcon goalkeeper Ali Shingler, giving the Bobcats a 2-1 win ... junior Kristy Coppes had BG's lone goal, while Shingler made six saves ... Sunday (Oct. 26), sophomore Samantha Meister's overtime goal gave the Brown and Orange a 4-3 win at Marshall ... junior Katie Piening and sophomores Julie Trundle and Megan Rapp also scored goals, while soph Ashley Wentzel had a pair of assists.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU returned 16 letterwinners, including a whopping 10 starters, from last year's team ... the Falcons have gone to overtime in four of the last six matches, and in a school-record six matches this season ... sophomore Samantha Meister, who set a single-match record with four goals at Northern Illinois, leads the Falcons with 20 points ... Meister has eight goals and four assists, ranking second and third on the team, respectively ... junior Kristy Coppes, the team's leading scorer in each of her first two seasons at BGSU, is second on the 2003 team with 19 points, including a team-leading nine goals ... sophomore Julie Trundle is third with 11 points, including five assists to tie for the team lead, while sophomore Britt Anderson has nine points ... sophomore Ashley Wentzel's seven points include five assists, tying her with Trundle ... Ali Shingler has seen the bulk of the time in goal, and is 6-9-2 with a goals-against average of 2.08 ... senior Jenifer Kernahan has played in six matches, starting two, and is 1-1-0 with a 1.42 GAA ... head coach Andy Richards has seven newcomers on the 26-player roster, including Kernahan ... more information on the Falcons can be found elsewhere on the BGSU athletics web site, www.bgsufalcons.com.
THE OPPONENT
Ohio State enters the BGSU match with an overall record of 11-3-3, and the Buckeyes finished Big Ten Conference play with a league record of 4-3-3 ... OSU is ranked in a number of national polls ... the Buckeyes are #16 in the Soccer Buzz poll, and are 19th in both the NSCAA/adidas and Soccertimes.com polls ... OSU has won three of the last four matches, with the lone loss coming to #5 Penn State Friday (Oct. 24) ... OSU rebounded with a 4-0 win at Loyola (Ill.) Monday (Oct. 27) ... the Bucks have posted the best 17-match record in the 10-year history of the program ... OSU, 7-0 in non-conference play this year, is the fifth seed for the Big Ten Tournament ... individually, sophomore Colleen Hoban leads the team with seven goals and 17 points, while junior Kathy Fulk has 12 points on the year ... three other players -- juniors Heather Miller (11) and Emily Gilbert (11) and sophomore Danielle Dietrich (10) -- each have reached double digits in points ... in goal, freshman Staci Sinkway is 4-2-1 with a goals-against average of just 0.51 ... junior Emily Haynam has started 11 contests, and is 4-1-2 with a GAA of 0.68 ... Ohio State returned 15 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year's team that went 10-11-1 overall and won the Big Ten Tournament to advance to the 2002 NCAA Tourney ... head coach Lori Walker has a record of 71-59-9 in her seventh season with the Buckeyes ... she is 84-82-10 in her ninth year overall ... the school's athletics web site is www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Ohio State by a 2-1-0 margin in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU, however, won the most recent meeting, a 2-0 triumph in Columbus two years ago (Sept. 18, 2001) ... Kristy Coppes scored a goal in that match, with Katie Piening drawing an assist ... the teams have met in the odd-numbered years, with the Buckeyes picking up wins in the first two series meetings ... OSU won a 3-0 decision in Columbus in BGSU's fourth-ever match (Sept. 6, 1997), and the Bucks took a 1-0 win on Oct. 27, 1999, in the lone prior meeting at Cochrane Field.
WORKING OVERTIME
The Falcons have gone to overtime in four of the last six matches, and in a school-record six contests this season ... BGSU teams played five overtime matches in three previous seasons (1999, 2000 and 2002) ... the Falcons are now 9-10-11 all-time in overtime, including 2-2-2 this year.
WORKING OVERTIME IN THE MAC (also titled: PARITY? PERHAPS)
Six of BGSU's 12 MAC matches this season went to overtime ... in fact, 10 of the Falcons' 12 league contests were decided by one goal or less ... the Falcons went to OT against regular-season co-champion Kent State, as well as against the teams that finished 12th (Marshall) and 13th (Northern Illinois).
MEISTER IS MAGIC IN OVERTIME
Sophomore Samantha Meister scored the overtime winner as the Falcons triumphed, 4-3, at Marshall Sunday (Oct. 26) ... Meister now has two OT goals this season and three in her career ... Meister is the lone player in school history to score more than one career overtime goal ... all three of Meister's OT winners have come on the road in MAC play ... in addition to the Marshall match, she scored 'Golden Goals' to win at Buffalo last year (Oct. 20, 2002) and at Northern Illinois earlier in October (Oct. 12) ... on the year, Meister now has a team-high 20 points, on eight goals and four assists.
BGSU'S OVERTIME GOALS
PLAYER (DATE, OPPONENT) Kerry McKee (Aug. 29, 1997 at Kent) Michelle Lisy (Aug. 27, 1999 vs. Michigan State) Susan Wallace (Aug. 27, 2000 vs. Bucknell [at Kent, Ohio]) Tracy Gleixner (Sept. 24, 2000 at Eastern Michigan Jill Conover (Oct. 13, 2000 vs. Marshall) Samantha Meister (Oct. 20, 2002 at Buffalo) Julie Trundle (Nov. 6, 2002 vs. Buffalo) Samantha Meister (Oct. 12, 2003 at Northern Illinois) Samantha Meister (Oct. 26, 2003 at Marshall)
SOME MORE WACKY OVERTIME FACTS
A few more notes regarding the Falcons in overtime matches ... the Falcons' first three OT goals in school history all came in the month of August ... the first of those goals is believed to be the first regular-season 'Golden Goal' in NCAA Division-I history, Kerry McKee's marker on Aug. 29, 1997, at Kent (in the school's first-ever match) ... the school record for OT goals in a season is three, coming in the 2000 campaign ... BGSU has had two OT scores in each of the last two seasons ... six of the Falcons' 10 OT goals have come away from home, including all three of Samantha Meister's tallies ... Meister's goal Sunday marked the second time BGSU has beaten Marshall in overtime ... the Falcons also have downed Buffalo in overtime twice, with both matches coming in 2002.
COMING BACK FROM TWO GOALS DOWN
A team coming back from two goals down is relatively rare ... unless, of course, that team is the 2003 Falcons ... in 138 matches in the history of the BGSU women's soccer program, only seven times has a team gone ahead by two goals and failed to win the match ... it has happened, however, in three matches since the beginning of October ... BGSU battled back from two-goal deficits to win at both Miami (3-2; Oct. 5) and Northern Illinois (4-3 in OT; Oct. 12), prior to doing the same thing at Marshall Sunday ... the Falcons have now come back from two goals down twice vs. the Thundering Herd, both times at Sam Hood Field ... additionally, it has happened in each of the last three meetings between BGSU and Northern Illinois.
RAPP SHEET
Sophomore Megan Rapp scored her first collegiate goal in the Marshall match (Oct. 26) ... Rapp's goal tied the score at 3-3 with 4:32 left in regulation, setting the stage for the Falcons' OT win ... Rapp becomes the eighth different Falcon player to score a goal this year.
WENTZEL LENDS AN ASSIST
Sophomore Ashley Wentzel had the first two-assist match of her Falcon career at Marshall ... Wentzel now has five assists this fall, tying her for the team lead ... she has eight career assists, moving her into a tie for 12th place on the BGSU list.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
The Falcons are 9-2-1 in the last 12 MAC regular-season road contests, spanning the 2002 and 2003 seasons.
COPPES EXTENDS BGSU CAREER RECORDS
Kristy Coppes scored the Falcons' lone goal in the match at Ohio (Oct. 24), extending two of her own school records in the process ... Coppes, just a junior, now has totals of 33 career goals and 71 points in the Brown and Orange ... this season, she currently has 19 points, including a team-high nine goals.
FALCONS FINALLY BREAK THROUGH
Believe it or not, the goal by Kristy Coppes was the first goal the Falcons have ever scored against Ohio ... BGSU has recorded one tie in the seven-match series, but that was a scoreless deadlock.
HAVE A YEAR
Sophomore Samantha Meister was injured in only her third career match, and missed seven contests early last season with a broken nose ... upon her return, she scored her first collegiate goal in her fourth match back, at Central Michigan on Oct. 11, 2002 ... in 22 matches over the next calendar year (plus one day), Meister scored a total of 13 goals ... she has been at her best in MAC play, as -- through the end of the 2003 MAC regular season -- she has scored 12 goals in her last 17 league regular-season matches ... this season, all eight of Meister's goals have come in MAC contests.
EVEN STEVEN
The Falcons finished with an even .500 winning percentage in MAC play, with five wins, five losses and a pair of ties ... in the 12 league matches, BGSU scored 20 goals and allowed 20.
MIGHTY IN THE MAC
Sophomore Samantha Meister has had a solid season, but has been especially prolific in MAC play ... Meister has a team-leading 20 points this year, including 17 in the Falcons' 12 MAC contests ... all eight of her goals have come in league play ... likewise, classmate Julie Trundle has been successful in MAC action ... Trundle has scored 10 of her 11 points this year vs. conference foes, including all three goals ... Kristy Coppes finished third on the team with eight points (on four goals) in conference play.
SOPHOMORES ALREADY ON CAREER LISTS
A trio of sophomores are moving up the BGSU career scoring lists ... Samantha Meister enters the Ohio State match with a total of 37 career points, after just 34 career contests ... she has moved into a tie for fifth place on the school career points list ... Meister has 14 career goals to rank fifth on that BGSU list, and now has nine assists, deadlocking her for sixth on that chart ... Julie Trundle, like Meister, had a goal in the Marshall match, and now is tied for eighth at BG with a career total of 29 points ... Trundle has eight career goals (T-eighth), and has 13 assists as a Falcon, a total that places her fourth in school history ... another soph, Britt Anderson, has seven career goals to tie for 10th on the school list ... Anderson has a total of 18 points as a Falcon, putting her into the top 15 ... classmate Ashley Wentzel's two assists vs. the Herd give her eight for her career, tying her for 12th in Falcon annals.
DON'T FORGET US JUNIORS
Three juniors also are on the school scoring lists ... Kristy Coppes, as mentioned, holds the BGSU records with 33 goals and 71 points ... Katie Piening found the net vs. Marshall, and now has six career goals to tie for 13th in school history ... she is deadlocked for sixth on the BGSU chart with nine assists ... Piening's 21 career points place her in an 11th-place tie ... junior Nikki Pucillo, like Piening, has nine career assists to tie her for sixth in school history.
SHINGLER'S SAVES, SHUTOUT SEND HER INTO SECOND
With seven saves vs. Kent State, redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Ali Shingler moved past Kit Gazley (76 saves in 1997) into second place on the BGSU career saves list ... entering the Ohio State match, Shingler now has a total of 86 career stops ... Erika Flanders (1999-2002) holds the school record, with a total of 473 career saves ... the KSU match also marked Shingler's third complete-match shutout, both of the season and of her career, moving her into second on that list ... Flanders had a school-record 17 shutouts in her Falcon tenure.
YET ANOTHER SUNDAY, YET ANOTHER COMEBACK
The Falcons had some interesting matches on Sundays in the month of October ... on three of those four Sundays, BGSU fell behind by two goals, but came back to win ... on Oct. 5, the Brown and Orange rallied from a 2-0 hole for the program's first-ever win over Miami, 3-2 ... then, seven days later, Samantha Meister's four-goal outburst brought BG back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 at Northern Illinois ... the next Sunday saw the Falcons battle to a double-overtime draw, 0-0, with eventual regular-season co-champion Kent State ... last Sunday (Oct. 26), the Falcons reprised the NIU match, again going down by a pair of goals before getting another Meister score in OT for a 4-3 win ... the Falcons would like another chance for some Sunday magic in 2003 ... BGSU's next possible Sunday match would be the MAC Tournament's championship contest, on Nov. 9.
I REMEMBER YOU
Falcon assistant coach Ashlee Orr is a graduate of BGSU's Friday foe, Ohio State ... Orr, who began her collegiate tenure at the U.S. Naval Academy, transferred to OSU and earned a letter as a junior in 1997 ... she played in 21 matches that year, making 20 starts for head coach Lori Walker ... one of those starts, incidentally, came in the Buckeyes' 3-0 win over BGSU (Sept. 6, 1997) ... she was elected a team captain in 1998, but was forced to sit out the season as a redshirt, then was unable to play in 1999 due to a recurring injury.
