Bowling Green State University Athletics
MAC Tournament Begins Tuesday
November 03, 2003 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 3, 2003
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after a solid performance against a nationally-ranked opponent to close the regular season, now will focus on the Mid-American Conference Tournament ... the Falcons of fourth-year head coach Andy Richards (7-11-2, 5-5-2 MAC), seeded eighth for the eight-team tourney, will head to Ypsilanti, Mich., for a 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) ... the highest-remaining seed after Tuesday's quarterfinal matches will host the semifinals and championship contest.
Quarterfinals - Tuesday, November 4 (at campus sites) #8 Bowling Green at #1 Eastern Michigan, 1:30 #7 Ohio at #2 Kent State, 2:00 #6 Buffalo at #3 Western Michigan, 2:00 #5 Central Michigan at #4 Ball State, 2:00Semifinals - Friday, November 7 (at site of highest-remaining seed) BGSU/EMU winner vs. CMU/BSU winner Ohio/KSU winner vs. UB/WMU winner
Championship - Sunday, November 9 (at semifinal site) Semifinal winners
FALCONS MAKE FOURTH MAC TOURNAMENT APPEARANCE
The Falcons, as mentioned, have qualified for the MAC Tournament ... BGSU's win at Marshall on Oct. 26, combined with the Miami win over Akron that same 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 ... Falcon teams qualified for the league tourney in 1998, 2000 and 2002, prior to this season.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT HISTORY
The 2003 season marks the Falcons' fourth MAC Tournament appearance in the seven-year history of the program ... 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.
Last season, the Falcons earned the first-ever MAC Tournament home contest, with a fourth-place finish in the regular season ... the Brown and Orange defeated #5 Buffalo in the quarterfinal round, 2-1 in double overtime ... the teams played a scoreless first half, before UB took the lead at the 56:51 mark ... but BGSU rallied to equalize less than seven minutes later, as Samantha Meister's through-ball found Kristy Coppes for a breakaway goal at 62:17 ... the teams went to overtime, and after a UB foul in the penalty box in the second OT, Julie Trundle scored on a penalty kick to give the Falcons the win ... Flanders made seven saves in earning the victory ... the Falcons travelled to Miami and dropped a 3-0 decision to the top-seeded RedHawks ... MU's Danielle Berkemeier scored all three goals, the first on a corner kick that curved into the net late in the first half ... she scored two more goals in the final 10 minutes of the match, including an 'empty-net' goal when the Falcons, including GK Flanders, were pressing forward ... Flanders, who made eight saves, and Coppes were named to the all-tourney 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 36-39-7 ... 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 OUT
The Falcons played a solid match Friday (Oct. 31), but fell less than a minute shy of knocking off nationally-ranked Ohio State ... Colleen Hoban scored the tying goal with just 25 seconds remaining in regulation, then netted the winning goal in the second overtime as the #16/19 Buckeyes downed the host the Falcons, 3-2 ... sophomore Samantha Meister scored the Falcons' first goal and assisted on the second ... classmate Leah Eggleton scored BGSU's other goal, while redshirt sophomore Ali Shingler made seven saves, including several of the spectacular variety.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU returned 16 letterwinners, including a whopping 10 starters, from last year's team ... the Falcons have gone to overtime in five of the last seven matches, and in a school-record seven matches this season ... sophomore Samantha Meister, who set a single-match record with four goals at Northern Illinois (Oct. 12), leads the Falcons with 23 points ... Meister has nine goals and five assists, tying for the team lead in the former category and ranking second in the latter ... 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 nine goals to tie Meister for the team lead ... sophomore Julie Trundle is third with 12 points, including a BG-best six assists, while sophomore Britt Anderson has nine points ... sophomore Ashley Wentzel and junior Katie Piening each have seven points ... Ali Shingler has seen the bulk of the time in goal, and is 6-10-2 with a goals-against average of 2.12 ... 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 on the BGSU athletics web site, www.bgsufalcons.com.
THE OPPONENT
Eastern Michigan enters the MAC Tournament with an overall record of 9-8-3, and the Eagles tied for first place in the MAC regular-season standings with a final league ledger of 8-2-2 ... Eastern tied Kent State for the regular-season crown, but earned the top seed for the tournament by virtue of a 2-1 victory over the Golden Flashes in the teams' match on Oct. 17 ... the Eagles began MAC play with a 7-0-2 mark, but lost two of the final three conference matches ... EMU has dropped three of four matches, capped by Friday's (Oct. 31) 3-2, double-overtime loss to visiting IPFW ... the Eagles are 4-4-2 at home, including a 4-0-2 record vs. MAC foes at Scicluna Field ... Eastern won the MAC despite losing senior Jessica Hupe, an all-league first-team pick in 2002, to an injury in the fourth match of the year (the BGSU contest) ... individually, freshman Cyndi Mullins has helped fill the void left by Hupe ... Mullins leads the Eagles with eight goals and 18 points ... another freshman, Shannon McIntyre, has nine points, including four goals, to rank second in each category ... junior Michelle Lawrence has eight points, while senior Abi Morrell and sophomore Trisha Roberts each have scored seven points on the year ... in goal, junior Nikki Allen has seen the bulk of the time, and is 7-6-2 with a 1.01 goals-against average ... EMU returned 14 letterwinners from last year's team that went 9-10-2 overall and 5-5-2 in MAC play ... Scott Hall has a record of 61-35-10 in his fifth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Eagles ... the school's athletics web site is www.emich.edu/goeagles.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Eastern Michigan by a 5-3-1 margin in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU has met EMU more often than any other opponent ... Tuesday's match will mark the 10th meeting between the Falcons and Eagles (BG has met Miami nine times) ... additionally, EMU will become the Falcons' most-common MAC Tournament opponent, as Tuesday will be the third time BG has faced Eastern in the league tourney (Falcons have met Miami twice in such matches) ... overall, the Eagles have a three-match unbeaten streak against BGSU, including a 1-0 victory at Cochrane Field earlier this season (Sept. 7, 2003) ... the Falcons, however, hold a 3-2-1 advantage in meetings in Ypsilanti, and BG has a four-match unbeaten streak in road contests vs. the Eagles ... last season, Julie Trundle's goal with just six seconds left in regulation lifted the visiting Falcons to a 2-2 tie at Scicluna Field (Oct. 13, 2002) ... Samantha Meister also scored a goal in that match ... BGSU is 2-0-0 in MAC Tournament matches at EMU, having won quarterfinal contests in 1998 (1-0, Nov. 3) and 2000 (2-1, Oct. 31).
STRIKING SIMILARITIES
There are a few similarities between the 2003 Falcons and Eastern Michigan ... Bowling Green has played a school-record seven overtime matches to date ... likewise, the Eagles also have played seven OT contests ... EMU is 2-2-3 in overtime this year ... BGSU has seen 13 matches this season, including each of the last seven contests, decided by one goal or fewer ... EMU has seen 16 of this season's 20 contests end in either a tie or a one-goal verdict ... each of the Eagles' last nine matches have been decided by a single goal, with EMU having gone 5-4-0 in that time.
WORKING OVERTIME
The Falcons, as mentioned, are no strangers to overtime this season ... BGSU has gone to overtime in five of the last seven matches, and in a school-record seven contests this season ... BGSU teams played five overtime matches in three previous seasons (1999, 2000 and 2002) ... the Falcons are now 9-11-11 all-time in overtime, including 2-3-2 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).
WORKING OVERTIME AT HOME
Five of the Falcons' 10 home matches this year, including each of the final four contests at Cochrane Field, went to overtime ... the Falcons were much more successful on the road than at home in the extra session(s) ... BGSU was just 0-3-2 in home OT contests this season, but the Falcons are 2-0-0 in overtime matches on the road to date.
NOTES FROM THE OHIO STATE MATCH
Falcon freshman Jenny Matson made the first match appearance of her collegiate career in Friday's (Oct. 31) contest vs. Ohio State ... Matson played the final 3:05 of the first half vs. the Buckeyes ... the Falcons became only the second team to score as many as two goals vs. the Buckeyes in 18 matches this year to date ... OSU also allowed two goals in a shutout loss to Illinois on Oct. 10 ... in fact, in 17 contests this year (prior to the BGSU match), the Buckeyes had allowed only 10 goals all season ... OSU entered the BGSU match ranked #16 in the nation in the latest Soccer Buzz poll, and the Buckeyes were 19th in both the NSCAA/adidas and Soccertimes.com polls ... Ohio State is believed to be the first nationally-ranked team to play the Falcon women at Cochrane Field.
SOME MORE WACKY OVERTIME FACTS
A few more facts 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 vs. Marshall (Oct. 26) marked the second time BGSU has beaten the Thundering Herd in overtime ... the Falcons also have downed Buffalo in overtime twice, with both matches coming in 2002.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
The Falcons are 9-2-1 in the last 12 MAC regular-season road contests ... in the history of the Falcon program, BGSU is now 16-16-5 in MAC regular-season road matches ... the Falcons are just 10-24-4 all-time in home MAC regular-season action, however.
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.
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 regular season -- she has scored 12 goals in her last 17 league regular-season matches ... this season, Meister's first eight goals came in MAC contests, prior to her finding the back of the net vs. Ohio State (Oct. 31).
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 23 points this year, including 17 in the Falcons' 12 MAC contests ... eight of her nine goals came in league play ... likewise, classmate Julie Trundle has been successful in MAC action ... Trundle has scored 10 of her 12 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 Eastern Michigan match with a total of 37 career points, after just 35 career contests ... she has moved into fifth place on the school career points list ... Meister has 15 career goals to rank fifth on that BGSU list, and now has 10 assists, deadlocking her for sixth on that chart ... Julie Trundle now ranks eighth at BG with a career total of 30 points ... Trundle has eight career goals (T-eighth), and has 14 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. Marshall 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 had an assist vs. Ohio State, and now is deadlocked for sixth on the BGSU chart with 10 assists ... Piening's 22 career points place her 11th in school annals ... junior Nikki Pucillo has nine career assists to tie her for eighth in school history.
SHINGLER'S SAVES, SHUTOUT SEND HER INTO SECOND
With seven saves vs. Kent State (Oct. 19), redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Ali Shingler moved past Kit Gazley (76 saves in 1997) into second place on the BGSU career saves list ... entering the Eastern Michigan match, Shingler now has a total of 93 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.
