Falcons Down CMU In PKs To Advance To MAC Championship

Friday, November 7

Kalamazoo, Mich. (MAC Tourn. SF)

11:00 AM

Bowling Green State University

CENTRAL MICHIGAN

November 07, 2003 | Women's Soccer

Nov. 7, 2003

Final Stats

KALAMAZOO, Mich. - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, the eighth and final seed for the Mid-American Conference Tournament, is one of only two teams still alive in the tourney. The Falcons battled fifth-seeded Central Michigan University to a scoreless tie through regulation and a pair of overtimes Friday (Nov. 7), but bested the Chippewas, 4-3, in penalty kicks to advance to the league tourney championship.

The Falcons advance to meet third-seeded Western Michigan University in Sunday's (Nov. 9) championship match, which will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the WMU Soccer Complex. The Broncos downed #7 Ohio University, 2-1, in Friday's second semifinal.

BGSU will play in the MAC Tournament Championship for the second time in four years. The 2002 Falcons, in Andy Richards' first season as head coach, also advanced to the final. Richards has guided the Brown and Orange to at least the semifinal round of the tourney in three of his four seasons.

On a cold, windy day in Kalamazoo, BGSU and CMU battled through a pair of scoreless halves and two scoreless OT periods, before settling matters through penalty kicks. The Chippewas' Katie Conway took the first of CMU's five PK attempts, and Falcon redshirt sophomore Ali Shingler made a kick save to deny Conway's try.

Falcon sophomore Leah Eggleton put her shot past CMU's Anne Decker into the left side of the net, giving the Brown and Orange a 1-0 lead through one 'round.'

Each team then converted three PKs, with Central's Jill Adams, Jacqui Lorenzo and Ashleigh Burke successful, but BG juniors Beth Rieman and Katie Piening and sophomore Samantha Meister matching them kick for kick. With one round of kicks remaining, the Falcons needed only a CMU miss or a goal by sophomore Julie Trundle.

The Falcons celebrate after CMU's Stacy Downing (left) hit the post with her penalty-kick attempt, advancing the Falcons to the MAC final

Trundle never got her chance, as the Chippewas' Stacy Downing tried to go left, but saw her shot hit the post and bound away to send the Falcons to the finals.

CMU sees the 2003 season come to an end with an overall record of 9-8-3. The Chippewas held a 14-8 advantage in shot attempts, including a 6-3 margin in shots on goal. Shingler made six saves in earning her fourth shutout of the season, while Decker made two stops for the Chips. CMU also had one 'team save' as a Central defender cleared a Kristy Coppes shot off the line early in the second half.

Shingler's save total included three stops in the 10-minute second overtime, plus a key save at the end of the first OT. She came out of the net to cut down the angle and thwart CMU's Rachel Snyder on a semi-breakaway with just 11 seconds left in that first overtime period.

BGSU, now 8-11-3 overall (the CMU match counts as a tie in the teams' overall records), becomes the first-ever eight seed to advance to the finals. BG had become the first eight seed to win a MAC Tournament match with Tuesday's (Nov. 4) victory at Eastern Michigan, 2-1.

Sunday's winner will earn the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

NOTES

The Falcons, as mentioned, are the lowest seed ever to qualify for the championship match ... the previous lowest seed to advance to the MAC championship match was the 2000 BGSU team, as the seventh seed.

The Falcons are making the team's second appearance in the final, joining that 2000 squad ... Western will be appearing in the championship match for the first time in school history.

In the history of the MAC Tournament (through Friday's matches), the lower seed has won 16 of the 44 contests ... BGSU has pulled off five of those contests ... only three times has a team seeded five or more spots lower than the opponent pulled the upset ... BGSU has been the victor in two of those three matches, both coming at Eastern Michigan (#7 Falcons downed the #2 Eagles in 2000, before the eighth-seeded BG squad downed top-seeded EMU this year) ... the Falcons are five seeds lower than Sunday's opponent, #3-seeded Western Michigan.

The Falcons extended several school seasonal records ... BGSU has now played eight overtime matches this year ... and, the Falcons have played 15 matches that have been decided by one goal or less, including each of the last nine ... the last BG match decided by more than a goal was the regular-season match at WMU, a 2-0 Bronco win on Oct. 10.

The Falcons, one of only three teams with a winning MAC Tournament record, now have a 5-3-1 mark in league tourney play ... only Miami (11-0-1) and Northern Illinois (5-1-0) have better winning percentages in the tourney, and neither the RedHawks nor the Huskies qualified in 2003 ... Ohio went over the .500 mark with a quarterfinal win, but the Bobcats dropped back to .500 with Friday's loss to WMU.

Eight of BGSU's nine MAC Tournament matches have been decided by one goal or fewer ... of those nine matches, four have gone to overtime.

The Falcons were appearing in the semifinals for the fourth time, tied for second among MAC schools ... Ohio was in the semifinal round for the fifth time, while Miami has made four trips to the semis ... Sunday will mark BG's second appearance in the final, also tied for second among MAC schools ... Miami has played in four finals, while Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois and Ohio each have made two trips to the championship match.
MAC CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES

1997 - at #1 Northern Illinois 3, #3 Eastern Michigan 2 (OT)
1998 - #2 Northern Illinois 2, at #1 Ohio 1 (3-OT)
1999 - at #1 Eastern Michigan 0, #3 Miami 0 *
2000 - #4 Miami 1, #7 Bowling Green 0 (2-OT) (at Buffalo, N.Y.)
2001 - #3 Miami 3, #4 Central Michigan 1 (at Athens, Ohio)
2002 - at #1 Miami 5, #3 Ohio 1
2003 - #8 Bowling Green at #3 Western Michigan

* EMU wins championship on PKs, 5-3

The 2003 Falcons are no strangers to overtime ... BGSU has gone to OT in six of the last nine contests, and the Falcons have hit overtime in a school-record eight matches this season ... the Falcons are now 9-11-12 all-time in overtime, including 2-3-3 this year.

Ali Shingler earned her fourth career shutout, all coming this season ... additionally, Shingler now has a career total of 107 saves ... she ranks second on the BGSU career lists, trailing only Erika Flanders (1999-2002).

QUOTING BGSU COACH ANDY RICHARDS
"We stuck to our task today. I thought, defensively, we played very well today. The conditions were very difficult, even though the (field) surface was very good. Playing in the wind, especially in a crosswind, is difficult. Both teams had a hard time generating a lot of quality offense."

"Defensively, we did a fantastic job. I thought Ali Shingler had a tremendous game in goal for us. When we went to PKs, I said to her, 'You're having a day today; you're gonna do something.' And, as it happened, she made the save (on CMU's first penalty kick), which put all the pressure on the final penalty-taker for Central."

"We didn't run the bench quite as much as we normally do, because the game was so tight; it is difficult to make changes. And, we had some people out there who did an unbelievable job for us. Sam Meister was battered and bruised, but kept going. Kristy Coppes and Britt Anderson ... everyone just kept going and going. I'm tremendously proud of the team today."

"We had practiced (the PKs) in the last couple weeks. I told them to break it down to what they could control. The only thing we can control is making sure we put our penalties away. And, I knew that Ali would make at least one save for us, and that's exactly how it worked out. We scored on all of our penalties, and our practice and mental approach paid off. I'm delighted for the girls, and ecstatic about being in the final. It's a great feeling."

(On making the final as the #8 seed:)
"Well, it's the way we do things at BG. We never do anything easy. I think it plays into our mental state pretty well. We like to be underdogs. When we have adversity, we all seem to come together well. We've had a lot of adversity in our program over the last 12 months or so; some on the soccer level, some on the more tragic level. And, we've been able to overcome that adversity, because we have tremendous spirit and character in our team. I'm very proud of them, and I know that, as the number-eight seed, it does us a favor. There's no pressure on us whatsoever. On Sunday, we'll be the underdogs once again."