Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons, Western Michigan Meet For MAC Title
November 08, 2003 | Women's Soccer
Nov. 8, 2003
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, for the second time in four seasons, has advanced to the championship match of the Mid-American Conference Tournament ... the Falcons of fourth-year head coach Andy Richards (8-11-3 [5-5-2 MAC]), the first-ever #8 seed to advance past the opening round, will take on third-seeded Western Michigan University in the final, at the Broncos' home field, Sunday (Nov. 9) ... the title match will begin at 1:00 p.m. at the WMU Soccer Complex.
The BGSU-WMU winner will earn the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships ... both the Falcons and Broncos are looking for the first MAC crown and NCAA berth in school history.
Quarterfinals - Tuesday, November 4 (at campus sites) #8 Bowling Green 2, at #1 Eastern Michigan 1 #7 Ohio 1, at #2 Kent State 0 at #3 Western Michigan 3, #6 Buffalo 0 #5 Central Michigan 2, at #4 Ball State 0Semifinals - Friday, November 7 (at Kalamazoo, Mich.) #8 Bowling Green 0, #5 Central Michigan 0 (2-OT) (BGSU advances, 4-3, on PKs) at #3 Western Michigan 2, #7 Ohio 1
Championship - Sunday, November 9 (at Kalamazoo, Mich.) #8 Bowling Green at #3 Western Michigan, 1:00 p.m.
FALCONS ADVANCE TO FINAL ON PENALTY KICKS
The Falcons battled Central Michigan through 110 scoreless minutes of play Friday (Nov. 7), before the contest came down to penalty kicks ... in CMU's first of five attempts, BG redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Ali Shingler made a kick save to deny Katie Conway ... sophomore Leah Eggleton then put the Falcons ahead after one round ... each of the next three players for each team converted their kicks, with juniors Beth Rieman and Katie Piening and sophomore Samantha Meister successful for the Brown and Orange ... CMU's Stacy Downing saw her shot hit the post and bound away, giving the Falcons the victory ... Shingler had six saves to earn the shutout in the match, which officially goes in the books as a 0-0 tie.
BGSU'S MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
FALCONS GET INTO TOURNEY ON FINAL DAY
BGSU's win at Marshall on Oct. 26 -- the final day of the league regular-season schedule -- combined with the Miami win over Akron that same afternoon, gave the Falcons the eighth and final berth in the 2003 tournament ... the Brown and Orange then went to #1-seeded EMU and won on Tuesday, and moved past #5 Central Michigan on the basis of penalty kicks Friday, setting up Sunday's final vs. Western Michigan.
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 BGSU 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
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 37-39-8 ... he has led BGSU to the two finest seasons in school history to date, and has now taken three of his four Falcon teams to the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament ... Sunday will mark the Falcons' second league championship-match appearance in Richards' tenure.
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 ... the 2003 season marks the third time in Richards' four years that the Falcons have advanced to the semifinal round of the league tourney.
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.
MEISTER EARNS ALL-MAC FIRST-TEAM HONORS
Sophomore Samantha Meister was named to the 2003 All-MAC First Team ... the awards were announced at the league tournament banquet Thursday (Nov. 6) in Kalamazoo, Mich. ... Meister becomes the third Falcon in the history of the program to be named to the all-conference first team, joining Tracy Gleixner (1998) and Erika Flanders (2002).
SHINGLER NAMED TO ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM
Redshirt sophomore Ali Shingler has been named to the Academic All-District IV University Division Women's Soccer team, it was announced Thursday (Nov. 6) ... Shingler was named to the third team ... Shingler, who maintains a perfect 4.00 cumulative grade point average as a biology major, is only the second student-athlete in the history of the program to earn such honors ... Jill Conover was a first-team selection in 2001 and also made the second team in 2002 ... the team is made up of student-athletes from Division I schools in the states of Alabama, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee ... to be nominated, a student-athlete must hold at least sophomore status, be a starter or key reserve, and carry a cumulative GPA of 3.20 or higher ... team members are selected by a vote of members of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) within the district.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU returned 16 letterwinners, including a whopping 10 starters, from last year's team ... the Falcons have gone to overtime in six of the last nine matches, and BGSU has played a school-record eight OT contests this season ... sophomore Samantha Meister, who set a single-match record with four goals at Northern Illinois (Oct. 12), leads the Falcons with 26 points ... Meister has 10 goals and six assists, leading the team 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 ... sophomore Julie Trundle is third with 13 points, including a BG-best seven assists, while sophomore Britt Anderson has nine points ... sophomores Leah Eggleton and Ashley Wentzel and junior Katie Piening each have seven points ... Ali Shingler has seen the bulk of the time in goal, and is 7-10-3 with a goals-against average of 1.93 ... 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.
THE OPPONENT
Western Michigan enters Sunday's MAC Tournament final with an overall record of 12-7-1 ... the Broncos finished third in the regular-season race with a league ledger of 8-4-0, and won a pair of home tourney matches to reach the final ... the #3 Broncos defeated #6 Buffalo, 3-0, in the quarterfinals, before posting a 2-1 victory over #7 Ohio Friday in the semifinal round ... Western Michigan is a perfect 9-0-0 at home this season, and the Broncos have won eight consecutive matches overall ... individually, freshman Chantal Robinson leads the team in scoring ... her 19 points include a team-high 11 assists ... senior Jessica Pattison is second on the Broncos with 15 points, including a team-high seven goals, while classmate Megan Urbats has four goals and five assists for 13 points ... sophomore Katie Ruzinsky also is in double digits, with 10 points on the season ... in goal, sophomore Kate Perz has played every minute of every match, and has 73 saves and a goals-against average of 1.18 ... WMU returned 13 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team that went 7-10-1 overall and 5-5-1 in MAC play ... head coach Mike Haines has a record of 53-56-7 in his sixth season with the Broncos ... overall, he is 85-59-10 in his eighth season as a collegiate head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.wmubroncos.com.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Western Michigan by a 6-2-0 margin in the all-time series between the teams ... but, one of the Falcons' two wins came in the teams' lone previous MAC Tournament meeting ... BGSU downed the Broncos, 2-1, in the semifinal round of the 2000 league tourney in Buffalo, N.Y. ... in this season's regular-season meeting, host WMU posted a 2-0 win (Oct. 10), the first victory of the team's current eight-match win streak ... the Broncos have won all four previous meetings in Kalamazoo ... BGSU posted a 7-0 win in the teams' 2002 meeting (Oct. 25, 2002) at the Falcons' Cochrane Field.
CLOSE CALLS
The Falcons have now seen a school-record 15 matches this season, including each of the last nine contests, decided by one goal or fewer ... the last BGSU match decided by more than one goal was the regular-season match at Western Michigan, a 2-0 Bronco win on Oct. 10.
THEY SNAPPED THE STREAK
That WMU match on Oct. 10 also ended the Falcons' MAC-regular unbeaten streak in league regular-season matches ... the Brown and Orange had been undefeated in eight MAC road matches, dating to the end of the 2001 season, prior to falling to the Broncos earlier this year.
WORKING OVERTIME
The Falcons are no strangers to overtime this season ... BGSU went to overtime in five of the last seven regular-season matches, and -- after Friday's contest vs. Central Michigan -- the Falcons have hit OT in a school-record eight contests this season ... BGSU teams played five overtime matches in three previous seasons (1999, 2000 and 2002) ... the Falcons are now 9-11-12 all-time in overtime, including 2-3-3 this year.
SHINGLER'S SAVES, SHUTOUT SEND HER INTO SECOND
With seven saves in a 0-0 tie 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 Western Michigan match, Shingler now has a total of 107 career stops ... Erika Flanders (1999-2002) holds the school record, with a total of 473 career saves ... Shingler's shutout vs. Central Michigan Friday (Nov. 7) marked her fourth complete-match shutout, both of the season and of her career, placing her second on that list ... Flanders had a school-record 17 shutouts in her Falcon tenure.
MORE ON SHINGLER
Ali Shingler's six saves in the Central Michigan match Friday (Nov. 7) included three stops in the 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 ... and, Shingler made another big save that does not show up on the CMU box score ... she stopped the Chippewas' first penalty-kick attempt, by Katie Conway, to give the Falcons the early advantage and a great deal of momentum.
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 ... on the month's final 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 have another chance for some Sunday magic in 2003, as the MAC Tournament's championship contest falls on a Sunday (Nov. 9).
SPREADING AROUND THE STARTS
A total of 19 different Falcons have started at least one match this season to date ... only three Falcons -- senior co-captain Kasey Freeman, junior Beth Rieman and sophomore Samantha Meister -- have started all 22 matches in 2003.
