Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Return Home, Face Ball State Saturday
April 10, 2003 | Women's Tennis
April 10, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's team is entering the homestretch of the 2002-03 season ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, 7-10 overall and 2-4 in Mid-American Conference dual-match action, will play the final three regular-season matches at home, beginning with a Saturday (April 12) contest vs. Ball State University ... that match, weather permitting, will be held at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus, beginning at 1:00 p.m.
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Following the BSU match, the Falcons will close the regular season with a pair of home matches next weekend ... BGSU will take on the University of Akron on Friday, April 18, before facing the University at Buffalo on Saturday, April 19 ... both of those matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts ... then, the team will prepare for the MAC Championships, which will be hosted by Eastern Michigan University April 24-27.
HEAD COACH PENNY DEAN
Penny Dean (Michigan, '67) is in her 13th season as head coach of the BGSU women's tennis team and her 17th year as a collegiate head coach ... she has a record of 132-133 with the Falcons, and is 178-177 overall ... Dean has led the Brown and Orange to double-digit win totals in eight of her first 12 seasons, including a school record 16 victories in 1998-99 ... both that '98-99 team and the 1999-2000 squad tied the BGSU record for MAC wins in a season, going 6-3 in each case ... prior to joining the Falcons, Dean spent four years as head coach at the University of Toledo ... she also spent eight years as the tennis director at the Toledo Country Club, while also serving as tennis professional at Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Maumee.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons closed a four-match road swing by splitting a pair of matches ... BGSU dropped a Friday (April 4) match to 62nd-ranked Marshall, 7-0 ... but, the Falcons rebounded to post a 4-3 victory over Miami Saturday (April 5) ... despite losing the doubles point to the RedHawks, the Falcons won four of the six singles matches to take the win ... junior Lisa Maloney (No. 2), senior Alyson Gabel (No. 3), and junior Gaby Coello (No. 4) all won their singles contests in straight sets ... Gabel, a transfer from Miami, lost only four total games in downing Nancy Wiegand ... in the lone singles match to require three sets, freshman Heidi Romer outlasted MU's Maura Trauernicht for the win at the sixth flight ... Maloney and sophomore Susie Schoenberger had picked up BG's only doubles win, at the No. 1 flight.
THE OPPONENT
Ball State, like BGSU, enters the weekend with an overall record of 7-10 ... the Cardinals are 1-5 in MAC play after losing at Miami (4-3) and Marshall (7-0) last weekend ... BSU has also lost to Eastern Michigan (5-2), Western Michigan (7-0) and Northern Illinois (6-1) in MAC action, while defeating Toledo (7-0) ... junior Melissa Roach leads the Cards with an overall singles record of 24-12 ... the match at BGSU will mark the eighth consecutive road contest for Ball State, which last played at home on March 1.
DOUBLES TROUBLE
Believe it or not, the Falcons have yet to win the doubles point in MAC play ... BGSU has gone 3-15 in doubles action in the six conference matches to date ... despite the slow start, the Falcons have rebounded to win the match on two occasions, vs. Toledo (Feb. 28) and Miami (April 5) ... in 17 dual matches this season, BGSU has won the doubles point only three times, vs. Wayne State (Oct. 22), Youngstown State (Feb. 2) and Wright State (Feb. 21) ... the Falcons are 3-0 in dual-match play when winning the doubles point, and 4-10 when the opponent takes the opening point.
SEVENTH WIN OF THE YEAR
The Falcons' win at Miami Saturday (April 5) was the team's seventh dual-match victory of the season, topping last year's total by two ... the Brown and Orange went 5-18 during all of last season ... entering the Ball State match, BGSU is 7-10 in dual action.
ROMER MAKES HER MARK
Freshman Heidi Romer has had a solid start to her collegiate career ... Romer has been a regular in the singles lineup, and has posted a 14-12 overall singles mark this year ... she leads the Falcons in singles wins, both overall and in MAC play (3-2) ... she is 6-3 in matches at the sixth flight this season.
TOPPING LAST YEAR'S TOTALS
The 2002-03 Falcons have eight returnees from last season ... five of those eight already have surpassed their win totals for all of last year ... sophomore Cameron Benjamin had a total of eight wins last season, and already has won 22 total matches (singles and doubles) in 2002-03 ... likewise, junior Gaby Coello (17 wins last year, 20 this year) and sophomores Laura Kokinda (16, 19), Lindsey Mix (3, 11) and Susie Schoenberger (18, 19) have topped their victory totals from last year ... with 19 wins this season to date, junior co-captain Lisa Maloney has matched her total for last year ... junior Jessica Johnson and senior co-captain Alyson Gabel are just four and six wins shy, respectively, of their 2001-02 totals.
