Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host UA, UB To Close Regular Season
April 17, 2003 | Women's Tennis
April 17, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University women's tennis team wraps up the regular-season schedule with a pair of home matches this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, 8-10 overall and 3-4 in Mid-American Conference dual-match action, will complete a three-match homestand with a Friday (April 18) match vs. the University of Akron and a Saturday (April 19) contest vs. the University at Buffalo ... both matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at BGSU's Keefe Courts, weather permitting.
Following this weekend's action, BGSU will prepare for the MAC Championships, which will be hosted by Eastern Michigan University April 24-27 ... all 10 teams qualify for the tournament, with the top-six finishers earning first-round byes ... the seventh-seeded team will face the #10 seed in first-round play on Thursday, April 24, while the #8 and #9 teams also will meet in a first-round match that day ... the two winners will join the other six teams in the quarterfinal round on Friday, April 25.
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 133-133 with the Falcons, and is 179-177 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
For the second consecutive match, Falcon freshman Heidi Romer found herself on the court in the decisive singles match, as BG battled Ball State Saturday (April 12) ... and, for the second-straight match, Romer picked up a third-set victory to lead BGSU to a 4-3 win ... Ball State picked up wins at each of the top two flights to claim the doubles point, with BGSU's lone win coming courtesy of Romer and classmate Andrea Meister ... in singles play, the teams split the four matches that ended in the minimum two sets ... sophomore Susie Schoenberger (second flight) and senior Alyson Gabel (third flight) picked up wins in straight sets for the Brown and Orange, with Schoenberger losing a total of only three games ... the Cardinals won the first- and fifth-flight matches ... with just two matches still in progress, the Falcons trailed by a 3-2 count and needed a win in each remaining match ... junior Gaby Coello, after losing a second-set tiebreaker to BSU's Susan Kelley, trailed by a 5-4 score in the third set, but rallied to win the set, 7-5, and take their fourth-flight match ... Romer had dropped her opening set to Alyce Zollman in a tiebreaker, but rallied for a 6-2 win in the second set ... in the third set, the Falcon freshman took a 4-1 lead, then saw Zollman reel off three consecutive games to tie the set at 4-4 ... but, Romer took the next two games to close out the match ... seven days earlier, Romer had posted a sixth-flight win over Miami's Maura Trauernicht as the Falcons downed the RedHawks, 4-3.
THE OPPONENTS
Akron enters the weekend with an overall record of 6-12 ... the Zips are 1-6 in MAC play after losing at Toledo (3-4) and Eastern Michigan (1-6) last weekend ... UA rebounded for a 7-0 non-league win over IPFW Monday ... the Zips' lone MAC victory came over Buffalo, 4-3 on April 4 ... junior Irina Strembitsky has won 12-straight singles matches, including a victory over last year's MAC Player of the Year (EMU's Lisa D'Amelio) ... Strembitsky is 15-2 in dual-match play, incuding 6-1 in MAC action.
Buffalo has an overall dual-match record of 6-11 ... the Bulls will take a MAC record of 0-7 into a Friday contest at Ball State, before coming to BG for Saturday's match ... UB is looking to reverse a 10-match losing streak, including losses to Eastern Michigan (0-7) and Toledo (1-6) last weekend ... the team's last win came over Rochester (5-2) on Feb. 22 ... Karen Maynard is the Bulls' number-one singles player, while Kristen Ortman has an 11-9 singles mark, primarily at the second flight ... Ortman is 3-4 in MAC play.
EIGHTH WIN OF THE YEAR
The Falcons' win over Ball State Saturday (April 12) was the team's eighth dual-match victory of the season, topping last year's total by three ... the Brown and Orange went 5-18 during all of last season ... entering the UA match, BGSU is 8-10 in dual action.
LOOKING TO EXTEND THE STREAK
The Falcons have won two consecutive matches heading into the final weekend of the regular season ... BGSU is looking to match a season-best three-match win streak set from Feb. 21-28 (vs. Wright State, Butler and Toledo) ... with two victories this weekend, BGSU would have a four-match win streak for the first time in over two years (Feb. 24-March 24, 2001) ... a four-match winning streak in MAC regular-season play would be the Falcons' first since BG won the last three MAC matches in 1982-83 and the opening league contest in 1983-84.
DOUBLES TROUBLE
Believe it or not, the Falcons have yet to win the doubles point in MAC play ... BGSU has gone 4-17 in doubles action in the seven conference matches to date ... despite the slow starts, the Falcons have rebounded to win the match on three occasions, vs. Toledo (Feb. 28), Miami (April 5) and Ball State (April 12) ... in 18 dual matches this season, BGSU has won the doubles point only four times, vs. Wayne State (Oct. 22), Youngstown State (Feb. 2), Cincinnati (Feb. 8) and Wright State (Feb. 21) ... but, the Falcons are 5-9 when the opponent wins the doubles point ... BGSU is 3-1 when winning the opening point in dual-match play this season.
TOPPING LAST YEAR'S TOTALS
The 2002-03 Falcons have eight returnees from last season ... five of those eight 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, 21 this year) and sophomores Laura Kokinda (16, 19), Lindsey Mix (3, 11) and Susie Schoenberger (18, 20) 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 five wins shy, respectively, of their 2001-02 totals.
