Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head To MAC Championships
April 22, 2003 | Women's Tennis
April 22, 2003
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -
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The Bowling Green State University women's tennis team, having won four consecutive matches to close the 2002-03 regular season, now prepares for the Mid-American Conference Championships ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, 10-10 overall, finished the regular season in fifth place in the final MAC standings with a league record of 5-4 ... BGSU, picked to finish seventh in the preseason coaches poll, has earned the fifth seed for the MAC Championships, and will face fourth-seeded Northern Illinois in Friday's (April 25) quarterfinal round ... the championships will be held in Ypsilanti, Mich., with the BGSU-NIU match scheduled for 10:00 a.m. at Ypsilanti High School ... the complete bracket for the MAC Championships follows:
Thu.-Sun., April 24-27 - Ypsilanti, Mich.
First Round - Thursday, April 24 #7 Ball State vs. #10 Buffalo, 10:00 a.m. #8 Toledo vs. #9 Akron, 10:00 a.m. %Quarterfinals - Friday, April 25 UA/UT winner vs. #1 Marshall, 10:00 a.m. #4 Northern Illinois vs. #5 Bowling Green, 10:00 a.m. % #3 Western Michigan vs. #6 Miami, 1:00 p.m. % BSU/UB winner vs. #2 Eastern Michigan, 1:00 p.m.
Semifinals - Saturday, April 26 Marshall/UT/UA winner vs. BGSU/NIU winner, 10:00 a.m. EMU/BSU/UB winner vs. WMU/Miami winner, 1:00 p.m.
Championship - Sunday, April 27 Semifinal winners, noon
matches at the Chippewa Club unless noted % at Ypsilanti High School
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 135-133 with the Falcons, and is 181-177 overall ... Dean has led the Brown and Orange to double-digit win totals in nine of her 13 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 the regular season with a pair of wins, downing Akron and Buffalo by 6-1 scores ... on Friday (April 18), BGSU captured two of the three doubles flights to take the initial point of the match, then won at singles flights two through six ... Saturday (April 19), the Falcons swept all three doubles contests, and again won five of the six singles matches ... three Falcons -- senior Alyson Gabel, junior Gaby Coello and sophomore Susie Schoenberger -- posted 4-0 records on the weekend ... Gabel, the team's lone senior, played in her final home collegiate match on Saturday ... she teamed with Coello for an 8-4 win at the second doubles flight, and topped UB's Kristen Ortman by identical 6-4 scores at the second flight.
THE OPPONENT
Northern Illinois enters the MAC Championships with an overall record of 12-7 ... the Huskies went 6-3 in MAC play to post a fourth-place regular-season finish ... last weekend, NIU played just one match, dropping a 4-3 decision to Western Michigan ... not surprisingly, the Huskies' three MAC losses came to the teams that finished ahead of them in the standings -- Marshall, Eastern Michigan and WMU ... junior Branka Savic leads the team with 22 overall singles wins, including a 9-9 mark at the top flight, while sophomore Cassie Drake has gone 15-2 at flight number two.
LONGEST STREAK IN A LONG, LONG TIME
The Falcons won four consecutive matches to end the regular season ... BGSU's winning streak is the team's longest in over two years (since Feb. 24-March 24, 2001) ... all four wins came in MAC play, marking BG's longest conference regular-season winning streak in nearly two decades ... BG had not won four league matches since the Falcons won the last three MAC matches in 1982-83 and the opening league contest in 1983-84.
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE...
With the two wins to close the regular season, the Falcons have doubled the win total from last season ... BGSU finished 5-18 overall last year, and this year's team enters the league tournament with a 10-10 record ... the Falcons went 5-4 in MAC play this season after going 3-6 in league regular-season action in 2001-02.
...DOUBLE YOUR FUN
Entering last weekend, the Falcons had yet to win the doubles point in league play ... after falling behind, 1-0, in each of the first seven MAC matches, BGSU won the doubles point against both Akron and Buffalo ... in conference regular-season action, the Brown and Orange went 2-0 when winning the doubles point and 3-4 when the opponent captured the doubles points ... despite the slow starts, the Falcons rebounded to win the matches against Toledo (Feb. 28), Miami (April 5) and Ball State (April 12) ... in 20 overall dual matches this season, BGSU won the doubles point six times, vs. Wayne State (Oct. 22), Youngstown State (Feb. 2), Cincinnati (Feb. 8), Wright State (Feb. 21), UA and UB ... BGSU is 5-9 when the opponent wins the doubles point ... the Falcons are now 5-1 when winning the opening point in dual-match play.
TOPPING LAST YEAR'S TOTALS
The 2002-03 Falcons have eight returnees from last season ... six 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 has nearly tripled that figure, having won 23 total matches (singles and doubles) in 2002-03 ... likewise, juniors Gaby Coello (17 wins last year, 22 this year) and Lisa Maloney (19, 21) and sophomores Laura Kokinda (16, 20), Lindsey Mix (3, 11) and Susie Schoenberger (18, 24) have topped their victory totals from last year ... senior Alyson Gabel and junior Jessica Johnson are just one and three wins shy, respectively, of their 2001-02 totals.
CAPTAIN'S LOG
Senior Alyson Gabel and junior Lisa Maloney are the co-captains of the 2002-03 Falcon women's tennis team.
