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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Face Akron To Open MAC Championships Play
April 20, 2004 | Women's Tennis
April 20, 2004
MAC Championships bracket in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University tennis team heads to Rockford, Ill., for the 2004 MAC Championships ... BGSU, seeded seventh for the 10-team tournament, will face 10th-seeded Akron in the opening round on Thursday morning (April 22) ... the match is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. locally (11:00 a.m. Eastern Time) at the Rockford Park District Courts/Clock Tower Resort ... Northern Illinois is the tourney host.
The winner of the BGSU-Akron match will return to the courts for Friday's (April 23) quarterfinal round ... the Falcons-Zips survivor will meet second-seeded Westeren Michigan in another match scheduled for a 10:00 a.m. (11:00 a.m. Eastern) start.
The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean are 9-13 overall, and BGSU finished the regular season in seventh place in the final MAC standings with a league record of 3-6 ... the complete bracket for the first two rounds of the MAC Championships follows:
Thu.-Sun., April 22-25 - Rockford, Ill. (all times local to site)First Round - Thursday, April 22 #7 Bowling Green vs. #10 Akron, 10:00 a.m. #8 Toledo vs. #9 Buffalo, 10:00 a.m.
Quarterfinals - Friday, April 23 BGSU/UA winner vs. #2 Western Michigan, 10:00 a.m. UB/UT winner vs. #1 Marshall, 10:00 a.m. #4 Miami vs. #5 Ball State, 2:00 p.m. #3 Eastern Michigan vs. #6 Northern Illinois, 2:00 p.m.
HEAD COACH PENNY DEAN
Penny Dean (Michigan, '67) is in her 14th season as head coach of the BGSU women's tennis team and her 18th year as a collegiate head coach ... she has a record of 144-147 with the Falcons, and is 190-191 overall ... Dean has led the Brown and Orange to double-digit win totals in nine of her 14 seasons, including a school-record 16 victories in 1998-99 ... obviously, this year's team is one win shy of becoming her 10th Falcon team with double-digit wins ... both the '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.
 Senior Gaby Coello (photo by Jonathan Willey)  |
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The Falcons struggled to close the regular season, dropping nine of the last 10 matches, and BGSU is looking to snap a six-match losing streak ... the last match, however, was Saturday's (April 17) narrow, 4-3 road loss to Ball State ... the Falcons' three MAC wins came away from home, vs. Buffalo, Toledo and Thursday's opponent, Akron ... BGSU topped UA by a 6-1 count in a neutral-site match, in Lexington, Ohio, on Feb. 28 ... junior Susie Schoenberger has played at the top singles flight for most of the dual-match season ... senior Lisa Maloney, who has played primarily at #2 singles, moved up to the top flight for the BSU match ... senior Gaby Coello has played at the third flight for the last four matches, while freshman Ashley Jakupcin has played at the fourth flight during that same span ... sophomore Heidi Romer and junior Cameron Benjamin rounded out the singles lineup during each of last week's matches ... Maloney and Schoenberger have teamed at the top doubles flight for most of the season, while coach Penny Dean has mixed up her second- and third-flight tandems over the last few weeks ... most recently, Jakupcin teamed with Romer at the second flight, with Coello matched up with sophomore Andrea Meister at the third level.
Jakupcin and Romer are tied for the team lead with 31 total wins apiece this season ... Jakupcin has a 20-9 singles record to lead the Falcons in that department, while Romer is 17-16 in singles play ... Romer and Meister, who teamed together in doubles for much of the 2003-04 campaign, each have been part of 14 doubles wins this year to lead the Brown and Orange ... Jakupcin and Maloney each have 11 doubles victories this season, while Coello has 10.
THE OPPONENT
Akron enters the MAC Championships with an overall record of 7-13 ... the Zips went 0-9 in MAC dual-match play ... the Zips' top player is senior Irina Strembitsky, who picked up UA's lone point in BGSU's 6-1 win in the teams' regular-season meeting ... Strembitsky went 7-2 in MAC singles play, and is 16-2 overall ... last season, UA was seeded ninth for the MAC Championships, and suffered a 4-3 loss to #8 Toledo in the first round.
 Senior Jessica Johnson (photo by Jonathan Willey) |
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Marshall won the MAC's regular-season title with a 9-0 league record, and the Thundering Herd will be looking to win a third consecutive championship crown ... Miami leads all MAC schools with 14 league championship crowns, all garnered during the first 16 seasons ... during that Miami run, Western Michigan was the only team to break the Redskins'/RedHawks' stranglehold ... WMU tied Miami for the team title in 1984, and won the 1990 and 1995 crowns outright ... Western has a total of six titles, while Eastern Michigan and Marshall have won two apiece ... Akron, Ball State, BGSU, Buffalo, Northern Illinois and Toledo all are looking for a first-ever league championships title.
CAPTAIN'S LOG
Senior Lisa Maloney and junior Laura Kokinda are the co-captains of the 2003-04 Falcon tennis team ... Maloney is a co-captain for the second consecutive season ... Kokinda is out for the year due to injury.
THE SENIORS
Maloney, Gaby Coello and Jessica Johnson are the seniors on Penny Dean's squad ... Maloney leads all active Falcons with 86 career wins, ranking her among the school's career leaders ... Coello and Johnson have 74 and 55 career victories, respectively.
