Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcon Preseason Notes
August 19, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 19, 2004
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team opens the 2004 season on Friday, Aug. 27, with the Falcon Classic at Cochrane Field ... Duquesne, Pittsburgh and Eastern Michigan all will participate in the Classic, which will feature doubleheaders on both Aug. 27 and Aug. 29 ... for the media, here are a few notes and stats to aid your coverage of the Falcons...
LOOKING TO TAKE ONE MORE STEP
The 2004 Falcons will look to advance to the Mid-American Conference Tournament's championship match for the third time in five years ... BG advanced to the final in both 2000 and 2003 ... last year's team went 8-12-3, with five of the 12 setbacks coming to teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament ... a total of 19 letterwinners, including 10 starters, return from last year's squad.
OFFENSIVE AND DEFENSIVE RETURNEES
The Falcon coaching staff welcomes back 19 letterwinners from a year ago ... the returnees combined to provide nearly 96 percent of the team's scoring last fall ... at the other end of the field, the Falcons return all but one defender, and the returning goalkeepers combined to play 99.5% of the minutes between the posts in '03.
MANY RETURNEES = MUCH SUCCESS?
It makes sense that teams with a great deal of depth and experience enjoy a great deal of success ... if that's the case, then Falcon fans are in for an enjoyable season in 2004 ... BGSU returns 19 letterwinners, the most in school history, including 10 starters ... the Falcons welcomed back 10 starters on two other occasions, in 2000 and 2003 ... in each of those seasons, the Brown and Orange advanced all the way to the MAC Tournament's championship.
LW Starters Overall
Year Ret./Lost Ret./Lost Record MAC Tournament
1997 First season 6-12-0 Did not qualify
1998 11/9 6/5 8-11-1 Advanced to Semifinals
1999 16/6 9/2 5-11-3 Did not qualify
2000 17/3 10/1 10-10-1 Advanced to Championship
2001 13/7 7/4 7-10-2 Did not qualify
2002 11/8 8/3 12- 8-2 Advanced to Semifinals
2003 16/5 10/1 8-12-3 Advanced to Championship
2004 19/7 10/1
THE TOURNEY'S THE THING
Last year's Falcon squad grabbed the eighth and final seed for the MAC Tournament, needing (and getting) a win and an Akron loss on the final day of regular-season conference action ... when the tourney began, however, head coach Andy Richards and company became the first-ever #8 seed to advance past the opening round ... and, of course, BG was the first #8 seed to qualify for the championship match ... the previous lowest seed in MAC history to make it to the final was the 2000 Falcon team, in Richards' first season at the helm.
A FEW MORE MAC TOURNAMENT FACTS
COPPES, MEISTER A ONE-TWO PUNCH
The duo of senior Kristy Coppes and junior Samantha Meister shapes up to be one of the most potent offensive tandems in the MAC ... Coppes has totals of 34 goals and 73 points in her BG career, holding the school record in each category ... she is the first player in school history to score at least 10 goals in three seasons ... Meister matched Coppes with 10 goals last year, and led the Falcons with a total of 26 points en route to earning All-MAC First-Team honors ... no other MAC school had a pair of 10-goal scorers in 2003, much less a duo of returning double-digit strikers.
CLOSE CALLS (AND REALLY CLOSE CALLS)
The Falcons saw a school-record 15 matches, including nine consecutive contests leading up to the MAC Tournament championship, decided by one goal or fewer last season ... and, the 2003 Falcons were no strangers to overtime ... BGSU went to overtime in five of the last seven regular-season matches, and hit OT in a school-record eight contests ... the Falcons are now 9-11-12 all-time in overtime, including 2-3-3 this year.
WORKING OVERTIME IN THE MAC
Six of BGSU's 12 MAC matches last season went to overtime ... in fact, 10 of the Falcons' 12 league contests were decided by one goal or less ... the Falcons went to OT against regular-season co-champion Kent State, as well as against the teams that finished 12th (Marshall) and 13th (Northern Illinois).
WORKING OVERTIME AT HOME
Five of the Falcons' 10 home matches last year, including each of the final four contests at Cochrane Field, went to overtime ... the Falcons were much more successful on the road than at home in the extra session(s) ... BGSU was just 0-3-2 in home OT contests in 2003, but the Falcons were 2-0-0 in OT matches on the road and 0-0-1 in neutral-site matches.
ROAD SWEET ROAD?
The Falcons enter the 2004 season having gone 9-2-1 in the last 12 MAC regular-season road contests ... in the history of the Falcon program, BGSU is now 16-16-5 in MAC regular-season road matches ... the Falcons are just 10-24-4 all-time in home MAC regular-season action, however.
MEISTER IS MAGIC IN OVERTIME
Samantha Meister scored the overtime winner in a pair of 4-3 Falcon victories last year, at Northern Illinois (part of a record four-goal performance) and Marshall ... Meister, who now has three `Golden Goals' in her career, is the lone player in school history to score more than one career OT winner ... all three of her such goals have come on the road in MAC play.
BGSU'S OVERTIME GOALS Kerry McKee (Aug. 29, 1997 @Kent) Michelle Lisy (Aug. 27, 1999 vs. Michigan St.) Susan Wallace (Aug. 27, 2000 vs. Bucknell [@Kent]) Tracy Gleixner (Sept. 24, 2000 @East. Mich.) Jill Conover (Oct. 13, 2000 vs. Marshall) Samantha Meister (Oct. 20, 2002 @Buffalo) Julie Trundle (Nov. 6, 2002 vs. Buffalo) Meister (Oct. 12, 2003 @Northern Illinois) Meister (Oct. 26, 2003 @ Marshall)
COMING BACK FROM TWO GOALS DOWN
A team coming back from two goals down is relatively rare ... don't tell that to the Falcons, though ... in 142 matches in the history of the BGSU women's soccer program, only seven times has a team gone ahead by two goals and failed to win the match ... it happened, however, in three matches in the month of October, 2003 ... BGSU battled back from two-goal deficits to win at Miami, Northern Illinois and Marshall ... the Falcons have now come back from two goals down twice vs. the Thundering Herd, both times at Sam Hood Field ... additionally, it has happened in each of the last three meetings between BGSU and NIU.
