Falcons Open Road Portion of MAC Schedule This Weekend

Sept. 21, 2004

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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team begins the road portion of the Mid-American Conference schedule this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards (1-6-1, 0-1-1 MAC) will head north for a pair of matches, beginning with Friday's (Sept. 24) contest at Central Michigan ... that begins at 3:00 p.m. at the CMU Soccer Field in Mt. Pleasant, Mich. ... then on Sunday (Sept. 26), the Brown and Orange will travel to Ypsilanti for a 1:00 p.m. match vs. Eastern Michigan ... that contest will be held at Scicluna Field.

TWO STREAKS BROKEN ...
The Falcons snapped a pair of streaks in Sunday's (Sept. 19) match vs. Marshall ... senior Kristy Coppes scored late in the first half, ending a BGSU scoreless streak of 219:36 ... the Brown and Orange had not scored since freshman Tiernay Tilford's goal late in the Navy match of Sept. 11 ... BGSU's tie vs. the Thundering Herd snapped a six-match losing streak, dating to Aug. 29.

A YEAR AGO...
Obviously, the Falcons would like to have a better record than 1-6-1 ... but, there is a lot of season to be played ... last year, BGSU had a record of just 2-5-1 after the first eight matches ... and, the Falcons also began last season with a MAC mark of 0-1-1 ... but, BGSU rebounded to make the MAC Tournament and advance all the way to the championship match ... interestingly, the Falcons had only eight goals after eight matches last year, before scoring two or more goals in nine of the next 13 contests ... this season, BG has nine goals through eight matches.

STRIKER VS. STRIKER
Friday's match will feature the top-two scorers in the MAC, in BGSU's Kristy Coppes and Central Michigan's Jacquie Lacek ... Coppes, a senior, and Lacek, a sophomore, are tied for the league lead with seven goals apiece ... Lacek has 16 points to lead the MAC in that category, while Coppes sits in second with 14 points.

COPPES IN CAREER CATEGORIES
Senior Kristy Coppes scored the Falcons' lone goal in Sunday's 1-1 tie vs. Marshall ... in the process, she increased her school-record totals in a pair of categories ... the Findlay native now has 41 goals and 87 points in her BG career ... this season, she has seven of the Falcons' nine goals.

HEAD COACH ANDY RICHARDS
Andy Richards is in his fifth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons, and has an overall record of 38-46-9 ... Richards has led BGSU to the three finest seasons in school history over his first four years ... last fall, he guided the Falcons to the championship match of the MAC Tournament for the second time in his four seasons ... BGSU has advanced to the semifinals of the league tourney in three of his four campaigns to date ... Ashlee Orr is in her fifth season as an assistant coach for the Brown and Orange, while Eric Golz is in his first fall on Richards' staff.

FALCONS TIE SCHOOL RECORD FOR CORNER KICKS
BGSU had a total of 17 corner kicks in Friday's (Sept. 17) 2-0 loss to Ohio University, tying the school record in the process ... the Falcons also had 17 corner kicks in a Sept. 5, 1998 match vs. Western Illinois at Cochrane Field (a 3-0 BGSU win) ... Friday's total set a BG record for corners in a MAC contest.

CORNERING THE MARKET ... A FEW MORE CORNER KICK NOTES

Bowling Green has had more corner kicks than the opponent in each of the first eight matches this season ... last fall, the Falcons had fewer corners than the opposition in each of the first six contests of the year.

The Falcons have taken a total of 59 corners this season, an average of 7.38 per match ... BGSU leads the MAC in that category ... last season, the Falcons had a total of 100 corners in 23 matches (4.35 per match).

The Falcons are 1-6-1 this season in matches in which BG has more corner kicks than the opponent ... prior to the 2004 campaign, the Falcons had been 36-16-6 when taking more corners than the other team ... in fact, BGSU had been 17-7-3 in such matches in the Andy Richards Era heading into the 2004 season.

In the history of the program, BGSU is now 37-22-7 in matches in which the Falcons have taken more corner kicks ... the Falcons are 17-52-5 when the opponent has had more corners, and BGSU is 3-6-1 all-time when the teams are even in that category.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Central Michigan sports an overall record of 3-4-1, and a 1-1-1 MAC mark ... the Chippewas opened MAC play with a tie at Ball State, before playing a pair of lopsided matches last weekend ... CMU won a 4-0 decision at Kent State before dropping a 3-0 match at Buffalo ... the Chippewas have not played a home match since Aug. 29 ... sophomore Jacquie Lacek, as mentioned earlier, has seven goals and 16 points on the year ... classmate Anne Decker has played every minute in goal, and has 45 saves and a goals-against average of 1.95 ... a year ago, Central was 9-8-3 overall and 6-5-1 in the MAC ... Tony DiTucci is in his first season as a head coach ... the school's athletics web site is www.cmuchippewas.com.

Eastern Michigan will enter the weekend with a 4-2-2 overall record, and the Eagles have a 1-1-1 MAC record heading into Friday's match vs. Toledo ... Eastern has played only one match at home prior to this weekend, a 2-2 tie vs. Detroit Tuesday (Sept. 14) ... over the weekend, the Eagles won at UB, 3-1, before losing a 2-1 overtime decision at KSU ... fifth-year senior Jessica Hupe leads the team with five goals and 12 points on the season ... senior Nikki Allen has played all but one match in net, and has a GAA of just 0.80 and 53 saves ... last fall, Eastern went 9-9-3 overall and tied for the MAC regular-season title with a league mark of 8-2-2 ... head coach Scott Hall has 11 letterwinners back from that team ... the school's athletics web page is www.emich.edu/goeagles.

The Falcons lead Central Michigan, 3-2-2, in the all-time series between the teams ... both ties in the series came last season, as the teams played a pair of double-overtime matches ... BG and Central battled to a 2-2 deadlock at Cochrane Field in the regular-season meeting (Sept. 12, 2003) ... then, the teams met in the MAC Tournament's semifinal round in Kalamazoo, Mich., and played to a scoreless draw ... the Falcons advanced to the championship match, 4-3, on penalty kicks ... BGSU captured the last match in Mount Pleasant, 2-0, on Oct. 11, 2002 ... the Falcons are 2-0 all-time in road matches vs. Central ... the Falcons trail Eastern Michigan by a 5-4-1 margin in that series, as the Eagles are BGSU's most common opponent ... BG holds the advantage in meetings in Ypsilanti, however, by a 4-2-1 count ... the Falcons lost last year's regular-season meeting to Eastern, 1-0 at Cochrane Field on Sept. 7 ... but, nearly two months later, the eighth-seeded Falcons headed to Ypsi and knocked off the top-seeded Eagles, 2-1, in the MAC Tournament's quarterfinal round ... the Falcons have a five-match unbeaten streak on the road vs. EMU, dating to the 1998 MAC Tournament.

BREMEN, EGGLETON IN STARTING LINEUP
Last weekend, a pair of juniors appeared in the starting lineup for the first time in 2004 ... Molly Bremen drew the start against Ohio, and was in the starting 11 again vs. Marshall ... Leah Eggleton made her first start of the season in the latter match ... Eggleton had missed the first four matches of the year due to injury, then came off the bench in the next three matches prior to Sunday ... a total of 18 different players have made at least one start this fall.

NOTES FROM THE MARSHALL MATCH

The Marshall match was the Falcons' first overtime contest of the season, after BG had played a school-record eight OT matches last year ... the 2003 Falcons played a total of 15 matches decided by one goal or fewer, another school record ... this year's team had played seven consecutive matches decided by two or more goals prior to Sunday's tie with the Herd.

The Falcons now hold a 4-1-2 lead in the all-time series with Marshall, with four of the seven series meetings requiring overtime ... prior to Sunday, the Herd had never scored a goal at Cochrane Field, losing to the Falcons by scores of 1-0 (in OT; Oct. 13, 2000) and 3-0 (Oct. 4, 2002).

Freshman Gina Rossi had played a total of approximately 15 minutes on the season prior to Sunday ... but, she saw 25 minutes of action against the Thundering Herd, and picked up an assist for her first collegiate point ... that assist, on a give-and-go with junior Julie Trundle that led to the Kristy Coppes goal, came just 1:36 after Rossi had checked into the match.

Trundle's assist Sunday was her first of the season, but the 16th of her career ... Trundle moves into a tie for third place on that BGSU list, with Beth Wechsler (1998-2001) ... Jill Conover (1999-2002) holds the school record with 25 assists, while Janice Mentrup (1997-2000) had 23 in her Falcon tenure.

FALCONS PICKED FOR FIFTH-PLACE TIE
The Falcons were picked to finish in a fifth-place tie in the MAC in the league preseason poll ... the poll, released August 17, is a result of voting by the league's 13 head coaches ... Western Michigan, the defending league tournament champion, was picked to win the 2004 regular-season crown, followed by Ohio, Eastern Michigan and Miami ... BGSU was picked to tie with Ball State for fifth place ... the Falcons were the choice of two coaches to win the league tourney, trailing WMU (7) and OU (3) in that category ... Miami received the other tournament-title vote.

DEFYING THE EXPERTS
The Falcons have made a habit of proving the 'experts' wrong over the years ... in the program's history, BGSU has always finished higher than predicted in the preseason coaches poll in the even-numbered years ... in the odd years, the Falcons have finished lower than picked in the preseason ... the complete history follows, with poll favorite, that school's actual finish and BG's finish ...

BGSU'S MAC PRESEASON POLL HISTORY
Year  Poll Favorite (AF)     BG Picked...  BG's Finish
1997  Northern Ill. (1st)    Tie-Fifth     Eighth of 8
1998  Northern Ill. (T-1st)  Ninth         Sixth of 11 #
1999  Ohio (5th)             Sixth         10th of 12
2000  Eastern Mich. (2nd)    Eighth        Seventh of 12 %
2001  Miami (3rd)            Sixth         12th of 13
2002  Miami (1st)            Ninth         Fourth of 13 #
2003  Ohio (T-5th)           Fourth        Eighth of 13 %
2004  Western Mich.          Tie-Fifth
% advanced to league tournament championship
# advanced to league tournament semifinals

SIX-SHOOTER: COPPES STARTS SEASON WITH SCHOOL- AND MAC-RECORD SIX GOALS

Senior forward Kristy Coppes opened her season on a successful note ... Coppes shattered the BGSU and Mid-American Conference records by scoring six goals in the season-opening 7-3 win over visiting Duquesne (Aug. 27) ... her total fell just one shy of matching the NCAA Division I record of seven goals in a match.

For her efforts, Coppes was named the Mid-American Conference Player of the Week, and also was named to the Soccer Buzz National Elite Team of the Week ... Coppes earned the league honor for the third time, the first women's soccer player in school history to do so ... she also became the first-ever Falcon to be named to a national team of the week in multiple weeks.

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