Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Northeast Ohio
September 28, 2004 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 28, 2004
Complete Release & Stats (6 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after struggling in September, must experience some success in October if the Falcons wish to be playing in November ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards (1-8-1, 0-3-1 MAC) will step outside of Mid-American Conference play to begin October, with a Friday (Oct. 1) match vs. Cleveland State University ... that contest is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. start at Foltz Field in Strongsville, Ohio ... then, the Brown and Orange will return to MAC action for the next eight matches, beginning with Sunday's (Oct. 3) match at the University of Akron, a 1:00 p.m. kickoff at Lee Jackson Field.
CLOSE CALLS
Through the first seven matches of the season, the Falcons had not played a match decided by fewer than two goals ... but, each of the last three contests has been decided by one goal or fewer ... BGSU tied Marshall, 1-1, on Sept. 19, before dropping a pair of one-goal road matches, at Central Michigan (0-1; Sept. 24) and Eastern Michigan (2-3; Sept. 26), last weekend.
SUCCESSFUL STREAKS SNAPPED ...
The Falcons' two losses over the weekend snapped a pair of lengthy streaks ... BGSU had never lost at the CMU Soccer Field, having won each of the two meetings prior to Friday (a 3-1 win on Sept. 15, 2000, and a 2-0 decision on Oct. 11, 2002) ... Sunday's loss snapped a five-match unbeaten streak at EMU's Scicluna Field ... that streak included MAC Tournament quarterfinal-round wins in 1998, 2000 and 2003, as well as a double-overtime win in the 2000 regular season, and a 2002 double-OT tie in which the Falcons scored with six seconds left in regulation.
... AS IS A NEGATIVE STREAK
Despite BGSU's loss at Eastern Michigan, Sunday's match marked the first time the Falcons had scored more than one goal in a contest in nearly a month ... BG had scored seven goals in the season-opening match vs. Duquesne (Aug. 27), but had scored only two total goals in the next eight matches.
STRUGGLING TO SCORE (SORT OF)
The Falcons, as well as each of this weekend's opponents, have had their fair share of trouble in putting the ball in the back of the net this fall ... but, all three teams showed signs of snapping out of their scoring slumps Sunday ... BGSU, of course, had scored nine goals through nine matches, and only two goals in the previous eight matches, before netting a pair of goals at Eastern Michigan ... Akron has just five goals in eight matches this year, but two of those goals came in Sunday's win at Marshall, breaking a string of three shutout losses ... and, Cleveland State, after being blanked in all nine matches to that point, scored the first goal in program history late in Sunday's match at Valparaiso.
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 38-48-9 ... 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.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Cleveland State will enter the weekend with a record of 0-10-0, and the Vikings have yet to play a Horizon League match ... CSU, a first-year program, dropped matches at IPFW (5-0) and Valparaiso (6-1) last weekend ... in that Valpo match, though, the Vikings scored the first goal in program history, as Jennifer Wieand hit the back of the net with just 1:16 left ... that broke a scoreless streak of nearly 15 hours (14:58:46) ... the Viking roster features one senior, five juniors, one sophomore and 14 freshmen ... two of those 14 frosh, Allie Zajaros and Ashley Kidwell, have split time in goal ... Zajaros has 58 saves and a 4.08 goals-against average, while Kidwell has a 4.69 GAA and 46 stops ... head coach Derrek Falor came to CSU in February of 2003 after spending six years as the head coach at Western Washington ... the school's athletics web site is www.csuvikings.com.
Akron will take a 3-5-0 overall record into the weekend, and the Zips are 1-3-0 in MAC play heading into Friday's home match vs. Toledo ... last weekend, UA played a pair of close matches on the road, falling to Ohio by a 1-0 score before bouncing back with a 2-1 win at Marshall ... that win snapped a three-match scoreless streak ... sophomore Amee Thompson has two of the team's five goals and a team-high five points ... senior Crystal Tabor has 42 saves and a GAA of only 1.06 this fall ... last year, Akron went 8-9-1 overall and 5-7-0 in the MAC ... fourth-year head coach Catherine Byrne has 12 letterwinners back from that team ... the school's athletics web site is www.GoZips.com.
The Falcons lead Akron, 3-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams, but each of the last two matches have been very narrow wins for the Brown and Orange ... two years ago, in the lone previous match at Lee Jackson Field (Sept. 27, 2002), BG scored with under seven minutes left for a 2-1 win ... last season (Sept. 19, 2003), Ashley Wentzel scored with just 44 seconds left in another 2-1 Falcon triumph ... the Falcons won the first series meeting, 3-0, in the 2001 season ... BGSU has never met Cleveland State in women's soccer.
NOTES FROM THE EASTERN MICHIGAN MATCH
NOTES FROM THE CENTRAL MICHIGAN MATCH
CORNERING THE MARKET ... A FEW CORNER KICK NOTES
