Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Finally Return Home, Host Ohio and Akron This Weekend
October 06, 2005 | Women's Soccer
Oct. 6, 2005
BGSU Release & Statistics (8 pages) in PDF Format
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, currently tied for fifth place as the Mid-American Conference race enters its second trimester, returns home for the first time in three weeks ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards (6-6-0, 2-2-0 MAC), after five consecutive matches on the road, return to Cochrane Field for the next two weekends ... the four-match homestand begins with Friday's (Oct. 7) contest vs. Ohio University, beginning at 4:00 p.m. ... then, the Brown and Orange will face the University of Akron in Sunday (Oct. 9) action, with kickoff scheduled for noon.
DOUBLE YOUR FUN
This weekend's matches are part of soccer doubleheaders at Cochrane Field, as the BGSU men's soccer team also will be in action ... on Friday, the Falcon men will open MAC play with a 1:00 p.m. contest vs. Northern Illinois, prior to the BG women taking on Ohio at 4:00 p.m. ... on Sunday, the women's noontime match vs. Akron is the first half of the twinbill, with the men meeting Western Michigan at 3:00 p.m. ... this weekend marks the only two regular-season doubleheaders of 2005.
LAST WEEKEND
For the fourth consecutive weekend, the Falcons went 1-1 ... BGSU was held without a shot on goal for the first time in history in Friday's (Sept. 30) 3-0 loss at Ball State ... on Sunday (Oct. 2), the Falcons bounced back with three first-half goals in a 3-1 win at Miami ... senior Britt Anderson opened the scoring, while freshman Corbie Yee had a pair of goals in the win.
SPEAKING OF Corbie Yee ...
Freshman Corbie Yee had the first two-goal match of her career in Sunday's win at Miami ... in fact, it was the first multi-goal contest by a Falcon freshman in four years ... in the 2001 season, the Falcons had six multiple-goal contests, with four coming from frosh in the span of a week ... Beth Rieman had a pair of goals at Northern Illinois on Sept. 28, 2001, while Kristy Coppes had a hat trick and Katie Piening added a pair of goals vs. Youngstown State on Oct. 3 ... two days later (Oct. 5, 2001), Coppes had two goals vs. Akron.
THEY'VE HAD THEIR UPS AND DOWNS
The Falcons play the only MAC school they have never beaten, as well as the only league foe never to beat BG, this weekend ... BGSU is 0-7-1 all-time vs. Ohio, and will enter the weekend with a perfect 4-0-0 mark vs. Akron.
TRUNDLE CONTINUES TO SET NEW STANDARDS
HEAD COACH Andy Richards
Andy Richards is in his sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... he picked up his 50th career win on Sept. 11, and now has an overall record of 53-58-10, including a MAC Tournament mark of 7-3-1 ... Richards has led BGSU to the four finest seasons in school history over his first five years ... he has guided the Falcons to the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament on four occasions, to the championship match three times, and, in 2004, to the first league tourney title and NCAA Tournament berth in school history ... Eric Golz is in his second season with the program, and his first as the top assistant.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the weekend with an overall record of 6-6-0 and a MAC ledger of 2-2-0 ... last weekend, the Falcons fell at Ball State, 3-0, but rebounded with a 3-1 win at Miami ... after allowing a total of eight goals in two home losses to start the season (4-1 to Oakland, 4-0 vs. Wright State), the Falcons surrendered just six goals in the next seven matches, going 5-2 in that span, before the 4-0 loss at Western Michigan on Sept. 25 ... BG's non-conference victories came over Northern Arizona (2-1), Boise State (1-0), Eastern Illinois (2-1 in overtime) and Cleveland State (6-0) ... seniors Samantha Meister and Britt Anderson each have five goals and 13 points to share the team lead in each category ... another senior, Julie Trundle, has a goal, a team- and MAC-best seven assists and nine points, while freshman Corbie Yee has three goals and six points ... another freshman, Kristin McDonald, and senior Leah Eggleton have four points apiece ... senior Ali Shingler has started all 12 matches this season, and has 62 saves and a 1.91 goals-against average ... BG returned 15 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year's MAC Tournament championship team ... the group of returnees includes no fewer than nine seniors, the most in school history ... the senior class is looking to become the first class in school history to qualify for the MAC Tournament in four consecutive seasons ... Shingler, the lone returning 'keeper, played nearly 84 percent of the minutes in 2004 ... BGSU's incoming recruiting class was rated tops in the MAC by Soccer Buzz.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Ohio enters the BGSU match with an overall record of 3-7-0, and the Bobcats are 1-3-0 in MAC play ... all four of OU's conference matches have been decided by a single goal, including last weekend's road matches vs. Northern Illinois (3-2, Sept. 30) and Western Michigan (2-1, Oct. 2) ... individually, freshman Maggie Rojas-Alford leads the team with three goals, while junior Tiffany Horvath and sophomore Lindsey Price join Rojas-Alford with a team-best six points ... senior Melissa Parra has played every minute in goal to date, and has 55 saves and a goals-against average of 1.76 ... the Bobcats went 9-7-3 overall last fall, tying for the MAC regular-season title with 24 points on a 7-2-3 league record ... head coach Stacy Strauss welcomed back nine letterwinners, including five starters, from that team ... Strauss is 59-47-6 in her sixth year as a collegiate head coach, all in Athens.
Akron enters the weekend with an overall record of 2-8-1, and the Zips are 0-4-0 in MAC play to date ... UA will play a Friday (Oct. 7) contest at Toledo before heading to BG on Sunday ... the Zips are looking to snap a six-match losing streak, with five of those contests decided by one goal ... last weekend, Akron suffered a 2-0 loss at WMU before losing a 1-0 overtime heartbreaker at NIU ... individually, junior Leslie Bullen leads the team with three goals and seven points on the season, while classmate Jacque Pitchford has a pair of goals this fall ... Krystin Wilson has seen action in nine matches in goal, and the sophomore has a 2-5-1 record, 29 saves and a 1.49 GAA ... a total of nine letterwinners, including five starters, are back from last year's squad ... in 2004, the Zips were 3-12-2 overall and 1-9-2 in the MAC ... head coach Catherine Byrne is 20-54-5 in her fifth season with the Zips ... she has a mark of 55-86-14 in her ninth season as a collegiate head coach.
As mentioned earlier, there is only one MAC school that the Falcons have never beaten, and there is just one league foe that has never beaten BG ... and, the Brown and Orange will meet both of those schools this weekend ... the Falcons trail Ohio, 0-7-1, in the all-time series between the teams ... in fact, the Falcons have scored a total of just one goal vs. the Bobcats in the eight series meetings ... last year, Ohio posted a 2-0 victory at Cochrane Field (Sept. 17, 2004), upping their record to a perfect 4-0-0 in road matches vs. BGSU ... the Falcons' only goal in the series came two years ago (Oct. 24, 2003), in a 2-1 Bobcat win in the teams' last meeting in Athens ... the Brown and Orange earned a scoreless draw in a road match vs. OU on Oct. 8, 1999.
The Falcons are 4-0-0 in the series vs. Akron, including a 2-0 record at Cochrane ... last season, BG got goals from then-freshmen Gina Rossi and Tiernay Tilford, and a shutout from Ali Shingler, en route to a 3-0 win in the Rubber City (Oct. 3, 2004) ... in the last home matchup, Ashley Wentzel scored off a Julie Trundle cross in the final minute of the second half, giving the Brown and Orange a 2-1 win (Sept. 19, 2003) ... Samantha Meister also scored a goal in that win.
LEADERS OF THE MAC
Falcon players are at or near the top of a number of MAC lists ... senior Britt Anderson leads the league in points per match (1.30) and is tied for the MAC lead in both total points (13) and goals per match (0.50) ... senior Samantha Meister also is tied for the league lead in points ... another senior, Julie Trundle, leads the conference in both assists (seven) and assists per match (0.58) ... Anderson and Meister are tied for second in goals (five), and Anderson also is deadlocked for second in match-winning goals (two) ... Meister is tied for third in points per match (1.08) ... at the other end of the field, senior goalkeeper Ali Shingler is second in the MAC in saves (62) and fourth in saves per match (5.17).
FALCON NOTES AND NUMBERS
FALCONS PICKED FOURTH
The Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the MAC in the league preseason poll ... the poll is the result of voting by the league's 12 head coaches ... Kent State, the defending regular-season co-champion, was picked to win the 2005 regular-season and tournament crowns ... Ohio and Western Michigan were tabbed for second and third, respectively.
MAC PRESEASON POLL: 1 - Kent State; 2 - Ohio; 3 - Western Michigan; 4 - Bowling Green; 5 - Central Michigan; 6 - Eastern Michigan; 7 - Ball State; 8 - Miami; 9 - Buffalo; 10 - Toledo; 11 - Akron; 12 - Northern Illinois.
