Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Oakland, Wright State This Weekend
August 24, 2005 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 24, 2005
BGSU Women's Soccer Release (4 pages) in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after winning the 2004 Mid-American Conference Tournament championship, opens the 2005 campaign with a pair of home matches this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards will begin the ninth season in program history with Friday's (Aug. 26) contest vs. Oakland University ... kickoff for that match is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field ... two days later, the Falcons will return to Cochrane, hosting Wright State University in Sunday (Aug. 28) action, with kickoff slated for 1:00 p.m.
THE OPENING KICKOFF
HEAD COACH Andy Richards
Andy Richards begins his sixth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... he has an overall record of 47-52-10, and 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 begins his second season with the program, and his first as the top assistant to Richards.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU returns 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 ... fifth-year senior goalkeeper Ali Shingler is back, and is joined by seniors Britt Anderson, Molly Bremen, Leah Eggleton, Samantha Meister, Megan Rapp, Natalie Sampiller, Julie Trundle and Ashley Wentzel ... 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 ... the Falcons return 47.5% of the goal-scoring from a year ago ... BGSU's incoming recruiting class was rated tops in the MAC by Soccer Buzz.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Oakland is coming off a 2004 season in which the Golden Grizzlies finished 8-11-1 overall ... head coach Nick O'Shea's team went 3-3-0 in Mid-Continent Conference play to place fourth ... senior forward Kristi Swaving headlines a group of nine returning starters from a year ago, having led the '04 team in goals (7), assists (7) and points (21) ... sophomore Jessica Howard was the team's starting goalkeeper in her first year, with a 1.91 goals-against average and 114 saves ... O'Shea enters his 12th year as head coach at the school, with a record of 136-60-9.
Wright State returns 13 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's 9-8-2 team ... the Raiders went 3-3-1 in the Horizon League to tie for fourth in 2004 ... sophomore Desire Morris led the team with four goals and 11 points a year ago, while three other returnees scored three goals apiece ... junior Steph Comisar was a second-team all-league performer in goal last year, with a GAA of 0.92 and six shutouts ... Patrick Ferguson, 76-62-11 in eight years as a collegiate head coach, begins his first season at WSU ... the Raiders host Ohio University Friday (Aug. 26) before heading to BG two days later.
The Falcons trail Oakland, 1-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... in one of the most lopsided losses in school history, the Falcons fell to the Golden Grizzlies by a 7-1 score in Rochester nearly seven years ago (Oct. 12, 1998) ... the total of seven goals allowed still ranks as the most in school history, and the six-goal margin ties for the biggest margin of defeat in BG women's soccer annals ... BGSU leads Wright State, 3-1-0, in that series, and the Falcons are 2-0 in home matches vs. the Raiders ... in the last meeting at Cochrane, BGSU posted a 3-0 win two years ago (Sept. 21, 2003) ... Britt Anderson scored a goal in that match ... WSU captured a win in last season's meeting, however, a 1-0 contest in the final regular-season match (Oct. 30, 2004).
FALCONS PICKED FOURTH
The Falcons were picked to finish fourth in the MAC in the league preseason poll ... the poll, released August 16, is a 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 crown, followed by Ohio and Western Michigan ... KSU was chosen to win the '05 MAC Tournament title as well.
 Freshman Kristin McDonald  |
|
The Falcons scored three first-half goals en route to a 3-1 win over visiting Tiffin in exhibition action Tuesday afternoon (Aug. 23) ... the match marked the Falcons' lone exhibition of the 2005 season ... sophomore Tiernay Tilford opened the scoring, with an assist from senior Julie Trundle ... freshman Kristin McDonald and soph Karie Sahly each found the back of the net before halftime ... Sahly headed home senior Megan Rapp's corner kick ... BGSU outshot TU, 38-6, on the afternoon ... Ali Shingler worked a scoreless first half in goal, making one save, while freshman Christy Zabek played the second 45 minutes and made two stops.
