Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Chattanooga to Open '06 Season
February 23, 2006 | Softball
Feb. 23, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University softball team heads to Chattanooga, Tenn., to open the 2006 season this weekend ... the Falcons of eighth-year head coach Leigh Ross will take part in the eight-team Panera Bread Challenge, hosted by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga ... BGSU will play both Virginia and host Chattanooga on Friday (Feb. 24), and will meet Maine and UAB on Saturday (Feb. 25) ... BG will close the tourney with Sunday (Feb. 27) contests against East Tennessee State and Belmont.
Frost Stadium and Hargraves Field
Chattanooga, Tenn.
Friday, Feb. 24 Bowling Green vs. Virginia, 12:15 p.m. Bowling Green at Chattanooga, 4:45 p.m.Saturday, Feb. 25 Bowling Green vs. Maine, 2:30 p.m. Bowling Green vs. UAB, 4:45 p.m.
Sunday, Feb. 26 Bowling Green vs. East Tennessee State, 11:15 a.m. Bowling Green vs. Belmont, 3:45 p.m.
BGSU is coming off a 2005 season that saw the team finish 29-30 overall and place third in the Mid-American Conference's West Division with a league mark of 12-10 ... the Falcons qualified for the MAC Tournament for the third-straight year and the seventh time in the last eight years ... BGSU's 2005 wins included one over a ranked team (Northwestern, ranked #23/25 at the time), and one over a team receiving votes (Pacific).
THIS SEEMS FAMILIAR
For the second consecutive February, the Falcons will open the season in Chattanooga, Tenn. ... also for the second-straight season, BGSU will face Virginia and Chattanooga in day-one action ... the Falcons played in the Frost Classic to begin the 2005 campaign.
LEADING OFF (a brief overview of the 2006 Falcons)
The Falcons return 14 letterwinners, including a total of seven positional starters, from a year ago ... last year's team was one of the most youthful in the nation, with nearly 71 percent of the players in their freshman or sophomore years ... that tied the Falcons for 27th in the country ... this year, however, BG - after losing just one senior - has a roster featuring 11 players who hold junior or senior status ... the senior class includes reigning MAC Player of the Year Gina Rango and MAC Pitcher of the Year Liz Vrabel ... Abby Habicht, Lindsay Heimrich and Natalie Armintrout (redshirt junior) round out the group of fourth-year Falcons ... the complete 2006 season outlook can be found here at BGSUFalcons.com.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
Bowling Green ended the 2005 season with an overall record of 29-30 ... the Falcons finished with a mark of 12-10 in MAC play, good for a third-place finish in the West Division ... individually, the Falcons were led by a pair of All-MAC First-Team selections, Gina Rango and Liz Vrabel ... Rango, the MAC Player of the Year, hit a team-high .366, and also led the Falcons in hits (60), triples (five), total bases (82), slugging percentage (.500) and on-base pct. (.432) ... she finished second on the team in homeruns (two), runs batted in (31), walks (16) and stolen bases (15) ... Megan McPherson, a second-team all-league selection, hit .297 on the season, and led the Brown and Orange with 16 stolen bases ... Allison Vallas, also an all-league second-team pick, and Lindsay Heimrich batted .284 and .250, respectively ... Vallas had three homers, 34 RBI and 19 walks to lead BG in all three categories ... Jeanine Baca hit .242 with team-high totals of 30 runs scored and 13 doubles ... in the circle, Vrabel had a 17-14 record, a 1.75 ERA and a school-record total of 237 strikeouts ... Kristen Anderson went 1-1 with an ERA of just 0.99 in 28 1/3 innings of work, while freshman Emily Gouge was 6-7 on the year, with two saves and a 2.11 ERA ... Heimrich finished the season with a 5-8 mark and a 2.72 ERA ... of all the players listed, Anderson is the only one that does not return ... she was BG's lone senior in 2005.
FIRST TIME EVER
Gina Rango, as mentioned, was named the MAC Player of the Year in 2005, while Liz Vrabel was the MAC Pitcher of the Year ... the 2006 Falcons are the first team in MAC history to return both the reigning league player and pitcher of the year.
BGSU PICKED TO WIN EAST DIVISION
Bowling Green was picked to win the MAC's East Division in 2006 ... the poll is a result of voting by the league's 12 head coaches ... Central Michigan was the coaches' choice to win the West Division and the MAC Tournament ... with the departure of Marshall from the conference, the Falcons were moved from the West to the East Division prior to the 2005-06 academic year.
BRIEFLY NOTING THE OPPONENTS
Virginia: The Cavaliers have a 2-0 record, with wins over Gardner-Webb and Akron ... UVa, like BGSU, went 29-30 overall last season ... the Cavs finished with an Atlantic Coast Conference record of 9-8 ... 15 letterwinners, including nine starters, return from that squad ... head coach Karen Johns is in her first year ... web: www.virginiasports.com.
Chattanooga: The Lady Mocs are 2-6 on the year ... the team went 46-21 last season, placing second in the Southern Conference with a 15-4 mark ... nine letterwinners, including seven starters, are back ... head coach Frank Reed is in his fifth year at the school ... web: gomocs.com.
Maine: The Black Bears, like BGSU, open the season this weekend ... team went 16-26 overall and 10-8 in the America East Conference last spring ... Stacey Sullivan begins her first year at the helm of the Black Bears ... web: www.GoBlackBears.com.
UAB: The Blazers are 2-1 after Tuesday's loss (Feb. 21) to #20 Auburn ... the team returns eight letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's 23-37 squad that went 7-16 in Conference USA ... Marla Townsend is in her seventh season as head coach ... web: www.uabsports.com.
East Tennessee State: The Lady Bucs are 1-5 on the season to date ... team returns just three letterwinners, all starters, from last year's 25-33 squad that went 10-9 in Southern Conference play ... Andrea Roberts is in her first season as head coach ... web: www.ETSUBucs.com.
Belmont: The Bruins are 3-0 on the year after a Wednesday (Feb. 22) win over Middle Tennessee State ... the team returns 10 letterwinners, including six starters, from last season's 16-31 squad that went 6-14 in Atlantic Sun Conference action ... Don Watson is his first season as the team's interim head coach ... web: www.belmont.edu/athletics.
THE SERIES
BGSU trails Virginia, 10-2 in the all-time series between the teams ... the teams met twice last year, with UVa posting a 4-0 win in Chattanooga in the Falcons' season opener and a 5-1 victory in Charlottesville ... the Cavaliers have won nine consecutive meetings since BG's last series victory, in 2000.
Chattanooga is 2-0 all-time vs. BGSU, including a 3-0 victory last February ... the teams' other meeting came in Hawai'i in 1996, a 5-4 UTC victory.
UAB is also 2-0 vs. the Falcons, with both meetings coming in the Cougar Classic in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., two years ago ... the Blazers posted wins by scores of 8-3 and 1-0.
BGSU has never met Maine, East Tennessee State or Belmont on the softball diamond.
HEAD COACH Leigh Ross
Leigh Ross, the winningest coach in school history, embarks upon her eighth season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... she currently has an overall record of 200-175-2 (.533) ... Ross is also the school's leader in MAC games, with a league mark of 98-66 (.598) ... she ranks first in BG history in conference winning percentage, and is second in overall winning pct., trailing only Sandy Haines (.557; 57-45-3).
Ross, the 2001 MAC Coach of the Year, guided the Brown and Orange to a MAC East Division title that spring after a co-championship in 2000 ... she was the fastest coach in BG annals to 100 overall wins as well as 50 MAC victories ... Ross is the only head coach in school history with three 30-win seasons, and continues to set new school marks with each win.
Ross assumed the top job after two years as BG's assistant coach ... the Ottawa Lake, Mich., native came to the Falcon program in August of 1996 after serving as a high-school head coach, at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo, for four seasons ... Ross, a 1992 graduate of the Univ. of Toledo, still holds numerous UT and MAC records, and remains the all-time league leader in batting average (.398), at-bats and hits ... she hit a MAC-record .447 as a senior en route to All-America Second-Team honors ... in 2001, she was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame.
Kyle Jamieson enters his third season as an assistant coach with the Falcons, while Susan Sargent is in her first year on Ross's coaching staff.
