Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Milwaukee to Open 2006 Season
August 23, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 23, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after winning the 2005 Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament titles, opens the 2006 campaign with a pair of road matches this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards will begin the 10th season in program history with two matches at the Milwaukee Cup ... the Brown and Orange will take on a pair of opponents that, like BGSU, advanced to the NCAA Championships last November ... BG will take on nationally-ranked Marquette University in Friday (Aug. 25) action, in a match scheduled to start at 8:15 p.m. Central (9:15 p.m. locally) at MU's Valley Fields ... then, on Sunday (Aug. 27), the Brown and Orange will meet the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a 2:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. Eastern) kickoff at Engelmann Field ... each of BG's games is the second contest of a doubleheader, as Sacred Heart rounds out the four-team field.
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Both of BGSU's matches in Milwaukee this weekend are scheduled to have live stats on the web via GameTracker ... for up-to-the-minute information, log on to BGSUFalcons.com, or to the site of the Falcons' opponent that day (gomarquette.com or uwmpanthers.com) ... additionally, BGSU is scheduled to have live stats available for all home matches in 2006.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
* 80-93-16 all-time, entering the 10th season in program history;
* 40-47-11 in Mid-American Conference regular-season matches;
* 24-19-4 overall and 18-7-4 against MAC schools over the last two seasons;
* 7-6-0 in the month of August through the years;
* 6-3-0 in the opening match of the season;
* 5-4-0 in the first road match of the season;
* 3-0-0 when opening the regular-season on the road;
* 2-0-0 all-time against schools from the state of Wisconsin, including a match which also happened to be a regular-season opener on the road (2-0 win at UW-Green Bay on Aug. 31, 2001 - BGSU also downed UWGB the previous season at home, 3-1 on Oct. 27, 2000).
HEAD COACH Andy Richards
Andy Richards enters his seventh season as a collegiate head coach, all with the Falcons ... the 2005 MAC Coach of the Year, Richards led the Brown and Orange to both the MAC's regular-season and tourney titles last fall ... he has an overall record of 61-59-12, including a MAC Tournament mark of 8-3-3 ... Richards has led BG to the five finest seasons in school history in his tenure, including '05, as he guided the Falcons to the first regular-season title in BG annals ... he has led the Falcons to the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament on five occasions, to the championship match four times, and, in 2004, to the first league tourney title and NCAA Tournament berth in school history ... Richards and the Falcons repeated that feat last year, as BGSU again won the MAC Tournament crown ... Erik Burstein begins his first season with the program, while Ashley Wentzel, a co-captain on the 2005 team, starts her first season as a student assistant coach.
THE 2006 CAPTAINS
Senior Lindsay Carter and junior Janie Babich are the co-captains of the 2006 Falcons ... Carter, the team's lone senior, is also the squad's active career scoring leader, entering the season with 18 points in her first three years ... Babich, like Carter, was a starter on last year's MAC regular-season and tournament championship club.
BEST. SEASON. EVER.
What would constitute the best season in school history? The most wins ever? Fewest losses? A sweep of the league regular-season and tournament championships? Last year's BGSU team accomplished all of the aforementioned feats and more ... check out some of the accomplishments by the 2005 women's soccer Falcons ...
* Most wins in a season (14);
* Fewest losses in a season (7);
* First MAC regular-season title in school history;
* MAC Tournament championship for the second-straight year;
* Second-straight NCAA Tournament appearance;
* A sweep of the MAC's specialty awards (Player, Coach and Freshman of the Year).
The Falcons return 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from that squad.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Marquette returns six starters and 18 letterwinners from the 2005 squad that posted a 19-4-1 overall record and won a pair of NCAA Tournament matches to advance to the 'Sweet 16' ... the Golden Eagles begin the '06 campaign ranked 16th in both the Soccer America and Soccer Buzz polls and 25th in the NSCAA poll ... goalkeeper Laura Boyer is one of 25 players named to the 2006 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Watch List ... the Hermann Trophy is given to the top player in the nation at the end of the season ... the Golden Eagles of head coach Markus Roeders lost a 2-1 exhibition match at #13/15 Illinois.
UW-Milwaukee, the preseason pick to win the Horizon League, returns seven starters from last year's 12-5-5 team that advanced to the second round of the NCAAs ... the Panthers have won six consecutive HL regular-season titles ... UWM played a pair of exhibition matches, with a 2-0 win over Northern Illinois and a 2-2 tie against Illinois State ... head coach Michael Moynihan's team will meet Sacred Heart in Friday action before taking on the Falcons two days later.
The Falcons have never met either Marquette or UWM in women's soccer.
FALCONS PICKED THIRD
The Falcons have been picked to finish third in the MAC in 2006, according to the preseason coaches poll ... the third-place prediction is the highest spot ever forecasted for the Brown and Orange in school history ... Central Michigan was picked to win the MAC regular-season and tournament titles, while Western Michigan was tabbed to finish second in the regular-season race ... following BGSU, Miami was picked for fourth, followed by Kent State and Toledo ... Ball State and Eastern Michigan were projected to tie for seventh, followed by Ohio, Northern Illinois, Buffalo and Akron.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU completed the 2005 campaign, the finest in school history, with an overall record of 14-7-2 ... the Falcons finished MAC play with a 9-2-0 ledger, good for the first league regular-season title in program history ... BGSU returns 10 letterwinners, including four starters, from that team ... sophomore Corbie Yee is the top scorer among the returnees, after notching six goals and 15 points last fall ... senior Lindsay Carter had 10 points in 2005, while sophomore Kristin McDonald had seven points a year ago ... junior Janie Babich and sophomore Susan Hunter join Carter and Yee as returning starters ... last year's team had nine seniors, the most in school history ... this year's squad features 12 newcomers, the most since 1997, the first year of the program ... Andy Richards has just one senior, Carter, on his 24-player roster ... the Falcons have seven juniors, five sophomores and 11 freshmen on the '06 squad ... BGSU's recruiting class was rated tops in the MAC by Soccer Buzz.
LAST TIME OUT
Host Dayton broke open a scoreless match with three goals in an eight-minute span late in the first half, and the Flyers went on to a 5-0 victory over the Falcons in exhibition play Friday night (Aug. 18) ... the match was the lone exhibition of the season for the Brown and Orange ... UD held a 25-6 advantage in shot attempts ... junior transfer Tiffany Hansen played the entire match in net for the Falcons, making 11 saves ... a total of 20 players, including eight freshmen, saw action in the match for the Brown and Orange.
RICHARDS AGREES TO THREE-YEAR CONTRACT
In February of 2006, Bowling Green reached an agreement with Falcon women's soccer coach Andy Richards on a three-year contract ... the contract runs through June 30, 2009 ... Richards' new contract marks the first time in school history that a soccer coach has received a multi-year contract ... Richards enters his seventh season as BGSU's head coach ... as mentioned, he was named the 2005 MAC Coach of the Year after guiding the Falcons to the MAC regular-season and tournament titles.
