Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Host Michigan State, Travel to Wright State
September 13, 2006 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 13, 2006
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BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team closes the non-conference portion of the schedule with a pair of tough tests this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards, riding a two-game winning streak, will host Michigan State University Friday (Sept. 15) in a rematch of a 2005 NCAA Championships first-round game ... Friday's contest will begin at 5:00 p.m. at Cochrane Field ... then, the Brown and Orange will head to Wright State University for a Sunday match (Sept. 17), in the Falcons' final appearance before Mid-American Conference play commences next weekend ... the Falcons and the undefeated Raiders will kick things off at 2:00 p.m. at WSU's Alumni Field.
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
The Michigan State match, like all of BG's home contests, is scheduled to have live stats on the web ... fans who can't make it to a match at Cochrane Field can get up-to-the-minute statistics on the web via GameTracker, right here at BGSUFalcons.com.
LAST WEEKEND
The Falcons picked up a pair of shutout wins to improve to 3-3 on the season ... on Friday (Sept. 8), BGSU got a first-half goal from freshman Stacey Lucas, and sophomore Christy Zabek made two saves for a 1-0 win over Youngstown State ... then, on Sunday, the Brown and Orange posted a 2-0 road victory vs. Eastern Illinois ... the Falcons benefitted from an own goal, and Gina Rossi scored midway through the second half to provide some insurance ... junior Tiffany Hansen had three saves, and fellow junior transfer Karie Sahly cleared a shot off the goal line for a 'team save' in the win.
ROAD SHUTOUTS RARE
Although the Falcons have posted plenty of shutouts over the past year-plus, Sunday's win at Eastern Illinois marked the first road shutout for the BGSU defense in nearly two years ... the team's last shutout on the road had come on Oct. 28, 2004, a 3-0 win at Toledo in the final game of the regular season ... since that UT game, the Falcons had posted 10 shutouts at Cochrane Field, plus two more in neutral-site contests.
NCAA TOURNAMENT REMATCH
Friday's game is a rematch of a 2005 NCAA Championships first-round contest ... the teams met in Notre Dame, Ind., last Nov. 11, with MSU recording a 4-0 win that was much closer than that final score would indicate ... BGSU outshot MSU by an 8-1 margin in the first half, and the match was still scoreless at the intermission ... early in the second half, an MSU free kick hit a Falcon defender and rolled into the net for an own goal ... Jenee Witherspoon gave the Spartans a two-goal lead with 18:48 left ... then, with the Falcons pressing forward, MSU was able to counter, and Kristi Timar scored twice in the final 10 minutes to provide the final margin.
ROSSI RETURNS
Gina Rossi's goal at Eastern Illinois was her first since November of 2004 ... Rossi, in her third year in the BGSU program, scored three goals in her freshman season of '04 ... her final goal of that season proved to be the game-winner in the MAC Tournament championship match, a 2-0 win over Central Michigan ... then, however, Rossi missed the entire 2005 season due to injury ... she has returned to play in all six matches to date in '06.
FALCON FIRSTS
A number of Falcons achieved career firsts over the weekend ... in Friday's win over Youngstown State, freshman Stacey Lucas scored her first collegiate goal ... it turned out to be her first career game-winning goal as well, as BG posted a 1-0 win ... it was the game-winner in large part because sophomore Christy Zabek, making her first collegiate start, posted her first career complete-game shutout ... on Sunday at EIU, freshman Katie Kirkhoff saw the first game action of her BGSU career, playing the final 16:19 of the contest.
HEAD COACH Andy Richards
Andy Richards is in 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 64-62-12, 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 BGSU 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 is in his first season with the program, while Ashley Wentzel, a co-captain on the 2005 team, is in her first season as a student assistant coach.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Michigan State is 3-3 on the season, and the Spartans have won two consecutive matches ... MSU, like BGSU, has shutout wins in each of the last two outings, with a 2-0 win over Cincinnati last Thursday (Sept. 7) before a 1-0 victory over Detroit on Tuesday (Sept. 12) ... freshman Lauren Hill already has 14 points this season ... she has six of the Spartans' nine goals, including a four-goal performance in a 4-2 win over Western Michigan ... junior Nicole Galas has played every minute in goal, and has a goals-against average of 1.33 ... head coach Tom Saxton, in his 16th season, welcomed back a whopping 22 letterwinners, including seven starters, from last year's team that finished 12-6-5 overall and placed third in the Big Ten Conference with a 6-2-2 league ledger ... the Spartans are 16th (lone team listed under 'receiving votes') in the Soccer Buzz Great Lakes Region rankings this week.
Wright State is ranked 13th in the region in that same Soccer Buzz poll ... the Raiders are undefeated, with a 4-0-2 record entering a Friday (Sept. 15) home match vs. Eastern Illinois ... the two times have come against Nebraska and Louisville, a pair of teams receiving votes in the Soccer Buzz national poll ... WSU has scored 15 goals and allowed just three this season to date ... last weekend, the Raiders opened the home schedule with a 5-0 win over Kent State, then got a 2-1 win at Duquesne ... three players - Megan Bush, Megan Mattioda and Desire Morris - have seven points apiece ... Steph Comisar has started all six matches in net, and has a GAA of just 0.48 this year ... head coach Pat Ferguson, in his second season, has 14 letterwinners back from last year's squad that finished 11-5-3 and 4-1-2 in the Horizon League ... seven starters return from that team.
The Falcons have met Michigan State 10 times, more than any other non-conference opponent ... the Spartans are the only non-league foe that BGSU has faced in every year of the program's existence, and the teams met twice last year ... the Spartans have won the last five matches vs. the Falcons, including a 1-0 decision in East Lansing in last year's regular-season meeting (Sept. 9, 2005) and a 4-0 triumph in NCAA play two months later ... MSU has won four of the five previous meetings at Cochrane Field, with BG's lone series win coming in overtime in the 1999 season opener ... BGSU leads Wright State, 3-2-0, in that series, but the Raiders have won the last two games, including a 4-0 win at Cochrane in last season's opening weekend (Aug. 28, 2005) ... the teams have split the two prior matches played at WSU.
THE BGSU-MICHIGAN STATE SERIES (MSU leads, 8-1-1) Oct. 29, 1997 H L 1-2 Oct. 21, 1998 A L 1-5 Aug. 27, 1999 H W 3-2 (OT) Oct. 29, 2000 H L 0-1 Sept. 2, 2001 A T 1-1 (2-OT) Sept. 1, 2002 H L 0-4 Oct. 15, 2003 A L 2-3 Sept. 3, 2004 H L 0-3 Sept. 9, 2005 A L 0-1 Nov. 11, 2005 N#^ L 0-4 # NCAA Championships First Round ^ at Notre Dame, Ind.
THE BGSU-WRIGHT STATE SERIES (BGSU leads, 3-2-0) Oct. 9, 2001 H W 2-1 Nov. 1, 2002 A W 3-1 Sept. 21, 2003 H W 3-0 Oct. 30, 2004 A L 0-1 Aug. 28, 2005 H L 0-4
SHUTOUT STREAK COMES TO AN END
The Falcons saw two impressive streaks come to an end in the Sept. 3 loss to Western Illinois ... BGSU's home shutout streak came to an end just eight days shy of a year, as the Falcons allowed a goal at Cochrane Field for the first time since Sept. 11, 2005 ... BG had kept opponents off the scoreboard for a span of 946:02 ... the Falcons promptly started a new streak with Friday's (Sept. 8) win over Youngstown State, and BGSU now has posted shutouts in 10 of the last 11 matches at Cochrane.
HOME UNBEATEN STREAK SNAPPED, TOO
The Falcons also saw the team's home unbeaten streak come to an end at a school-record 10 matches in that WIU match ... the game marked BGSU's first home loss in over a year, since a setback to Wright State on Aug. 28, 2005 ... the Brown and Orange had been 8-0-2 at home during that streak.
MAC STREAKS CONTINUE, THOUGH
* The Falcons' home unbeaten and home shutout streaks vs. MAC foes still exist, and will last until at least Sept. 22 (the league opener against Northern Illinois) ... BGSU has not lost at home to a MAC school since Oct. 10, 2004, a 2-1 loss to Ball State ... the Falcons are unbeaten in the last nine matches at home vs. conference foes, having gone 6-0-3 in that span ... that includes three matches in the 2005 MAC Tournament.
* BGSU has not allowed a goal to a conference rival at Cochrane since Oct. 24, 2004 ... in that match, the Falcons' final home game of the '04 season, BG trailed by a 2-0 score with less than 14 minutes remaining in regulation, before rallying for a 2-2 tie ... the Falcons' home shutout streak stands at 720:52 heading into the NIU game ... in 2005, the Brown and Orange went 5-0-2 vs. league opponents at Cochrane ... the Falcons have scored 13 unanswered goals vs. MAC foes at home.
FALCON NOTES
* The Falcons have won three of the last four matches, all by shutout ... junior Tiffany Hansen has two of those shutouts, vs. Xavier (Sept. 1) and EIU, while sophomore Christy Zabek got the shutout win in Friday's (Sept. 8) win over Youngstown State ... Hansen now has two shutouts this season, and four complete-game shutouts in her collegiate career ... Zabek's shutout vs. YSU came in her first collegiate start.
* A personal shutout streak continues for Zabek ... she has now played a total of 209:02, over six games, in her BG career, and has yet to allow a goal ... she has five saves in 2006 and a total of six in her career.
* Junior Danielle Cygan had assists on BGSU's first two goals of the season, matching her career total entering the 2006 campaign ... three of her four career assists have come on match-winning goals.
* At least three freshmen have been in the starting lineup in each of the six matches this year.
HOME IS WHERE THE GAMES ARE
The Falcons' 2006 schedule includes a school record-tying 11 home contests ... BGSU will play four of eight non-conference games at Cochrane Field ... additionally, seven of September's nine matches are at home ... after playing just four of 11 MAC matches at home last year, the Brown and Orange will meet seven of the 11 league foes inside the friendly confines of Cochrane Field.
