Bowling Green State University Athletics
BGSU to Close Regular Season with Two Home Matches
April 17, 2007 | Women's Tennis
April 17, 2007
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University tennis team closes the 2006-07 regular season with a pair of home matches this weekend. The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will host Mid-American Conference duals against Eastern Michigan University on Friday (April 20) and the University of Toledo Saturday (April 21). Both matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus.
BGSU Release, Stats & Records in PDF Format
BGSU-EMU Match Program in PDF Format
BGSU-Toledo Match Program in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Readerprint your own nice, clear color copies of the programs before you come to Keefe Courts, or pick up a black-and-white copy at the match
THREE NOTES THAT NO SELF-RESPECTING MEDIA MEMBER OR BG TENNIS ENTHUSIAST SHOULD BE WITHOUT
• Saturday's Toledo match will mark "Senior Day" at Keefe Courts ... Falcon seniors Ashley Jakupcin and Erica Wolfe will be recognized in ceremonies prior to the start of the match.
• The Falcons have assured themselves no worse than the fifth seed for the upcoming MAC Championships ... entering the final week of the regular season, BGSU (4-2 in the MAC) is two games ahead of Miami (3-4) in the loss column ... even if the Falcons were to tie with the RedHawks for fifth (which would require two BG losses and a Miami win this weekend), the Brown and Orange still would win the tiebreaker with the RedHawks by virtue of a win in the teams' head-to-head meeting.
• Sophomore Stefanie Menoff continued her red-hot singles play with a sixth-flight win over Western Michigan's Emily Dudzik on Saturday ... Menoff is now a stellar 22-2 in singles play this season, and has a career singles record of 40-10 ... she is a perfect 6-0 in MAC singles matches this year to date.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons enter the weekend with an overall dual-match record of 12-6, and BG is 4-2 in MAC action, good for fourth place in the nine-team race. The Brown and Orange suffered a 6-1 loss to nationally-ranked Western Michigan last weekend in Kalamazoo.
The loss to the #63 Broncos snapped a three match winning streak for the Brown and Orange. Despite that loss, BGSU still has won seven of the last nine matches, and the Falcons have won 11-of-14 contests since a 1-3 start to the dual-match season.
The Falcons have posted double-digit win totals in five consecutive seasons for the first time in school history. BG had had four-straight 10-win seasons twice before (1988-89 to 1991-92 and 1996-97 through 1999-2000).
Individually, eight of the nine Falcon players have amassed at least 10 singles wins this year to date. Sophomore Stefanie Menoff leads the pack with a stellar 22-2 mark, while freshman Samantha Kintzel is now 18-9. Soph Kelsey Jakupcin and her sister, senior Ashley Jakupcin, have 15 singles wins apiece, while a trio of teammates - junior Jenna Nussbaum, sophomore Libby Harrison and freshman Katia Babina - each have 12. Junior Andrea Volle has 11 wins, while senior Erica Wolfe has a 3-3 singles record.
In doubles action, Kelsey Jakupcin and Nussbaum have posted an overall record of 15-13, including a 10-8 mark at the number-one flight in dual-match action (4-2 in MAC matches). Babina and Volle have a 5-5 ledger, with all 10 matches coming in flight-two competition during the spring.
The Kintzel/Menoff duo is 13-8 this season, including a record of 8-4 in duals at the number-three flight this year to date. In the last three matches, Menoff has teamed with Volle at the second flight, while Kintzel and Ashley Jakupcin have comprised the flight-three tandem.
THIS WEEKEND'S OPPONENTS
Eastern Michigan enters the weekend with an overall record of 11-9, and the Eagles are 3-3 in MAC duals to date. Last weekend, Eastern split a pair of home matches, downing Akron by a 7-0 count before dropping a 5-2 decision to Buffalo. EMU's Vanessa Frankowski is ranked among the top-100 singles players in the nation.
Toledo has a 14-4 overall record, and the Rockets are 5-1 in the MAC heading into a Friday match at Western Michigan. Last weekend, UT - like EMU - split a pair of home matches vs. UB and UA. The Rockets lost a 4-3 decision to the Bulls before downing the Zips by a 7-0 count. The UB match snapped a five-match winning streak for UT.
The Falcons trail Eastern Michigan, 24-9, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Eagles have won seven consecutive meetings since BGSU's last win in the 1999-2000 season. Last year, Eastern picked up a 5-2 win in Ypsilanti (April 15, 2006).
BGSU leads Toledo, 21-12, in that series, but the Rockets downed the Falcons by a 5-2 count in the Glass City last season (April 14, 2006). That UT win snapped a 12-match BG series winning streak.
SHE'S THE DEAN
Falcon head coach Penny Dean has had a great deal of success on both sides of the BGSU-UT rivalry, with her teams winning 18-of-22 matches ... Dean spent four years (1984-85 through 1987-88) at the helm of the Rockets, and had a perfect 5-0 record vs. Bowling Green during that time ... since taking the BGSU head-coaching position prior to the 1990-91 season, Dean has guided the Brown and Orange to a 13-4 record against UT.
JAKUPCIN CLIMBING THE LADDER
Senior Ashley Jakupcin enters the weekend with a career total of 75 singles wins ... that total ties her for fifth place on the BGSU career list, just four shy of the school record ... Julie Weisblatt (1994-97) and Deidee Bissinger (1997-2000) share the BG record with 79 career singles wins.
BGSU AND THE MAC RACE
• As mentioned, the Falcons have assured themselves no worse than the fifth seed for the MAC Championships ... the Falcons still have an outside shot at a share of the regular-season title, although BGSU would need a great deal of help ... to tie for the crown, the Falcons would need to go 2-0 this weekend, and would need both EMU and UT to beat Western Michigan and Northern Illinois to top Buffalo ... WMU has won 24 consecutive MAC regular-season matches, so the chances of an 0-2 weekend for the Broncos seem slim at best.
• BGSU's last fifth-place finish came in the 2002-03 season ... the Falcons have not finished higher than fifth place since the 1999-2000 campaign, when the Brown and Orange tied for third in the league regular-season standings ... that '99-2000 season also marks the last time a BG team advanced as far as the semifinals of the conference tournament.
THREE MORE FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• Sophomore Stefanie Menoff has won eight consecutive singles matches, and 12 of her last 13 ... she has a 15-2 singles record in dual-match play this spring.
• Menoff's win Saturday gave the Falcons their first point vs. Western Michigan since the 2001-02 season ... the Broncos had recorded 7-0 victories in each of the last five regular-season meetings, and a 4-0 win over the Falcons in the 2004 conference tournament.
• Samantha Kintzel's loss at the second singles flight vs. WMU snapped a three-match singles winning streak for the freshman ... despite the loss, Kintzel still has won seven of her last nine singles contests.
UP NEXT
Following this weekend's matches, the Falcons and the rest of the Mid-American Conference teams will converge upon Toledo for the MAC Championships next Thursday through Sunday (April 26-29).
