Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Return Home to Face NIU
March 27, 2008 | Women's Tennis
March 27, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University tennis team, having seen an 11-match winning streak snapped last weekend, returns home for the first time in six weeks ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean begin a three-game homestand this weekend, hosting Northern Illinois on Saturday afternoon (March 29) ... the match is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at BGSU's new tennis complex ... in the event of inclement weather, the match will be moved to the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Toledo, and would begin at 2:00 p.m.
BGSU Notes, Stats & Records in PDF Format
BGSU-NIU Match Program in PDF Format
THREE NOTES THAT NO SELF-RESPECTING MEDIA MEMBER OR BG TENNIS ENTHUSIAST SHOULD BE WITHOUT
• The Falcons suffered a pair of narrow 4-3 losses on the road last weekend, to Eastern Michigan (March 21) and Toledo (March 22) ... the EMU loss ended a pair of school-record streaks ... the Falcons had won 11 consecutive matches, tying the longest winning streak in BG annals ... the 2005-06 edition of the Brown and Orange, after a 2-4 start to the dual-match schedule, won 11 consecutive contests from Feb. 11 to March 25.
• BGSU's losses last weekend ended a school-record season-starting streak ... the Falcons' 11-0 start was the best in program history ... prior to this year, the best start in BGSU annals was 10-0, by the Janet Parks-coached 1973-74 team.
• Sophomore Samantha Kintzel continued her stellar play, going 4-0 in the weekend matches ... Kintzel won in straight sets at the fourth singles flight against both EMU and Toledo, and teamed with classmate Katia Babina for a pair of victories at the third doubles flight ... Kintzel now has an overall record of 38-9, best on the team, this year.
KINTZEL KONTINUES TO KRUISE: A RARE FOURTH NOTE TO KNOW
Sophomore Samantha Kintzel, as mentioned, leads the Falcons with a record of 38-9 this season, including marks of 17-5 in singles and 21-4 in doubles to date ... the Libertyville, Ill., native has won 12 consecutive overall matches since her last loss, vs. Duquesne in singles play on Feb. 16 ... Kintzel has won six-straight singles matches since that DU dual, and has won 11 consecutive doubles matches (teaming with classmate Katia Babina in all 11) since her last loss, on Jan. 20 vs. Butler.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE GAME: NOTES ON THIS WEEKEND'S VENUE(S)
• The Falcons' Saturday meeting with Northern Illinois would be BGSU's first-ever dual match at the program's new tennis complex ... the only other event for the Brown and Orange at the venue was the season-opening BGSU Invitational on Sept. 15-16, 2007.
• Should the Falcons be forced to move the NIU match indoors, BGSU would be looking to continue a recent run of success at the team's 'home away from home' ... BG has won 14 consecutive dual matches at Shadow Valley, and the team is 28-1 at the facility over the last three-plus years ... the Falcons went 6-0 at the venue in the 2004-05 season, 8-1 in '05-06 and a perfect 8-0 last year, and BG is 6-0 at the site this year to date.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 11-2 in dual-match action this season to date ... BGSU, after reeling off 11 consecutive wins to begin the dual portion of the schedule, suffered a pair of narrow losses to start MAC play ... the Brown and Orange lost at Eastern Michigan and Toledo by identical 4-3 scores last weekend.
BGSU spent three weeks in the national rankings prior to last weekend's losses ... the Falcons broke into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings on March 4, debuting at 60th in the poll ... that is believed to be the first national ranking in program history ... the Falcons were 54th in the country in the March 11 rankings, and 56th in last week's (March 18) poll.
BG has posted at least 10 dual-match victories for the sixth consecutive season, extending a school record ... prior to the current streak, the longest string of double-digit win totals was four-straight seasons, on two prior occasions (1988-92 and 1996-2000).
Individually, all eight Falcon competitors have posted more than 20 total wins this year to date ... sophomore Samantha Kintzel has 38 overall victories this year to date, while freshman Christine Chiricosta has 36 and sophomore Katia Babina 34 ... juniors Kelsey Jakupcin (31 wins) and Stefanie Menoff (29) and senior Andrea Volle (28) are close behind.
In singles play, all eight Falcon players have winning records ... Menoff has a 16-4 mark, while Chiricosta and Kintzel both are 17-5 ... Volle has a singles record of 13-6 to date, while Jakupcin is 14-7 and Babina 12-8 ... senior Jenna Nussbaum has 11 singles wins, and junior Libby Harrison has 10.
In doubles action, Babina has a stellar 22-3 mark, while Kintzel is 21-4 and Chiricosta 19-5 ... all eight Falcons have winning doubles ledgers, with each of them having posted at least 11 victories heading into the NIU match.
In dual-match action, Jakupcin has a mark of 11-2 at the top singles flight, while Chiricosta is 10-3 at the second level ... Babina has a 8-4 record at the third flight, with Kintzel 9-2 at flight number four ... Menoff (3-2 at flight five, 5-0 at flight six) and Volle (5-1 at flight five, 1-2 at flight six) have rounded out the Falcons' most common singles lineup in dual-match play.
In doubles play, Chiricosta and Jakupcin have teamed up for a 10-3 record at the #1 flight in dual-match action ... the tandem of senior co-captains Nussbaum and Volle are 9-4 at the second level in duals, while the sophomore duo of Babina and Kintzel has gone a stellar 11-1 since the dual-match season began.
THE OPPONENT
Northern Illinois is 3-7 in dual-match play this year to date, and the Huskies are 1-1 in MAC action ... NIU will take on Western Michigan in Kalamazoo on Friday (March 28) before venturing to Northwest Ohio to meet the Falcons the following day ... the Huskies split a pair of home matches last weekend, suffering a 7-0 loss to preseason MAC favorite Buffalo, before bouncing back with a 4-3 win over Akron ... last year's edition of the Huskies went 6-12 overall and 1-7 in the MAC.
The Falcons trail Northern Illinois, 11-8, in the all-time series between the teams, but BGSU has won the last three meetings ... the Brown and Orange played back-to-back MAC regular-season matches vs. the Huskies, closing the 2005-06 conference season with a 7-0 home win (April 21, 2006) before opening last season's MAC slate with a 6-1 victory in DeKalb (March 24, 2007) ... BGSU is 4-3 at home, 3-2 on the road and 1-6 in neutral-site matches vs. the Huskies.
SHE'S THE DEAN
Penny Dean heads into the weekend with a dual-match record of 195-179 in her 18th season at the BGSU helm ... she is 241-223 in her 22nd year as a collegiate head coach.
A FEW MORE FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• BGSU lost the doubles point at Toledo, for only the second time in this season's 13 dual matches ... the Indiana State contest of Feb. 10 was the only other occasion in which the Falcons began the match by falling behind, 1-0.
• The Falcons played the Toledo match without junior Stefanie Menoff ... Menoff, a regular in the BGSU lineup, has a 16-4 singles record this season and a 57-14 career singles ledger ... she suffered an injury during her Friday match vs. Eastern Michigan's Aleksandra Stankovic, which kept her out of the UT dual ... the loss to Stankovic was Menoff's first MAC singles loss since the 2005-06 season, and only the second of her career.
• With at least seven dual matches remaining in the 2007-08 season, the Falcons already have clinched a winning record ... this will mark BGSU's fourth consecutive winning season, tying a school record (1974-75 through 1977-78; 1996-97 through 1999-2000).
