Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Falcons Bounce Back to Blank NIU, 7-0
March 29, 2008 | Women's Tennis
March 29, 2008
TOLEDO, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University tennis team bounced back after two narrow losses last weekend, winning at every singles and doubles flight for a 7-0 victory over Northern Illinois University Saturday afternoon (March 29). The Mid-American Conference dual match was held at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Toledo.
With the win, the Falcons improve to 12-2 overall, and BGSU moves to 1-2 in MAC play. The Huskies are now 3-9 and 1-3, respectively.
"We are very pleased to get a win at each flight today, and pick up our first MAC win of the year," said Falcon coach Penny Dean. "We spent a lot of practice time working on our serving this week, and I felt we did a good job in that area today.
"Overall, it was a good team effort. A lot of the matches were closer than the scores might indicate, but we did a nice job of grinding it out in those matches."
After a pair of 4-3 road losses last weekend (Eastern Michigan and Toledo), the Falcons took no chances, winning every match played on Saturday. BGSU swept the doubles point, then won every singles match, with only one of the six singles contests requiring a tiebreaker.
In doubles action, BGSU picked up an 8-5 win at the top flight, courtesy the duo of junior Kelsey Jakupcin and freshman Christine Chiricosta. The second-flight tandem of senior co-captains Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle lost only four games in their win, while the team's sophomore class, Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel, dropped just three games in their victory at the third flight.
In singles play, Jakupcin won against NIU's Nao Umemura by identical 6-4 scores at the number-one flight. Chiricosta picked up a straight-sets win at the second level, while Babina and Kintzel did the same at flights three and four, respectively.
At flight five, Nussbaum battled Jenny Edner through a pair of close sets. Nussbaum captured the opening set by a 7-5 result, but NIU's Edner came back for a 6-4 win in the second set. The match went to a tiebreaker, where Nussbaum picked up a 10-6 win to capture the match.
Junior Stefanie Menoff returned to action on Saturday. Menoff, who had won over 80 percent of her career singles matches entering last week, was injured during her singles match vs. Eastern Michigan. She finished that match, but was forced to miss the Toledo contest the following day. Against NIU, however, she lost only five total games en route to a sixth-flight win.
The Falcons will continue a three-match homestand next weekend, hosting Buffalo on Friday (April 4) and Akron next Saturday (April 5). Both duals are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at BGSU's new tennis complex, weather permitting.
FALCON TENNIS NOTES
* BGSU trails Northern Illinois, 11-9, in the all-time series between the schools, but the Falcons now have won the last four meetings ... two of the last three BGSU-NIU matches have ended in 7-0 wins for the Brown and Orange.
* BGSU continued a recent run of success at the team's indoor home ... the Falcons have won 15 consecutive dual matches at Shadow Valley, and the team is 29-1 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 7-0 at the site this year to date.
* BG won the doubles point for the 12th time in this season's 14 dual matches ... the Falcons have swept all three doubles matches on eight of those occasions.
* Senior Jenna Nussbaum surpassed the 100-win mark for her career on Saturday ... with wins at both singles and doubles vs. NIU, Nussbaum now has a total of 101 combined career wins ... she ranks 18th on that list.
* Junior Kelsey Jakupcin is the Falcons' active career leader in overall wins ... Jakupcin's two victories vs. the Huskies give her a total of 104 career wins, moving her into a tie for 15th on the BGSU list ... she is deadlocked with Andrea Meister (2003-06) and Tisa Pacella (1989-92) on that chart.
* Jakupcin picked up her 50th career doubles win on Saturday, tying her for 18th on the BG list ... she has 54 career singles wins, ranking her 16th on that school chart.
* Junior Stefanie Menoff, as mentioned, returned to the lineup on Saturday, after suffering an injury last weekend ... Menoff's singles win against NIU was the 58th of her career, moving her into sole possession of 13th on the BGSU career singles wins list ... she is 58-14 in her career.
* Menoff now has 89 overall wins, putting her just one victory shy of cracking the BGSU top-20.
* Sophomore Samantha Kintzel's two Saturday wins improve her record to a BG-best 40-9 this season ... she has moved into a tie for 11th place on the school single-season list ... in just her second year with the Falcons, Kintzel now has a total of 77 career wins.
* Senior Andrea Volle, BGSU's active career leader in doubles wins, picked up her 56th such win on Saturday ... she ranks 12th in BG history ... Nussbaum is right behind, ranking 13th with 55 career doubles victories at BG.
BOWLING GREEN 7, NORTHERN ILLINOIS 0
Saturday, March 29 - Shadow Valley Tennis Club; Toledo, Ohio
SINGLES
1 - Kelsey Jakupcin (BGSU) def. Nao Umemura 6-4, 6-4
2 - Christine Chiricosta (BGSU) def. Lilian Asuaje 6-4, 6-2
3 - Katia Babina (BGSU) def. Kathryn Friedlund 6-3, 6-1
4 - Samantha Kintzel (BGSU) def. Brooke Forsberg 6-2, 6-4
5 - Jenna Nussbaum (BGSU) def. Jenny Edner 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (6)
6 - Stefanie Menoff (BGSU) def. Dora Delgadillo 6-1, 6-4
# - Libby Harrison (BGSU) def. Stephanie Okuma 8-5
DOUBLES
1 - Chiricosta/Jakupcin (BGSU) def. Umemura/Forsberg 8-5
2 - Nussbaum/Andrea Volle (BGSU) def. Asuaje/Friedlund 8-4
3 - Babina/Kintzel (BGSU) def. Delgadilo/Edner 8-3
# exhibition, not included in match scoring
