Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Place Two on All-MAC Team
April 24, 2008 | Women's Tennis
April 24, 2008
BUFFALO, N.Y. (BGSUFalcons.com) - A pair of Bowling Green State University standouts have been named to the 2008 All-Mid-American Conference Women's Tennis Team. Junior Kelsey Jakupcin has been voted to the first team, while freshman Christine Chiricosta earned all-league second-team honors.
Both players earn all-league accolades for the first time in their respective Falcon careers.
(Click HERE to read the all-conference release from the MAC office)
The all-conference team and specialty-award winners were announced Thursday night (April 24) at the MAC Championships Banquet, held at the Holiday Inn Amherst.
Jakupcin, a native of Dublin, Ohio (Bishop Watterson HS), becomes the second Falcon in as many years -- and just the third BGSU tennis standout in the last decade -- to be named to the All-MAC First Team. In fact, Jakupcin is the second Falcon with her surname to earn all-league first-team honors in as many Aprils.
Jakupcin's sister, Ashley Jakupcin, was a first-team choice last year, in her senior season in the Brown and Orange. Susie Schoenberger was named to the first team in the 2004-05 season, marking BG's first such selection since Deidee Bissinger and Cindy Mikolajewski each had earned the honor in the 1996-97 campaign.
Jakupcin earns the first-team honor this season after making a successful transition to the Falcons' top singles flight. After splitting time at the third and fourth flights during the dual-match portion of last season, Jakupcin has played exclusively at the top flight in 2007-08. She has posted an overall singles record of 17-10, including a 14-5 mark in dual-match play and a 4-4 record in MAC action.
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Overall, Jakupcin has 38 total wins this season, and has won nearly two-thirds of her matches (38-20). In addition to the 17-10 singles mark, she has an overall doubles record of 21-10 to date.
Jakupcin, the Falcons' active career wins leader, currently has 109 career victories, ranking 15th in BGSU annals. She is tied for 15th in school history with 56 career singles wins, and is deadlocked for 16th on the career doubles wins list, with 53.
Jakupcin was twice named the MAC Player of the Week this season, being recognized on both Jan. 23 and Feb. 13. She also was named the MAC's Female Scholar-Athlete of the Week on April 3.
Chiricosta, who hails from Avon Lake, Ohio (Avon Lake HS), has played at the second singles flight and the top doubles level in her first collegiate season. She has a team-leading total of 44 overall wins, tying her for the sixth-highest total in BGSU history.
Currently, Chiricosta is 21-7 in singles, including a 14-5 mark in dual-match action this year to date. She finished MAC regular-season play with a 5-3 mark at the number-two flight.
In doubles, she has a 23-7 record to date, including the aforementioned 16-5 overall mark when teaming with Jakupcin. That duo, as mentioned, went 5-3 in league regular-season doubles action and 14-5 in dual-match play. Chiricosta's total of 23 doubles wins ties her for sixth on the school single-season list.
Chiricosta closed the regular season in style, winning at both singles and doubles against MAC champion Western Michigan. For her efforts, she was named the MAC Player of the Week on Wednesday (April 23).
Jakupcin was joined on the first team by Western Michigan's Kerstin Pahl, the league's Player of the Year, along with Eastern Michigan's Vanessa Frankowski, Buffalo's Andreea Novaceanu and the Miami duo of Anastasia Dracheva and Brintney Larson.
The second team was comprised of Akron's Tanyaradzwa Gombera, UB's Denise Harijanto, Toledo's Martina Wodzinski and WMU's Priyanka Parekh and Noriko Saruta, in addition to Chiricosta.
WMU's Betsy Kuhle was named the MAC Coach of the Year, while Pahl, as mentioned, took home player-of-the-year honors. Miami's Dracheva and UB's Diana Popescu shared the MAC Freshman-of-the-Year Award, while there was a three-way tie for the Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award. UA's Gombera, WMU's Saruta and Miami's Kelly Douple shared that award. Voted on by the student-athletes, the Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award is presented to the player(s) who has/have displayed outstanding sportsmanship in MAC competition. The other specialty awards are the results of voting by the league's nine head coaches.
The Falcons head into the MAC Championships with a record of 15-4 in dual-match play, and head coach Penny Dean's team finished the regular season with a 4-4 MAC record. The Falcons, the fifth seed for the nine-team conference tourney, will meet fourth-seeded Eastern Michigan University in Friday's (April 25) quarterfinal round. That match will begin at 10:00 a.m. at the Ellicott Tennis Center in Buffalo, N.Y.
2008 ALL-MAC TEAM
First Team
Name, School (Class, Hometown)
Kelsey Jakupcin, Bowling Green (Jr.; Dublin, Ohio)
Kerstin Pahl, Western Michigan (Jr.; Kiel, Germany)
Anastasia Dracheva, Miami (Fr.; Moscow, Russia)
Vanessa Frankowski, Eastern Michigan (Sr.; Stuttgart, Germany)
Andreea Novaceanu, Buffalo (Sr; Bucharest, Romania)
Brintney Larson, Miami (So.; Peachtree City, Ga.)
Second Team
Christine Chiricosta, Bowling Green (Fr.; Avon Lake, Ohio)
Martina Wodzinski, Toledo (So.; Bartlett, Ill.)
Priyanka Parekh, Western Michigan (Sr.; Kolkata, India)
Denise Harijanto, Buffalo (So.; Jakarta, Indonesia)
Noriko Saruta, Western Michigan (Sr.; Yamaguchi, Japan)
Tanyaradzwa Gombera, Akron (Jr.; Harare, Zimbabwe)
Individual Award Winners
Player of the Year: Kerstin Pahl, Western Michigan
Freshman of the Year (tie): Diana Popescu, Buffalo; Anastasia Dracheva, Miami
Coach of the Year: Betsy Kuhle, Western Michigan
Leann Grimes Davidge Sportsmanship Award (tie): Tanyaradzwa Gombera, Akron; Kelly Douple, Miami; Noriko Saruta, Western Michigan
