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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Head to Cincinnati for 2008 Season Opener
August 19, 2008 | Women's Soccer
Aug. 19, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, after finishing the 2007 season with an overall record of 10-9-3, begins the 2008 campaign on the road this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards will commence the 12th season in program history with Friday night's (Aug. 22) match at the University of Cincinnati ... kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at Gettler Stadium on the UC campus ... following the match with the Bearcats, the Falcons will have a week to prepare for a contest at Oakland University on Friday, Aug. 29 ... the Brown and Orange will open the home portion of the regular-season schedule two days later (Sunday, Aug. 31), hosting Michigan State University in a 1:00 p.m. match at Cochrane Field.
BGSU Women's Soccer Notes in PDF Format 
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Friday night's Cincinnati match is scheduled to have live stats on the web ... for up-to-the-minute statistical information via Gametracker, for the UC game as well as for all of the Falcons' home matches again in 2008, log on to BGSUFalcons.com.
AN EARLY START
The Falcons' Aug. 22 kickoff will mark the earliest start to a season in program history ... in the first 11 seasons, the team's earliest opener was an Aug. 25 match at Marquette to begin the 2006 season.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 100-112-19 all-time, entering the 12th season in program history;
• 34-26-5 overall in the last three seasons;
• 53-56-11 in Mid-American Conference regular-season matches;
• 32-17-6 vs. MAC schools over the last four seasons (including regular-season and tournament matches), and 24-12-4 vs. league foes in the last three years;
• 5-1-4 in the last four MAC Tournaments (advancing in three of the four ties);
• 49-50-8 at home, including 19-11-2 at Cochrane Field in the last three years;
• 43-53-9 in road contests;
• 8-9-2 all-time in neutral-site matches;
• 7-9-0 in the month of August through the years;
• 6-5-0 in the opening match of the season;
• 5-6-0 in the first road match of the season;
• 3-2-0 when opening the regular season on the road;
• 0-0-0 in games played on Aug. 22 (see above note);
• 30-1-1 in the last 32 games in which BG has scored first;
• 2-0-0 in the last two games in which the opponents have scored first (BG rallied from 1-0 deficits to beat both Toledo [Nov. 1] and Eastern Michigan [Nov. 4] in the 2007 MAC Tournament); and
• 5-0-2 in the last seven matches.
THOSE WHO STAY PLAY FOR CHAMPIONSHIPS
The BGSU women's soccer program completed its 11th season in 2007 ... through those first 11 years, every player who has stayed with the program all four years has been a part of at least one team that has advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match.
OPENING THE SEASON WITH AN UNBEATEN STREAK
It is rather rare for a team to open a season riding an unbeaten streak ... but, the 2008 Falcons are doing just that ... BGSU ended the 2007 campaign on a seven-match unbeaten streak ... the Falcons won five consecutive matches, culminating with an overtime win over Eastern Michigan in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Tournament ... the Brown and Orange then battled Ball State and Toledo to double-overtime matches in conference tourney play, with both matches settled by penalty kicks.
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THE BGSU-CINCINNATI SERIES (Tied, 1-1-0) Oct. 8, 2002 --- A -- L, 0-2 Sept. 14, 2003 - H -- W, 1-0 |
Michelle Salmon, Cincinnati's first-year head coach, has seen the Falcons before ... Salmon spent the last two seasons as the head coach at MAC member Ball State ... her last game as the Cardinals' head coach came against BGSU, in the semifinals of the 2007 MAC Tournament in Muncie, Ind. ... now, the first regular-season game of her UC coaching career comes against those same Falcons.
RICHARDS AGREES TO CONTRACT EXTENSION
BGSU reached an agreement with Falcon coach Andy Richards on a two-year contract extension, it was announced May 23, 2008 ... Richards' contract now runs through June 30, 2011 ... Richards had inked a three-year contract in February of 2006, marking the first time in school history that a soccer coach had received a multi-year contract ... in eight seasons, Richards has guided the Falcons to an overall record of 81-78-15 ... BGSU is 9-4-5 in MAC Tournament matches during his tenure, and no MAC coach has as many trips to the league tourney's title game as Richards ... the 2007 season marked the fifth time he had guided a BG squad to the championship match ... two of those appearances - in 2004 and 2005 - resulted in MAC Tournament titles and trips to the NCAA Championships ... Richards and the Falcons also won the '05 regular-season crown.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU returns 18 of 23 letterwinners, including nine starters, from a 2007 squad that went 10-9-3 overall and 6-5-0 in MAC play ... the '07 Falcons finished in fourth place in the final conference standings, then advanced all the way to the MAC Tournament's championship match for the fourth time in five seasons ... BG drew with Toledo in that tourney final, before the Rockets advanced to the NCAAs via penalty kicks ... the Falcons had a 5-4-0 record at home in '07, and BG was 5-5-2 on the road and 0-0-1 in neutral-site matches last fall ... the Falcons ended the year on a seven-match unbeaten streak, having tied Ball State and UT after winning each of the previous five matches by a single goal ... the returning Falcons combined for nearly 90 percent of the team's goals scored, almost 88% of the total assists and 89% of the overall points amassed by last season's club ... additionally, the two returning goalkeepers combined to start 21 of the team's 22 matches last fall ... senior Corbie Yee is the Falcons' top returning scorer ... Yee led a balanced scoring attack with 13 points, while junior Stacey Lucas and sophomore Meagan Moran each return after scoring 12 points apiece ... Lucas led the Falcons with five goals, while Moran had four goals and four assists to rank second on the team in both categories ... Yee paced BGSU with five assists, and tied Moran for second with four goals ... sophomore Jackie Tamerlano had nine points, while junior Faith Juillerat and soph Katie Stephenson each had five points ... in goal, redshirt sophomore Alexa Arsenault was 7-3-3 with a team-high 63 saves and a team-low goals-against average of 0.82 in her initial playing season ... senior Christy Zabek had a 3-5-0 record with 32 saves and a 1.93 GAA ... she also made two huge saves of penalty kicks during the PK phase of the Ball State match, saves that will not show up on her stats but are as meaningful as any she will ever make ... Zabek also entered the Toledo match during the PK phase, making one save.
THE 2008 CAPTAINS
Seniors Brianne Eisenhard and Susan Hunter are the 2008 Falcon women's soccer co-captains.
THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
Cincinnati, like BGSU, returns nine starters from the 2007 season ... the Bearcats finished with a 6-10-2 overall record a year ago, placing seventh in the National Division of the Big East Conference ... UC has played a pair of exhibition matches, coming out victorious in both ... the Bearcats won at Western Carolina, 1-0 (Aug. 11), before downing visiting Central Michigan by a 4-1 final Friday (Aug. 15) ... Michelle Salmon, as mentioned earlier, begins her first season at the UC helm after spending two years as the head coach at Ball State ... the school's athletics web site is GoBearcats.com.
The Falcons and Cincinnati are tied, 1-1-0, in the all-time series between the teams, and the home team has won both previous matches ... host UC captured a 2-0 decision in the Queen City six years ago (Oct. 8, 2002), while the Falcons posted a 1-0 victory at Cochrane Field the following season (Sept. 14, 2003) ... following the loss to the 'Cats in 2002, the Falcons went on a five-match unbeaten streak (4-0-1), and were 6-1-1 over the next eight games before losing in the semifinal round of the MAC Tournament.
LOOKING TO EXTEND SOME IMPRESSIVE STREAKS
BGSU is looking to extend several streaks in 2008 ... last year, the Falcons finished with a winning record in MAC play for just the fourth time in the 11-year history of the program .. after going 9-2-0 in league action in 2005, 7-4-0 in '06 and 6-5-0 last fall, the Falcons have posted back-to-back-to-back winning MAC records for the first time ever ... BG's only other winning conference mark came in 2002 (7-4-1) ... the '07 Falcons finished among the top-four teams in the MAC standings for only the fourth time (fourth in 2002, first in 2005, T-third in 2006) in school history, and the third-straight year ... overall, the Falcons have now posted four consecutive seasons of double-digit wins for the first time in school annals ... BG has had back-to-back-to-back records of at least .500 for the first time ever.
18 LETTERWINNERS COULD SPELL SUCCESS
The Falcons have no fewer than 18 returning letterwinners in 2008, the second-highest total in program history ... the 2004 Falcons welcomed back 19 letterwinners, the most in BG annals, from the prior season ... the 2000 team, Andy Richards' initial squad, had 17 letterwinners back from the prior season, as did last year's team ... the 2004 team won the MAC Tournament, the first title in program history, while both the 2000 and 2007 clubs advanced all the way to the championship match of the conference tourney.
