Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Return to the Road for a Pair of Matches
September 02, 2008 | Women's Soccer
Sept. 2, 2008
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, with the 2008 season just barely underway, takes to the road for the third and fourth times ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards will head to Fort Wayne, Ind., for a Friday (Sept. 5) match vs. IPFW ... kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. at the Hefner Soccer Complex ... then, the Brown and Orange will face The Ohio State University in Sunday (Sept. 7) action, in a 1:00 p.m. start at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
BGSU Notes & Statistics in PDF Format
LIVE STATS ON THE WEB
Both of this weekend's matches are scheduled to have live stats on the web ... both contests can be accessed through the opposing school's athletics web site (gomastodons.com on Friday, ohiostatebuckeyes.com on Sunday) ... for up-to-the-minute statistical information via Gametracker for all home matches again in 2008, log on to BGSUFalcons.com.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 100-114-20 all-time, three matches into the 12th season in program history;
• 34-28-6 overall in the last three-plus 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);
• 49-51-8 at home, including 19-12-2 at Cochrane Field in the last three years;
• 43-54-10 in road contests;
• 8-9-2 all-time in neutral-site matches;
• 37-46-7 in the month of September;
• 1-3-0 in matches played on Sept. 5 (including an 0-1-0 road record; a 2-0 loss to Eastern Illinois in 2004);
• 2-2-0 in Sept. 7 matches (including a 5-0 win over Saint Francis [Pa.], the first home win in program history, in 1997);
• 30-1-1 in the last 32 games in which BG has scored first; and
• 0-2-0 in 2008 matches in which the opponent has scored first.
SLOW START, BUT A FAST FINISH
The Falcons are winless through the first three matches, for only the second time in school history ... on the other occasion, in 2003, the Falcons began the year with a mark of 0-3, allowing 13 goals in those three contests ... that team went five matches without a victory (0-4-1), but rebounded to advance all the way to the championship match of the MAC Tournament.
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 advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match or beyond.
FALCONS PICKED THIRD
The Falcons were picked to finish third in the MAC in 2008, according to the preseason coaches poll released Aug. 20 ... Toledo was the coaches' choice to win the '08 MAC regular-season and tournament titles ...
2008 MAC PRESEASON POLL:
1 - Toledo 5 - Ohio 9 - Kent State 2 - Ball State T6 - Northern Illinois 10 - Buffalo 3 - Bowling Green T6 - Eastern Michigan 11 - Akron 4 - Miami 8 - Central Michigan 12 - Western MichiganPREDICTED MAC TOURNAMENT CHAMPION (votes): Toledo (7); Miami (3); Ball State (1); Bowling Green (1).
LAST WEEKEND
The Falcons battled host Oakland to a 0-0, double-overtime draw on Friday (Aug. 29), before falling to Michigan State, 3-0, at Cochrane Field on Sunday (Aug. 31) ... at OU, redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Alexa Arsenault made four saves to earn her first shutout of the season and the seventh of her career (in her 15th start) ... BGSU outshot the hosts by a 13-7 count, with freshman Alyssa Zuccaro recording a game-high five ... two of those shots were headers off the crossbar less than a minute apart ... vs. MSU, Arsenault made seven saves, and senior Christy Zabek had one stop in 18-plus minutes of scoreless relief.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 0-2-1 on the young season ... BGSU opened the campaign with a 3-1 loss at Cincinnati (Aug. 22), then battled Oakland to a scoreless draw (Aug. 29) before falling to Michigan State, 3-0 (Aug. 31) ... fifth-year senior Gina Rossi has scored the Falcons' lone goal to date ... redshirt sophomore Alexa Arsenault has started all three matches, and has 23 saves and a 1.99 goals-against average ... BGSU returned 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 ... 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 ... 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, Arsenault was 7-3-3 with a team-high 63 saves and a team-low GAA 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.
THE 2008 CAPTAINS
Seniors Brianne Eisenhard and Susan Hunter are the 2008 Falcon women's soccer co-captains.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
IPFW is 0-3-0 on the season ... the Mastodons will be opening the home portion of the schedule with Friday's match vs. BGSU ... IPFW has suffered losses at Illinois State (3-1), Eastern Michigan (3-0) and Wright State (3-0) ... freshman Brittni Roy scored the lone goal to date ... in goal, freshmen Kristen McFadden and Meagan McLaughlin each have played one half in all three games to date ... McLaughlin has 11 saves and just one goal allowed ... the Mastodons went 1-16-0 overall and 1-7-0 in Summit League play a year ago ... head coach Margaret Saurin welcomed back five letterwinners (all starters) from that team ... the school's athletics web site is www.gomastodons.com.
BGSU and IPFW will be meeting for the first time in women's soccer.
Ohio State takes a record of 0-2-0 into a Friday match vs. Charlotte ... the Buckeyes are coming off two heartbreaking losses in Milwaukee ... OSU lost a 4-3 decision at UW-Milwaukee, on a penalty kick with 1:31 left in the second half Wednesday (Aug. 27) ... two days later, the Buckeyes lost to Marquette, 2-1 in overtime, after the hosts scored the tying goal with just six seconds left in regulation and notched the winner with 1:01 gone in the OT period ... four different players have scored a goal for OSU this year, while Lauren Robertson has played both games in net, making a total of eight saves ... coach Lori Walker has 20 letterwinners, including six starters, back from a year ago ... the 2007 Buckeyes finished 12-10-1 overall and 5-5-0 in Big Ten Conference play ... the school's athletics web site is ohiostatebuckeyes.com.
The Falcons trail Ohio State, 4-1-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU is 1-2-0 vs. the Buckeyes in Columbus ... the Falcons' lone series win came in 2001, a 2-0 decision at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium ... the last regular-season meeting was a 3-2 OSU win in overtime, on Halloween of 2003 at Cochrane Field ... the teams' most recent overall match was a 2-0 OSU win in the 2004 NCAA Championships.
NIL-NIL
The match at Oakland was the seventh 0-0 tie in Falcon program history ... prior to Friday, the last four scoreless ties all had come in MAC Tournament action ... BGSU's last 0-0 tie in regular-season play came on Oct. 19, 2003, vs. Kent State.
WORKING OVERTIME
BGSU now has an all-time record of 17-14-20 in overtime matches ... the Falcons have an impressive OT mark of 7-1-10 in road contests.
