Bowling Green State University Athletics
Tennis Falcons Put Undefeated Record on the Line in Michigan
February 19, 2009 | Women's Tennis
Feb. 19, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University tennis team takes to the road this weekend, heading north for a pair of matches. The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will travel to East Lansing, Mich., for a Saturday (Feb. 21) match vs. #67 Michigan State, then will motor to Motown for Sunday's (Feb. 22) contest against Detroit.
Saturday's MSU match begins at noon at the MSU Tennis Facility, while Sunday's contest is scheduled for a 6:00 p.m. start at the Franklin Athletic Club.
BGSU is 5-0 in dual-match play this season. The Falcons, idle last weekend, swept Cincinnati, 7-0, on Feb 8 at the Perrysburg Tennis Center in the team's last match. BG also has home wins over Cleveland State and Xavier, after opening the dual-match portion of the schedule with road victories against Duquesne and Youngstown State.
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Harrison and Menoff, who have competed together at the third doubles flight, all season long, have gone 5-0 there as well, meaning that both players are 10-0 since the dual-match season started in mid-January.
All six active Falcons have winning records in both singles and doubles over that five-match span. Senior Kelsey Jakupcin is 4-1 at the top singles flight, while junior Samantha Kintzel has won four of her five matches at the third flight. Junior Katia Babina has gone 3-2 at the fourth flight, with wins in each of her last three matches.
In doubles, Chiricosta and Jakupcin have posted a 4-1 record at the top flight in dual play, while the Babina/Kintzel duo has gone 3-2 at the second level.
On the season, Chiricosta has a team-leading total of 25 overall wins, while Harrison and Menoff have 20 apiece. The team's lone freshman, Jessica Easdale, has yet to see match action due to injury.
Michigan State, currently #67 in the ITA rankings, are 4-4 in dual-match play this season. Most recently, the Spartans suffered a 7-0 loss in the Big Ten Conference opener on Wednesday (Feb. 18) at #18 Michigan. All four of MSU's losses have come on the road to ITA-ranked opponents.
Detroit is 2-5 on the year, after a 5-2 loss at Akron last weekend (Feb. 15). The Titans will open Horizon League play on Friday (Feb. 20), facing Green Bay in neutral-site action in Kalamazoo, Mich., before returning home to meet the Falcons on Sunday. UDM has played four MAC schools already this season, having suffered losses to Toledo (6-1), Eastern Michigan (4-3) and Western Michigan (7-0), in addition to UA.
The Falcons saw both of this weekend's opponents in the fall. BG has been to East Lansing already this season, participating in the Spartan Invitational on Sept. 27-28. Jakupcin and Chiricosta returned to MSU a month later for the ITA Regional.
Detroit, like BGSU, participated in the Spartan Invitational, and the Titans had been at Keefe Courts the weekend prior, having competed in the BGSU Invitational (Sept. 20-21).
The Falcons trail Michigan State, 12-1, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Spartans have won seven-straight meetings since BGSU's lone series win, in the 1999-2000 season. The Falcons and Spartans did not meet last year, but met in East Lansing in each of the nine previous seasons. All but one series meeting have been at MSU, and the teams have not met in Ohio since the 1985-86 season.
BGSU leads Detroit, 5-0, in that series, and the Falcons and Titans are meeting for the third consecutive year. BG picked up a 5-2 win last season at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club (Feb. 15, 2008). Sunday night will mark the teams' first dual match in the state of Michigan, as the Falcons have hosted four matches, and the teams played one neutral-site contest (in Phoenix, Ariz.).
Following this weekend's matches, the Falcons will return home to meet Butler University next Friday, Feb. 27. That match is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Perrysburg Tennis Center.
