Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Close Regular Season with Two Home Matches
April 14, 2009 | Women's Tennis
April 14, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU vs. BALL STATE
Friday, April 17, 2009 • 1:00 p.m. • Keefe Courts
BGSU vs. MIAMI
Saturday, April 18, 2009 • 1:00 p.m. • Keefe Courts* BGSU Notes, Stats & Records (7 pages) in PDF Format
* Friday's BGSU-Ball State Program in PDF Format
* Saturday's BGSU-Miami 'Senior Day' Program Extravaganza in PDF Format
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team, currently sitting in fourth place in the Mid-American Conference standings, wraps up the 2008-09 regular season with a pair of home matches this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will host Ball State University in Friday action (April 17), and will meet league-leading Miami on Saturday afternoon (April 18) ... both matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus, weather permitting ... the Falcons are home for the duration, as BG will host the MAC Championships next Thursday through Sunday, April 23-26, with all nine of the conference's women's tennis teams taking part ... in the event of inclement weather for any matches over the next two weeks, matches would be held indoors at the brand-new Perrysburg Tennis Center ... the Falcons enter the final regular-season weekend just two games behind league-leading MU with two matches to go.
THANKS, SENIORS
Saturday's Miami match will be 'Senior Day' for the BGSU tennis program, with fourth-year Falcons Libby Harrison, Kelsey Jakupcin and Stefanie Menoff honored.
THE FALCONS AND THE MAC RACE
The Falcons enter the final weekend of the regular season with a MAC mark of 4-2 ... BGSU currently sits in fourth place in the nine-team league ... the Falcons trail league-leading Miami (6-0 MAC) by two games, with Western Michigan (5-1) and Buffalo (5-2) currently holding down the second and third spots ... BG can finish as high as a tie for first place, or as low as a tie for sixth, in the final league standings ... it is still mathematically possible for the Falcons to be seeded as high as first for next week's MAC Championships ... regardless of this weekend's outcomes, BG will play a quarterfinal match on Friday, April 24 ... each team's MAC record and remaining matches can be found below ...
MAC STANDINGS
SCHOOL MAC RECORD REMAINING MATCH(ES) Miami 6-0 at Western Michigan (Fri.); at Bowling Green (Sat.) Western Mich. 5-1 vs. Miami (Fri.); vs. Ball State (Sat.) Buffalo 5-2 vs. Akron (Sat.) Bowling Green 4-2 vs. Ball State (Fri.); vs. Miami (Sat.) Akron 4-3 at Buffalo (Sat.) Toledo 3-4 vs. Northern Illinois (Fri.) Northern Ill. 1-5 at Toledo (Fri.); at Eastern Michigan (Sat.) Eastern Mich. 1-6 vs. Northern Illinois (Sat.) Ball State 0-6 at Bowling Green (Fri.); at Western Michigan (Sat.)
BGSU CLINCHES WINNING RECORD
The Falcons' 6-1 win over Northern Illinois earlier this month (April 3) clinched a winning dual-match record for the Falcons this season ... BG will finish with a winning mark for the fifth consecutive year, setting a new school record ... the Falcons had four-straight winning seasons from 1974-75 through 1977-78, and again from 1996-97 through 1999-2000, prior to the current streak.
SENIORS LOOKING TO LEAVE THEIR MARK
The Falcons have won 54 dual matches since the senior class - Libby Harrison, Kelsey Jakupcin and Stefanie Menoff - arrived on campus in the fall of 2005 ... BGSU has a mark of 54-29 in dual-match play during that time, just one win shy of the school record for a four-year period ... Harrison, Jakupcin and Menoff have a chance to become the winningest class in program history ... currently, that distinction is held by last year's senior class of Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle ... Nussbaum and Volle helped the Falcons to a total of 55 dual-match wins, the most victories in a four-year span in BGSU annals.
HOME SWEET HOME
After a win over Toledo on March 27 at the 'new' Keefe Courts, BGSU now has an all-time record of 2-0 in dual matches at the facility ... last season, BG played only one complete match at the site, a win over Akron (April 5, 2008).
HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME SWEET HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME
A day after the Toledo match (March 28), BG moved indoors, posting a 6-1 win over Eastern Michigan at the Perrysburg Tennis Center ... the Falcons are now a perfect 6-0 at the team's new indoor home.
HOMES SWEET HOMES
After the win over EMU, the Falcons now have won 22 consecutive home indoor matches ... BGSU went 8-0 in matches played in their entirety at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in both 2006-07 and '07-08, and the Falcons are now 6-0 at the Perrysburg Tennis Center this season ... the words 'played in their entirety' are used above because last year's match vs. Western Michigan, a 5-2 WMU win (April 19, 2008), began at Keefe Courts and was completed at Shadow Valley after rain moved into the area.
LAST WEEK
The Falcons split a pair of matches on the road last weekend, falling at Akron, 6-1, before defeating Buffalo by a 4-3 score ... BGSU lost the doubles point in both matches, and Akron won five of the six singles matches on Friday (April 10) ... but, after losing the doubles point on Saturday (April 11) at UB, the Falcons rallied for victories at four singles contests ... junior Katia Babina was a combined 3-1 in the two matches, including 2-0 at the fourth singles flight ... at Buffalo, senior Libby Harrison won the decisive match, downing Anna Subenkova at the sixth singles flight to give the Falcons the victory.
MENOFF SETS BGSU SINGLES RECORD
Falcon senior Stefanie Menoff set a school record during a match in her home state ... Menoff, a native of Naperville, Ill. (Neuqua Valley H.S.), defeated Brooke Forsberg of Northern Illinois on April 3, for the school-record 80th singles win of her career ... Menoff broke the BGSU record originally set by Julie Weisblatt (1994-97) and matched by Deidee Bissinger (1997-2000).
NOTING THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the weekend with a dual-match record of 11-5, and a mark of 4-2 in MAC action ... the Falcons have won four of the last five matches ... BG saw a three-match winning streak snapped at Akron Friday (April 10), but bounced back with Saturday's (April 11) win at Buffalo.
Senior Kelsey Jakupcin and sophomore Christine Chiricosta have played at the top-two singles flights, and have teamed up for the Falcons at the top doubles flight, for the most part ... Jakupcin has played at the #1 singles flight in three-straight matches and in six of the last seven duals, with Chiricosta at the second flight during that time ... Chiricosta played at the top flight vs. Eastern Michigan (March 28).
The rest of the singles lineup has generally consisted of juniors Samantha Kintzel and Katia Babina at flights three and four, respectively, with senior Stefanie Menoff playing at the fifth flight and senior Libby Harrison at the sixth ... the bottom two-thirds of the order has looked that way for the entire conference schedule to date.
Last weekend, head coach Penny Dean shook up the doubles lineup for the Akron match ... Harrison moved up to the #1 flight to team with Jakupcin, while Chiricosta partnered with Menoff at the second flight ... the Babina/Kintzel tandem remained intact, but moved down to the third flight for the UA match ... for the other five MAC matches, the lineup has consisted of Jakupcin and Chiricosta at the top flight, Babina and Kintzel at the second and Harrison and Menoff at the third ... Dean returned to the latter doubles lineup for the Buffalo match.
Chiricosta and Menoff each have singles records of 19-4, tied for best on the team, this year ... Harrison is 18-7 this season to date, while Kintzel is 17-8.
In doubles action, the Chiricosta/Jakupcin duo is 9-3 at the top flight in dual-match action, including a 4-1 record in MAC play ... that tandem has an overall season mark of 17-7 and a career record of 34-13 ... Babina and Kintzel are 7-7 at the second flight in dual-match action, and are 26-15 as a team in their respective careers ... Harrison and Menoff have a 13-9 record this year, including a 10-3 record in dual matches.
Freshman Jessica Easdale has played exhibition singles matches in each of BG's last three duals, after missing the bulk of the season due to injury.
THE OPPONENTS
Ball State has an overall record of 5-11 this season, and the Cardinals enter the weekend with a MAC dual-match record of 0-6 ... BSU is looking to snap a six-match losing streak ... now fewer than three of the Cards' six MAC losses have come by a 4-3 margin, including Saturday's (April 11) home finale vs. Eastern Michigan ... overall this season, BSU is 2-3 in road matches, including an 0-1 mark in MAC play ... a year ago, the Cardinals went 9-11 overall and finished seventh in the MAC with a 2-6 league ledger.
Miami is 11-6 this season to date, and the RedHawks are a perfect 6-0 in MAC action, heading into a Friday match at second-place Western Michigan ... MU needs one win in the last two matches to clinch a share of the regular-season title, and can win the championship outright with wins at both WMU and BGSU ... last weekend, the 'Hawks closed out the home portion of the schedule with 7-0 wins over EMU and Toledo ... the RedHawks have yet to play on the road in MAC play ... overall, MU is 2-5 on the road entering Friday's match ... the 'Hawks have played five matches vs. nationally-ranked opponents this season ... last year, the RedHawks finished with an overall record of 14-7 and a 7-1 MAC mark, advancing to the semifinal round of the MAC Championships before losing to host Buffalo.
THE SERIES
The Falcons trail Ball State, 17-14, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Falcons have captured the last two meetings ... last season, the Brown and Orange headed to Muncie and picked up a 6-1 win (April 12, 2008) ... two years ago, in the last meeting in Northwest Ohio, the Falcons won a 5-2 decision at Shadow Valley in Toledo (April 7, 2007) ... four of the last six matchups, and six of the last 10 meetings between the teams, have been decided by a 4-3 score.
The Falcons trail Miami, 30-5, in that series, and the RedHawks captured a 6-1 win in Oxford last spring (April 11, 2008) ... two of BGSU's five series wins came two years ago ... the Falcons posted a pair of victories over the RedHawks in matches held indoors in the Glass City in 2006-07 ... BG won a 5-2 decision in the teams' regular-season match (April 6, 2007) at Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Toledo ... then, in the quarterfinal round of the MAC Championships, BGSU battled back from a 3-0 deficit for a 4-3 win over the 'Hawks three weeks later (April 27, 2007) ... that match was held at Laurel Hill in Toledo.
UP NEXT
Following the Ball State and Miami matches, the Falcons will host the 2009 MAC Championships ... all nine teams will converge on Keefe Courts for the four-day event, which begins on Thursday, April 23 ... BGSU's first match will come in the quarterfinal round on Friday, April 24 ... the semifinals will be held on Saturday, April 25, with the championship match set for Sunday, April 26 ... the league tourney champion will earn the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships ... the Falcons' match-by-match results in the MAC Championships can be found on page 3 of the PDF version of these notes.
