Bowling Green State University Athletics
Falcons Travel to MAC's 'West Coast'
April 02, 2009 | Women's Tennis
April 2, 2009
BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) -
BGSU at NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Friday, April 3, 2009 • 12:30 p.m. CT • DeKalb, Ill.BGSU Notes & Stats (6 pages) in PDF Format
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team heads to the Mid-American Conference's 'West Coast' for the team's lone match this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean travel to DeKalb for a Friday (April 3) match vs. Northern Illinois University ... first serve is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. locally (1:30 p.m. Eastern) at NIU's Huskie Tennis Courts ... in the event of inclement weather, the match would be played at the Clocktower Resort in Rockford, Ill. ... Friday's match is the first of three consecutive contests away from home for the Falcons, who will play at Akron and Buffalo next weekend (April 10-11).
FIRST SERVE
Falcon senior Stefanie Menoff's first opportunity to break a school record will come in her home state ... Menoff, a native of Naperville, Ill., (Neuqua Valley H.S.), won both of her singles matches last weekend, in BGSU's victories over Toledo and Eastern Michigan ... she now has a total of 79 singles wins as a Falcon, tying the school career record ... Menoff enters the NIU match tied with Deidee Bissinger (1997-2000) and Julie Weisblatt (1994-97).
A FEW MORE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• For her efforts last weekend, senior Stefanie Menoff was a co-recipient of the MAC Player-of-the-Week honor ... the league office made the announcement on Wednesday (April 1) ... Menoff earned the honor after going a perfect 4-0 last weekend ... she won her singles matches vs. Toledo and Eastern Michigan, and teamed with fellow senior Libby Harrison for doubles wins vs. both the Rockets and Eagles.
• The MAC P-O-W honor was the first of Menoff's career, and the Falcons' first such award this season to date.
• BGSU picked up home wins over Toledo and Eastern on the weekend, snapping a two-match losing streak.
• On Friday (March 27), the Falcons spotted UT a lead at each of the top-five singles flights ... but, BG rallied back to win a total of three singles matches en route to a 4-3 victory ... that win broke a three-match series winning streak for the Rockets.
• Friday's win over the Rockets came 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).
• On Saturday (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.
• 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.
• Three Illinois natives will return to their home state for this weekend's match ... in addition to Menoff, juniors Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel hail from the Land of Lincoln ... Babina is a native of Glenview, Ill. (Glenbrook South H.S.), while Kintzel is from Libertyville, Ill. (Libertyville H.S.).
NOTING THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the weekend with a dual-match record of 9-4, and a mark of 2-1 in MAC action ... as mentioned, the Falcons posted wins over Toledo and Eastern Michigan last weekend.
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 ... each player played at the #1 singles flight in one match last weekend, and at flight #2 in the other.
When all six Falcon returnees have been healthy, 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.
Menoff has a singles record of 18-4, best on the team, this year ... Chiricosta has a 17-5 singles record season to date, while Harrison is 16-6 and Kintzel 15-7 ... Babina has a 12-9 mark.
In doubles action, the Chiricosta/Jakupcin duo is 8-2 at the top flight in dual-match action, including a 3-0 record in MAC action ... that tandem has an overall mark of 16-6 and a career record of 33-12 ... Babina and Kintzel are 5-7 at the second flight in dual-match action, and are 24-14 as a team in their respective careers ... Harrison and Menoff have a 13-7 overall record this year, including a 10-1 record in dual-match play.
Freshman Jessica Easdale has yet to see match action this season due to injury.
A FEW MORE FALCON NOTES
• Entering this weekend's match, senior Stefanie Menoff has a career singles mark of 79-19 ... she now has 125 total victories as a Falcon, to rank 12th in BGSU history ... Menoff is just two wins shy of moving into the BGSU top-10 on the latter list.
• Senior Kelsey Jakupcin has a career total of 136 combined wins, good for eighth place in school history ... she is 12th in BGSU annals with 66 singles victories, and is tied for seventh with 70 doubles wins.
• The Falcons have won 52 dual matches since the senior class - Jakupcin, Menoff and Libby Harrison - arrived on campus in the fall of 2005 ... BGSU has a mark of 52-28 in dual-match play during that time.
• 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.
• Only 21 players in program history have picked up 100 combined career wins, and three of those 21 are on the current team ... junior Samantha Kintzel now has 102 career victories at BGSU, and is one win away from tying her former teammate, Volle, for 20th on that list.
THE OPPONENT
Northern Illinois is 5-10 this season, and the Huskies are 1-3 in MAC action ... Northern opened conference action with a win over Ball State, but the Huskies have lost to Miami, Akron and Buffalo since that time ... NIU is 3-1 in home matches, with the BGSU contest marking the team's first home action since March 6 ... last year, NIU finished with an overall record of 4-14 and a 1-7 MAC mark ... the Huskies defeated Akron in the first round of last year's MAC Championships, before losing to regular-season champion Western Michigan in the quarterfinals.
THE SERIES
BGSU trails Northern Illinois, 11-9, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Falcons have captured the last four meetings ... the Brown and Orange took a 7-0 decision in last year's regular-season matchup, at Shadow Valley in Toledo (March 29, 2008) ...in the Falcons' last trip to DeKalb, BGSU came away with a 6-1 win two seasons ago (March 24, 2007).
