Falcons Put School-Record Home Unbeaten Streak on Line This Weekend

The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, coming off a pair of shutout wins last weekend, will try to extend a school-record home unbeaten streak this weekend ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards will wrap up a three-game homestand with a pair of games at Cochrane Field ... the Brown and Orange will host Saint Bonaventure University on Friday (Sept. 11), beginning at 5:00 p.m. ... then, BGSU will meet Youngstown State University in Sunday action (Sept. 13), with kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ... following the YSU match, BGSU will play six-straight games away from home.

LINKS (aka, STUFF TO CLICK)
* BGSU Notes, Numbers & Stats - PDF
* MAC Weekly Release - PDF
* Live Stats for this weekend's matches (try to keep from clicking this link until Friday at 4:30-ish)

HOME-PITCH ADVANTAGE
The Falcons' 1-0 win over IPFW on Sunday (Sept. 6) set a school record ... BGSU now has an 11-match home unbeaten streak ... the Falcons are 10-0-1 at Cochrane Field since the last home loss, which came to Michigan State in last season's home opener (Aug. 31, 2008) ... the old record was a 10-game unbeaten streak (8-0-2), amassed between Sept. 11, 2005 and Sept. 1, 2006.

PRONOUNCED "AR-SUH-NO," AS IN "NO GOALS ALLOWED"
Redshirt junior Alexa Arsenault set a school record of her own in Sunday's win over IPFW ... she made five saves to earn the 18th complete-match shutout of her career ... the old record had been held by Erika Flanders, who had 17 complete-game shutouts from 1999-2002 ... Arsenault has combined on a total of four other shutouts in her Falcon career – three with Christy Zabek last season, and one with Becca Ison on Friday (Sept. 4) at Detroit.

ARSENAULT NAMED MAC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
On Wednesday morning (Sept. 9), redshirt junior Alexa Arsenault was named the MAC Player of the Week ... she earned the honor for the first time this season and the second time in her Falcon career ... Arsenault helped the Brown and Orange post a pair of shutout wins over the weekend ... she played 66-plus minutes in BGSU's 4-0 win at Detroit Friday (Sept. 4), making one save ... then, she had five stops in Sunday's 1-0 win over IPFW (Sept. 6) ... on the year, Arsenault has 18 saves and a goals-against average of 0.93.

LAST WEEKEND
The Falcons picked up a pair of shutout wins over the weekend ... four different players scored as the Falcons downed Detroit, 4-0, in the Motor City ... senior Colleen Kordan scored late in the first half, while sophomore Leah Johnson, junior Katie Stephenson and soph Katelyn Turner each found the back of the net in the second period ... fourth-year junior Alexa Arsenault and redshirt freshman Becca Ison combined on the shutout ... two days later, sophomore Megan Amann scored in the 60th minute to lift the Falcons to a 1-0 win over IPFW at Cochrane Field ... Arsenault had five saves to earn her school-record 18th career complete-match shutout ... the win extended BGSU's home unbeaten streak to a school-record 11 matches (10-0-1).

THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 115-120-23 all-time, five matches into the 13th season in program history;
• 49-34-9 overall in the last four-plus seasons;
• 59-59-13 in Mid-American Conference regular-season matches;
• 39-21-8 vs. MAC schools over the last five seasons (including regular-season and tournament matches), and 31-16-6 vs. league foes in the last four years;
• 59-51-9 at home, and 29-12-3 at Cochrane Field in the last four-plus seasons;
• 10-1-1 at Cochrane since the start of the '08 season, with the only loss coming to a team (Michigan State) that spent time in the national rankings;
• 10-0-1 at Cochrane since that loss to MSU, a school-record 11-game home unbeaten streak;
• 48-60-12 in road contests in program history;
• 8-9-2 all-time in neutral-site matches;
• 45-47-8 in the month of September through the years;
• 8-1-1 in September games since the start of the 2008 season;
• 1-1-0 in games played on Sept. 11 in the history of the program;
• 1-0-0 in home games on that date (a 2-1, double-OT win over Eastern Illinois in 2005);
• 1-1-0 in Sept. 13 matches as well (including an 0-1-0 mark in home games on that date – a 3-2 OT loss to Dayton in 1998);
• 45-1-1 in the last 47 games when scoring first (15-0-0 since the start of last season); and
• 0-8-2 since the start of 2008 in matches in which the opponent scored first.

FALCON COACH ANDY RICHARDS
BGSU head coach Andy Richards, in his 10th season at the Falcon helm, is one of the most successful mentors in MAC women's soccer history ... Richards has guided the Falcons to an overall record of 96-86-19 ... BGSU is 10-5-5 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 ... BGSU reached an agreement with Richards on a two-year contract extension, in May of 2008 ... his 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.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU is 3-2-0 on the young season ... the wins have come over Indiana State in the home opener (Aug. 28), and against Detroit and IPFW last weekend ... the losses both came on the road against Big Ten Conference teams – Ohio State and Michigan State – who are listed among the top-five teams in this week's NSCAA Great Lakes Region rankings ... the Falcons' seven goals have come from six different players ... sophomore Megan Amann is the lone player with two goals to date ... Amann also leads the team in points, with five, while classmates Alyssa Zuccaro, Katelyn Turner and Leah Johnson have four points apiece ... all three players have a goal and two assists, tying for the BG lead in the latter category ... five different Falcons have started all three matches ... one of those five, junior Alicia Almond, played each of the first 419 minutes of the season before finally coming out of Sunday's IPFW match in the second half ... Almond leads the team in minutes played with 438, while Johnson has played 434 minutes and senior Samantha Bland 405 ... in goal, three different 'keepers have seen action, with redshirt junior Alexa Arsenault having played 291 of the 450 minutes ... Arsenault has a 2-1-0 record, a team-high 18 saves and a goals-against average of 0.93 ... redshirt freshman Becca Ison has a 1.31 GAA, in 68-plus minutes of work ... true freshman Laura Arnold has started two games, and has a 1-1-0 record and a 3.00 GAA ... head coach Andy Richards, in his 10th season in Northwest Ohio, welcomed back 18 letterwinners, including nine starters, from last year's club that finished 12-6-4 overall and 6-3-2 in MAC action ... the '08 team's overall winning percentage of .636 was the second best in school history, and last year's club set a school record for fewest losses in a season.

THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
St. Bonaventure will come to BGSU with a 2-3-0 record ... the Bonnies opened the season with an overtime win over Syracuse, then lost three-straight one-goal games, to Central Michigan, Oakland and Canisius ... SBU stopped that streak with a 3-1 home win over Buffalo on Sunday (Sept. 6) ... the team is 0-2-0 on the road to date ... junior Courtney Bosse leads the team with three goals and seven points, while junior Anna Cunningham has six points, including a pair of goals ... junior Nicole Markert has played in four of the team's five games in goal, and has 23 saves and a 1.69 GAA ... head coach Manoj Khettry, in his fourth season, welcomed back all 20 letterwinners, including (obviously) 11 starters, from last year's team that went 11-8-1 overall and 6-4-1 in Atlantic 10 Conference play ... the school's athletics web site is www.GoBonnies.com.

The Falcons lead St. Bonaventure, 1-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU picked up a 2-0 win in the Kent Classic in Kent, Ohio, nine years ago (Aug. 24, 2000) ... that was the first game of the Andy Richards Era.

Youngstown State takes a 2-2-1 record into a Friday contest at Ohio State ... the Penguins are already halfway to the win total for all of last season ... YSU's last three games all have required overtime, with the 'Guins going 1-1-1 in that span ... the team lost a 1-0, double-OT game to Kent State Sunday (Sept. 6), snapping a three-game unbeaten streak ... the Penguins have posted wins over Howard and IPFW, with the tie coming vs. Canisius ... YSU is 1-1-0 on the road to date ... Kara Cooper is off to a great start to the year, having scored five of the Penguins' eight goals ... she also leads the team in assists (two) and points (12) ... in goal, Nicole Kline has played all five matches and has 31 saves and a 1.44 GAA ... first-year coach Will Lemke inherited 17 letterwinners from last year's team that went 4-14-2 overall and 0-7-1 in the Horizon League ... the school's athletics web site is www.YSUsports.com.

The Falcons lead Youngstown State, 4-0-0, in that series ... BG has won all three home matchups in the series to date, including a 1-0 win three years ago (Sept. 8, 2006) ... the most recent meeting was the lone game played in Youngstown, with the Falcons posting a 3-0 victory two seasons ago (Sept. 23, 2007) ... Stacey Lucas scored the Falcons' goal in the 2006 meeting, while Jackie Tamerlano had a two-goal game in the '07 contest ... Meagan Moran also scored in the latter match.

CAREER DAY FOR JOHNSON
Sophomore Leah Johnson had a career-high four points in the Detroit game, with a goal and two assists ... for Johnson, that four-point match enabled her to top her scoring total for all of last season ... as a freshman in 2008, Johnson had three points on a goal and an assist.

A FEW MORE NOTES FROM THE DETROIT MATCH
• The win was the Falcons' first-ever victory at Titan Field ... BGSU had been 0-3-0 at the facility prior to the 2009 season.

• Both of sophomore Leah Johnson's career goals have come against Detroit ... she scored her first collegiate goal in the Falcons' 4-0 win over UDM on Sept. 19, 2008, at Cochrane Field.

• Another soph, Katelyn Turner, now has four career goals ... two of those have come against UDM, including the Falcons' final goal last Friday ... last year in BG, Turner scored what proved to be the winning goal in the Detroit match.

• Friday marked Turner's first career three-point game, as well as her first collegiate assist ... she followed that up with an assist in the IPFW match on Sunday.

• Overall, UDM leads the series with BGSU by a 4-3-0 count ... however, the Falcons have won two-straight games and three of the last four series meetings ... after the Titans outscored BG, 18-7, in the first three games, the Falcons have outscored UDM by a 13-5 margin over the last four contests, including back-to-back 4-0 wins in 2008 and '09.

A COUPLE MORE NOTES FROM THE IPFW GAME
• Sophomore Megan Amann's goal vs. IPFW was her second of the season, tying her total for all of last year ... a season ago, Amann had a total of 12 points, on a pair of goals and a team-leading eight assists.

• Both of Amann's goals this season to date have been game winners.

• Freshman Keely Chandler made the first start of her collegiate career in the IPFW contest ... a total of 17 different players have started at least one match for BGSU this fall to date.

• BGSU now leads IPFW, 2-0-0, in that series ... the Falcons had picked up a 4-0 win in Fort Wayne last season (Sept. 5, 2008).

ALMOND A FIXTURE IN THE LINEUP
Junior Alicia Almond played a total of 207 minutes last season, after seeing 235 minutes of action as a freshman in 2007 ... this year, Almond played the first 419-plus minutes before finally coming out of a game ... her first rest came early in the second half of the IPFW match ... after making a total of one start in her first two seasons, she has started all five matches this fall, and has played a team-leading 438 minutes.

LOOKING TO EXTEND SOME IMPRESSIVE STREAKS
BGSU is looking to extend several streaks in 2009 ... last year, the Falcons finished with a winning record in MAC play for the fifth time in the 12-year history of the program ... the Falcons have posted four-straight winning conference records for the first time ever ... BG's only other winning MAC mark had come in 2002 (7-4-1) ... the '08 Falcons finished among the top-four teams in the MAC standings for only the fifth time in school history, and the fourth-straight year ... overall, the Falcons have now posted five consecutive seasons of double-digit wins for the first time in school annals ... and, BG has had four-straight records of at least .500 for the first time ever.

THE 2009 CAPTAINS
Seniors Samantha Bland and Colleen Kordan are the co-captains of the 2009 women's soccer Falcons.

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