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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
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Western Michigan
Falcons Face WMU to Begin Home Portion of MAC Schedule
March 31, 2010 | Women's Tennis
BGSU meets Broncos Friday afternoon at Keefe Courts
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team plays just one match this weekend, opening the home portion of the Mid-American Conference schedule by facing Western Michigan University ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will meet the Broncos on Friday afternoon (April 2), with first serve scheduled for 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus ... admission is free.
BGSU Notes & Stats | BGSU Media Guide | Directions to Keefe Courts
LAST TIME OUT
BGSU opened MAC play on the road last weekend, splitting a pair of matches ... the Falcons picked up a 6-1 win at Ball State on Friday afternoon (March 26), before losing a 5-2 decision to defending conference champion Miami the next day ... BG won the doubles point at BSU, then captured five of the six singles matches for the victory ... four of the six singles contests required a third set, with BGSU players winning three of those four matches ... at Miami, the RedHawks took two of the three doubles matches to earn the day's first point, then won four of the six singles contests ... the Brown and Orange won at the top-two singles flights.
SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU needs one more win to match the total for all of last season ... the 2008-09 team posted an overall dual-match record of 12-7 ... this year's squad is 11-4 with at least seven matches remaining.
• The Falcons have recorded at least 10 dual-match victories for the eighth consecutive season, extending the school record ... prior to the current streak, the longest string of double-digit win totals was four-straight seasons, on two prior occasions (1988-92 and 1996-2000).
• Additionally, the Falcons need just one more victory to clinch a winning record ... BGSU is looking to finish above .500 for the sixth-straight season, which would extend that school mark ... BG has had winning overall records in each of the last five years, breaking the old mark of four consecutive winning seasons (from 1974-75 through 1977-78, and from 1996-97 through 1999-2000).
• BGSU has posted a total of 52 wins since the team's two seniors, co-captains Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel, arrived on campus ... the school record for wins in a four-year span is 55, set by the senior class of 2007-08 (Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle) and matched by last year's senior class of Libby Harrison, Kelsey Jakupcin and Stefanie Menoff.
• The Falcons have never defeated Western Michigan ... the Broncos, a perennial MAC power, hold a 35-0 advantage in the all-time series between the teams.
• Kintzel has moved into the BGSU career top-10 in both doubles wins (67, 10th) and overall victories (138, ninth), and is just two singles wins away from moving into a tie for 10th on that list ... Kintzel currently has 71 singles wins.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU is 11-4 in dual matches, and the Falcons are 1-1 in MAC action ... BG downed Ball State last Friday (March 26), before seeing a five-match winning streak come to an end with Saturday's (March 27) loss at Miami ... the Falcons won two matches in Orlando, Fla., earlier in March, before returning to Northwest Ohio and besting Duquesne (March 19) ... BG's trip south included wins over South Dakota (March 9) and Temple (March 10).
The Falcons are 4-1 in 'home' matches, 4-3 on the road and 3-0 in neutral-site contests ... all five home matches so far have come indoors, at the Perrysburg Tennis Center ... BGSU's only 2009-10 action at Keefe Courts to date came back on Sept. 19-20 at the season-opening BGSU Invitational.
Junior Christine Chiricosta and senior co-captain Katia Babina each went 2-0 in singles last weekend, while the Falcons' other senior co-captain, Samantha Kintzel, split her two singles matches ... Kintzel's loss at Miami snapped a personal five-match winning streak ... Chiricosta leads the Brown and Orange in singles and overall wins ... she has a 12-3 record at the number-one singles flight in dual-match play, and is 19-5 overall in singles this year to date.
Babina is 10-5 at the second flight in dual-match action, while Kintzel has an identical 10-5 mark at flight number three in duals ... freshman Maddy Eccleston is 9-6 at the fourth flight since the start of dual-match play ... sophomore Jessica Easdale and freshmen Katie Grubb and Jade Johnson each have played at the fifth and sixth flights in dual action ... Easdale has a 6-3 mark at the fifth level and a 2-0 record in sixth-flight play ... she has played at the fifth flight in each of the last nine duals, going 6-3 in that time.
In doubles, the Chiricosta/Eccleston duo is 11-4 at the top flight, while Babina and Johnson have a 10-5 mark in second-flight play ... Kintzel has teamed with Grubb (6-4 in duals) and Easdale (2-2) at the third flight in dual-match action.
Head coach Penny Dean's eight-player roster includes four returnees from a year ago and four newcomers to Division-I tennis.
THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
Western Michigan enters the weekend with an overall record of 9-9 and a 1-1 MAC mark ... the Broncos faced the same opponents as BGSU last weekend, with a 5-2 loss at Miami and a 7-0 win at Ball State ... last season, Western went 21-8 overall and 6-2 in MAC play, tying for second in the conference regular-season race and advancing to the championship match of the MAC Tournament ... WMU has won 11 MAC regular-season championships, including four in a row from 2005-08 ... Betsy Kuhle is in her 28th year as the Broncos' head coach.
The Falcons trail Western Michigan, 35-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... last year, the Broncos picked up a 6-1 win in Kalamazoo (March 21, 2009) ... two seasons ago, WMU downed the Falcons by a 5-2 score (April 19, 2008) ... that match began at Keefe Courts, but was moved to Shadow Valley Tennis Club during singles play due to inclement weather ... that match marks the only time the teams have faced off at the 'new' Keefe Courts, and also is the only time BG has posted more than one point against the Broncos since the 1998-99 season (also a 5-2 home loss).
UP NEXT
Following the WMU match, the Falcons return to the road, taking on Toledo and Eastern Michigan next weekend ... BGSU heads to the Glass City for a Friday (April 9) match with the Rockets, and the Falcons face EMU next Saturday (April 10) ... then, the Falcons will close the regular-season schedule with three home matches, meeting Northern Illinois (April 16), Akron (April 23) and Buffalo (April 24).
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