Falcons Head to Kalamazoo for MAC Championships

THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team, having completed the 2009-10 regular season, heads to Kalamazoo, Mich., for this weekend's Mid-American Conference Championships, hosted by Western Michigan University ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, the seventh seed for the nine-team tournament, will face the second-seeded University of Akron in Friday's (April 30) quarterfinal round ... the match is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Sorensen Courts on the WMU campus.

BGSU Notes & Stats - PDF | MAC Championships Central
Directions to Sorensen Courts

LIVE STATS
If you can't make it to Kalamazoo this weekend, live statistics for every match will be available on the web ... the links can be accessed through BGSUFalcons.com, the official site of Falcon athletics ... from the tennis home page, click the "2010 MAC Championships" link on the right side of the page (or click the "MAC Championships Central" link above) ... live statistics for all eight tourney matches are scheduled to be available.

MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
The MAC Championships run from Thursday through Sunday (April 29-May 2) in Kalamazoo ... as mentioned, matches are slated to be held at Sorensen Courts on the WMU campus ... the complete MAC Championships schedule ...

2010 MAC WOMEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Sorensen Courts; Kalamazoo, Mich.

First Round – Thursday, April 29
#8 Ball State vs. #9 Northern Illinois, Noon

Quarterfinals – Friday, April 30
#1 Miami vs. Ball State/Northern Illinois winner, 10:00 a.m.
#4 Toledo vs. #5 Buffalo, 10:00 a.m.
#3 Western Michigan vs. #6 Eastern Michigan, 2:00 p.m.
#2 Akron vs. #7 Bowling Green, 2:00 p.m.

Semifinals – Saturday, May 1
Miami/BSU/NIU winner vs. Toledo/Buffalo winner, 10:00 a.m.
Akron/BGSU winner vs. WMU/EMU winner, 2:00 p.m.

Championship – Sunday, May 2
Semifinal winners, Noon

THE FALCONS IN THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Falcons have a record of 9-15 since the MAC Championships went to the current format (teams advance rather than individuals) prior to the 1996-97 season ... last April, BGSU fell to Toledo in the quarterfinal round in Bowling Green ... that snapped a two-year streak in which the Falcons had advanced to the semifinal round of the tournament ... BG made it to the semis in both 2007 and '08, losing to Western Michigan in each season ... the Falcons have faced Akron just once in the MAC Championships, posting a 4-0 win in the first round of the 2004 tourney in Rockford, Ill. (April 22, 2004).

LAST TIME OUT
The Falcons dropped a pair of matches to end the regular season ... BGSU fell to Akron by a 6-1 count on Friday afternoon (April 23) at Keefe Courts ... then, Buffalo topped the Brown and Orange, 5-2, the following day (April 24) at the Perrysburg Tennis Center ... against Akron, the Falcons took the doubles point, with junior Christine Chiricosta and freshman Maddy Eccleston winning at the top flight, and sophomore Jessica Easdale and freshman Katie Grubb taking their third-flight match ... but, the Zips – ranked 73rd in the nation entering the match – won all six singles contests ... the next day, UB took the doubles point, despite the Falcons getting a second-flight win by senior co-captains Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel on 'Senior Day' ... the Bulls then won four of the six singles matches ... Easdale picked up a straight-sets win at the fourth flight, while Eccleston won in a third-set tiebreaker at flight number five.

FALCONS HAVE THREE OF THE TOP 12 (ACTUALLY 13)
• Three current members of the Falcons have made their mark on the school's career wins list ... senior co-captain Samantha Kintzel enters the MAC Championships with a total of 142 combined career wins, ranking sixth in BGSU history ... she is just one win behind fifth-place Cindy (Mikolajewski) Yonker ... Yonker, now a BG assistant coach, had 143 wins as a player from 1993-97.

• The other senior co-captain, Katia Babina, currently has 130 total wins as a Falcon, ranking 11th ... she is just one win shy of 10th-place Ashley Jakupcin (131 wins from 2004-07).

• Junior Christine Chiricosta has moved into a 12th-place tie ... Chiricosta's total of 128 wins at BGSU matches Stefanie Menoff (2006-09) ... Chiricosta, who has had at least 39 total wins in each of her first three seasons, is 25 shy of school record-holder Deidee Bissinger ... Bissinger had 153 total victories from 1997-2000.

• Kintzel has 72 career singles wins to rank 11th on that BGSU list, while Babina and Chiricosta are deadlocked for 14th place with 64 wins apiece.

• On the BGSU doubles wins list, Kintzel has 70 to tie for eighth place ... Babina is 11th with 66 doubles victories, while Chiricosta has 64 to rank 12th.

FOUR MORE THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE FALCONS
• BGSU has matched last season's win total ... the 2008-09 Falcons posted an overall dual-match record of 12-7 ... this year's squad is 12-9, heading into the MAC Championships.

• 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 will finish with a winning streak for the sixth-straight season, extending that school record ... the current streak breaks the old mark of four consecutive winning seasons (originally set from 1974-75 through 1977-78, and matched from 1996-97 through 1999-2000).

• BGSU has posted a total of 53 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 seniors – Libby Harrison, Kelsey Jakupcin and Stefanie Menoff.

DOUBLE YOUR FUN
• Junior Christine Chiricosta teamed with freshman Maddy Eccleston to post a 6-2 record in MAC matches at the number-one doubles flight this season ... in her career, Chiricosta has played doubles in 58 dual matches, seeing action at the top flight in 57 ... she has a career record of 42-15 overall in duals at the number-one doubles flight, including a mark of 17-6 in MAC regular-season action.

• BGSU went 6-2 in MAC doubles action at both the first and third flights this season ... at the third level, freshman Katie Grubb was a part of all eight matches ... she went 3-1 with both senior Samantha Kintzel and sophomore Jessica Easdale ... Kintzel had an overall record of 5-3 in MAC doubles play, competing with classmate Katia Babina at the second flight in four matches (2-2).

ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU is 12-9 in dual matches, and the Falcons finished MAC play with a 2-6 record ... BG tied for sixth place in the final regular-season standings, and the Falcons are the seventh seed for the MAC Championships ... the Falcons are 5-4 at home, 4-5 on the road and 3-0 in neutral-site contests ... in the home matches, BG went 0-2 at Keefe Courts and 5-2 at the Perrysburg Tennis Center ... the neutral-site matches saw the Falcons defeat Morehead State (in Louisville, Ky.), South Dakota and Temple (both in Orlando, Fla.)

Junior Christine Chiricosta, who has earned All-MAC honors in each of her first two seasons, appears well on her way to earning all-conference accolades again in 2009-10 ... Chiricosta has a 15-6 record at singles and a 16-5 mark in doubles in dual-match play this season to date ... she has played at the number-one flight in both, teaming with freshman Maddy Eccleston in doubles play ... Chiricosta's overall total of 43 wins this year leads the team and ties her for 10th in BGSU history ... she also leads BG in singles wins, with a 22-8 mark this year.

Senior co-captains Katia Babina and Samantha Kintzel have been at the second and third singles flights all season ... Babina is 12-9 in dual matches, and went 4-4 in MAC play ... Kintzel is 11-10 in duals this year to date.

Eccleston is 12-9 in duals, primarily at the fourth flight, but has played at the fifth level in each of the last six matches ... sophomore Jessica Easdale has a 10-7 record in duals, including a 6-3 mark at the fifth level and a 2-0 record in sixth-flight play ... Easdale has played each of the last six contests at flight number four ... freshmen Katie Grubb and Jade Johnson each have seen time at the fifth and sixth flights in dual action, with Grubb holding down the sixth flight for most of MAC play.

In doubles, the Chiricosta/Eccleston duo is 16-5 at the top flight, having gone 6-2 in MAC play, while Babina and Johnson have a 10-7 mark in second-flight play ... Kintzel has teamed with Grubb (7-5 in duals) and Easdale (2-2) at the third flight in dual-match action ... the two senior co-captains have teamed up at the second doubles flight for each of the last four matches, while Easdale and Grubb have played together at the third flight during that stretch ... 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
Akron enters the weekend with an overall record of 18-2, and the Zips went 7-1 in MAC action ... UA has set a program record for league wins in a season, and the team's second-place finish also was the best in program history ... last weekend, the Zips downed BGSU, 6-1, at Keefe Courts on Friday (April 23), then posted the first win over Western Michigan in 21 all-time meetings, with a 5-2 road victory over the Broncos Saturday (April 24) ... the team's total of 18 overall wins is the most since the 1990-91 squad went 26-6 ... the Zips began the year with 15-straight wins, the program's best-ever start to a season ... Akron was the last remaining undefeated Division-I team in the nation before losing to then 26th-ranked DePaul on April 10 ... the Zips' only other loss was a 4-3 setback to regular-season champion Miami on April 17 ... despite beating BGSU and WMU, Akron somehow dropped out of the ITA poll, after being ranked 73rd last week ... last season, Akron went 15-8 overall and 4-4 in the MAC.

BGSU leads Akron, 25-4, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Zips have won two-straight meetings ... Akron snapped BG's 16-match series winning streak with a 6-1 win over the Falcons in the Rubber City (April 10, 2009) last season, before coming to Keefe Courts and posting a 6-1 win last weekend ... BGSU picked up a 6-1 victory over UA two years ago, in the first-ever dual match at the new Keefe Courts (April 5, 2008) ... prior to last year, UA's only two series wins had come in back-to-back seasons, 1991-92 and '92-93 ... BGSU is 13-3 in home matches, 10-1 on the road and 2-0 in neutral-site contests vs. the Zips ... the Falcons are 1-0 in MAC Championships action against Akron, with the only prior league tourney meeting coming in 2004 ... that season, the Falcons posted a 4-0 win in first-round action in Rockford, Ill.

UP NEXT
The BGSU-Akron winner will advance to Saturday's (May 1) semifinal round of the MAC Championships ... the BG-UA winner will face the winner of the quarterfinal match pitting third-seeded Western Michigan against sixth-seeded Eastern Michigan ... that semifinal match would begin at 2:00 p.m. ... the championship match is Sunday (May 2) at noon, with the winner earning the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

Calendar

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Next Event

Upcoming Events

Recent Results

Bowling Green State University Athletics

Falcons Head to Kalamazoo for MAC Championships

Next Event

Related Videos