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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Bowling Green State University
Minnesota
Falcons Face Gophers, Vikings to Begin Three-Game Homestand
September 07, 2010 | Women's Soccer
Minnesota, Cleveland State have a combined 9-1-1 record entering the week
The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team will look to get on the winning track this weekend, but the job certainly will not be an easy one ... the Falcons of head coach Andy Richards face a pair of teams with a combined 9-1-1 record this season to date ... BGSU hosts the nationally-ranked University of Minnesota on Friday (Sept. 10) in a 5:00 p.m. start, and the Falcons then take on Cleveland State University on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 12) at 1:00 p.m. both matches will be held at Cochrane Field on the BGSU campus.
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FREE ADMISSION
As part of BGSU's Centennial celebration, admission to all home Falcon soccer regular-season matches in the 2010 season is free.
LIVE STATISTICS
Again in 2010, all BGSU home women's soccer matches, and most away contests, will have live statistics available on the web ... if you can't make it to Cochrane Field for the Falcons' home games this weekend, simply log on to BGSUFalcons.com ... the live stats links can be found on the front page of the site (in the 'schedule' section) or by clicking on the women's soccer 2010 schedule and choosing the corresponding match.
LAST WEEKEND
The Falcons played a pair of matches in Western New York over the weekend, playing Niagara to a scoreless tie in double overtime Friday night (Sept. 3), then dropping a 3-0 decision at St. Bonaventure on Sunday afternoon (Sept. 5) ... sophomore Laura Arnold and fifth-year senior Alexa Arsenault combined for the shutout in goal at Niagara ... Arnold played the first half, making one save, while Arsenault was in net for the final 65 minutes, making six stops ... she made arguably her toughest save of the night with just seconds left in the final overtime period, stopping NU's Laura Kimoto on a breakaway ... on Sunday, the Bonnies scored with just under nine minutes elapsed, scoring on a shot from approximately 40 yards out to take the lead for good ... that goal came two minutes after the Falcons had had a goal disallowed on an offside call ... SBU doubled the lead roughly one-third of the way through the second half, then completed the scoring with six minutes left ... Arnold played all 90 minutes in goal, making a career-high seven saves.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU is 0-4-1 on the young season ... the Falcons' first five opponents have included two teams each from the Big East and Atlantic 10 conferences ... BG is 0-3-0 at home and 0-1-1 on the road ... the Brown and Orange lost one-goal decisions to a pair of Cincinnati schools (UC and Xavier), and also suffered losses to West Virginia and St. Bonaventure ... BGSU earned a scoreless tie at Niagara Friday night (Sept. 3) ... junior Alyssa Zuccaro leads the team with three points on the year, while classmate Katelyn Turner and senior co-captains Alicia Almond and Katie Stephenson have two points apiece ... Stephenson, Turner and Zuccaro each have one goal this fall, while Almond leads the team with two assists ... each of the team's three goalkeepers – fifth-year senior Alexa Arsenault, redshirt sophomore Becca Ison and true sophomore Laura Arnold – have started at least one match to date ... Arnold has made three starts and has played a team-high 225 minutes ... she has a team-high 13 saves and a goals-against average of 2.40 ... Arsenault has a GAA of just 0.82 in 110 minutes, and has made eight saves ... Ison has played 147-plus minutes, and has seven saves and a 2.44 GAA ... head coach Andy Richards, in his 11th season at the helm, welcomed back a total of 17 letterwinners, including eight starters, from last year's club ... BGSU's returning players combined for over 81 percent of the team's goals and 76% of the assists a year ago ... eight of the top-nine scorers returned from a year ago ... junior Megan Amann paced the Falcons with nine points last fall, including two goals and a team-high five assists ... Turner and Zuccaro scored eight and seven points, respectively, during their sophomore campaigns ... Turner tied for the team lead with three goals ... sophomore Keely Chandler also had three goals in her initial season at BGSU ... additionally, all three goalkeepers returned from last season's roster ... Arsenault started 17 of the Falcons' 20 matches between the posts last fall, while Arnold made three starts.
FALCON COACH ANDY RICHARDS
BGSU head coach Andy Richards, in his 11th season at the helm, has proven himself to be one of the most successful mentors in MAC women's soccer history ... he has guided the Falcons to an overall record of 98-100-23, and a record of 53-49-12 in MAC regular-season play ... Richards' teams perennially play one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the MAC ... in his first 10 years in BG, he led the Falcons to the MAC Tournament on eight occasions, with the team advancing to the semifinals seven times ... BGSU is 10-5-5 in MAC Tournament matches during his tenure, and no coach has more trips to the league tourney title game than Richards' five ... 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 ... a native of Warwick, England, Richards earned his Bachelor of Education degree from Sheffield City Polytechnic in 1989 ... he received his Master of Education degree from Oregon State in 1997.
THE FALCONS ARE ...
• 117-134-27 in the history of the program, which began in 1997;
• 51-48-13 overall in the last five seasons (plus five matches);
• 60-66-16 in Mid-American Conference regular-season matches;
• 40-28-11 vs. MAC schools over the last six seasons (including regular-season & tourney matches), and 32-23-9 vs. league foes in the last five years;
• 61-56-11 at home, and 31-17-5 at Cochrane Field in the last five-plus seasons;
• 12-6-3 at Cochrane since the start of the '08 season;
• 48-68-14 in road contests in program history;
• 8-10-2 all-time in neutral-site matches;
• 46-52-10 in the month of September through the years;
• 1-1-0 in games played on Sept. 10 in the history of the program;
• 0-0-0 in home matches on that date, having never played a home game on Sept. 10 (the only two games on Sept. 10 were a 3-1 loss at Navy in 2004 and a 2-0 victory over Eastern Illinois in '06);
• 2-2-1 in Sept. 12 matches;
• 2-0-1 in home games on that date, having outscored the opposition by an 11-2 count in those three matches (a 2-0 win over Niagara in 1999, a 2-2 tie with Central Michigan in 2003 and a 7-0 victory vs. Tennessee Tech two years ago);
• 47-1-2 in the last 50 games when scoring first (17-0-1 since the start of the 2008 season); and
• 0-22-3 since the start of 2008 in matches in which the opponent scored first.
THE GOLDEN GOPHERS / THE BGSU-UM SERIES
Minnesota will enter the BGSU match with a record of 5-1-0 on the season ... the Gophers have won five consecutive matches, including a 2-1 victory over No. 14 San Diego on Sunday (Sept. 5) ... on Monday, senior Molly Rouse and sophomore Cat Parkhill captured the Big Ten Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards, respectively ... also on Monday, Minnesota moved into the Soccer America national rankings, at No. 23 ... the Gophers are 3-1-0 on the road this year to date, with the only loss coming by a narrow 1-0 count at No. 4 Notre Dame ... the team's wins have come on the road against Vanderbilt, Western Kentucky and Belmont, and at home vs. UC Santa Barbara and USD ... prior to the San Diego match, Katie Shelander led a balanced scoring attack with seven points, while Shari Eckstrom and Allie Phillips each had six points, and were tied for the team lead with three goals apiece ... Parkhill had started each of the first five matches in goal, and entered Sunday's USD match with 13 saves and a goals-against average of just 0.60 ... the Gophers were picked to finish sixth in the Big Ten Conference in 2010 in the preseason coaches poll ... Mikki Denney Wright is in her seventh season as the head coach at her alma mater ... she welcomed back all 11 starters from last year's team that finished 12-5-3 overall and went 5-3-2 in the Big Ten ... the school's athletics web site is www.GopherSports.com.
The Falcons and Minnesota have never met in women's soccer.
THE VIKINGS / THE BGSU-CSU SERIES
Cleveland State is off to the best start in the history of the program ... the Vikings enter the week with a 4-0-1 record, having already surpassed the win total for all of last season ... CSU picked up a 3-1 home win over Canisius on Sunday (Sept. 5) ... all five of the team's matches to date have been at home ... this week, the Vikings will play at Ohio State on Wednesday (Sept. 8) and will host Ohio Friday (Sept. 10) before coming to BG ... junior Natalie Daniels leads the team in scoring, with six goals and 13 points ... senior Kelly Zinkiewich has played every minute in goal, and has 27 saves and a goals-against average of 0.96 ... last year, the Vikings went 3-14-1 overall and 2-5-1 in Horizon League play ... Derrek Falor, the only coach the Vikings have ever had, is in his seventh year at the school ... he welcomed back 14 letterwinners, including eight starters, from that club ... the school's athletics web site is www.CSUVikings.com.
The Falcons lead Cleveland State, 2-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams ... BGSU picked up a 5-1 win on the road in the Vikings' initial season (Oct. 1, 2004), posting a 36-6 advantage in shot attempts, including a school-record 23 shots on goal ... the following season (Sept. 16, 2005), the Falcons scored four first-half goals en route to a 6-0 win over CSU at Cochrane Field.
WORKING OVERTIME
After Friday's (Sept. 3) Niagara match, the Falcons now have an all-time record of 18-15-27 in overtime matches ... here are many more fascinating facts regarding BGSU and OT contests ...
• Believe it or not, the Falcons have lost just once in 22 all-time overtime games on the road ... BG now has a record of 7-1-14 in road OT matches ... BGSU is 9-12-11 in overtime games played at Cochrane Field, and 2-2-2 all-time in neutral-site OT affairs.
• The Cincinnati match (Aug. 22) match snapped BGSU's unbeaten streak in OT matches at 13 ... the Falcons went 4-0-9 in that stretch ... prior to the UC contest, the team's last overtime loss was at Ball State on Oct. 19, 2007 ... that BSU match is still the only OT loss in a road game in program history.
• BG's latest OT unbeaten streak had lasted for nearly three years ... the Falcons once went nearly four years without an overtime loss, going 5-0-5 in that time ... after an OT setback vs. Ohio State on Halloween of 2003, the Falcons did not allow a 'Golden Goal' until Sept. 14, 2007, vs. Wright State.
• Beginning with that WSU game, the Falcons were winless in four consecutive OT matches (0-3-1), before a win at Miami (Oct. 21, 2007) began the recently-ended 13-match unbeaten streak.
THE 89TH MINUTE (A RANDOM FALCON NOTE)
Last Friday (Sept. 3) marked the first time in BGSU history that both the men's and women's soccer teams played to scoreless ties on the same day ... the Falcon women drew with Niagara, while the BG men played to a 0-0 deadlock against Appalachian State in the Davidson adidas Classic.
THE 2010 CAPTAINS
Seniors Alicia Almond and Katie Stephenson are the co-captains of the 2010 women's soccer Falcons.