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Bowling Green State University
Buffalo
Falcons Head East to Open MAC Schedule
March 24, 2011 | Women's Tennis
BGSU faces Buffalo, Akron this weekend
THREE NOTES NO SELF-RESPECTING MEDIA MEMBER OR FALCON TENNIS ENTHUSIAST SHOULD BE WITHOUT
• Falcon senior Christine Chiricosta already owns two BGSU career records for wins, and is within striking distance of the third ... Chiricosta has 83 singles victories and 165 overall wins, good for first place on both BGSU career lists ... with 82 doubles wins at BG, she is just two shy of matching the school record set by Jenny Cheung (1995-98).
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF
• The Falcons open Mid-American Conference play this weekend, with a pair of road matches ... BGSU was picked to finish seventh in the MAC, according to the league's preseason coaches poll in late January ... the Brown and Orange tied for sixth place in the MAC's regular-season standings last year.
• The Falcons' result in doubles play has been a harbinger of things to come in dual-match action this year ... BGSU has won the doubles point in nine of this season's 12 dual matches, and the Falcons have gone on to win all nine of those matches ... and, BG's three losses – on the road against Louisville, Michigan State and Air Force – each came after the Falcons lost the doubles point.
THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team takes to the road yet again this weekend, beginning the Mid-American Conference schedule with a pair of matches on the league's 'East Coast' ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean head to Western New York for a Friday (March 25) matchup against the University at Buffalo, then will meet the University of Akron on Saturday (March 26) afternoon ... Friday's UB match will be held at the Miller Tennis Center in Williamsville, N.Y., while Saturday's UA contest is scheduled to be played at LaTuchie Tennis Center in Stow, Ohio ... this weekend's matches conclude a stretch of seven-straight contests away from home for the Brown and Orange ... the Falcons' match vs. Miami University next weekend (April 1) will be BG's first home action in nearly two months.
ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU enters the weekend with a dual-match record of 9-3, and the Falcons have won three consecutive duals ... BG is 4-1 on the current road swing ... head coach Penny Dean's team has records of 2-0 in home matches, 5-3 in away contests and 2-0 in neutral-site matches to date ... both of the home matches were played at the Perrysburg Tennis Center ... in the most recent match, the Falcons headed across the state and posted a 7-0 win over Youngstown State on Satuday (March 19) ... that marked the team's first match in nearly three weeks.
Individually, senior co-captain Christine Chiricosta has played all 12 dual matches at the number-one singles flight, and has teamed with sophomore Maddy Eccleston at the top doubles flight ... Chiricosta is 8-4 in dual-match singles play, and has an overall singles mark of 19-6 this year to date.
Sophomore Mary Hill has played at the second singles flight in 10 of the 12 duals ... she is 6-4 in those 10 matches, 8-4 in all dual matches and 17-8 in all singles matches this season.
Freshmen Nikki Chiricosta and Emily Reuland have played the bulk of the duals at the third and fourth singles flights, respectively ... Chiricosta is 8-3 at flight number three, and also has a win at the second flight ... she leads the team with an overall singles record of 21-5 this season ... Reuland is 7-5 in dual matches and 16-9 overall ... she has played at the fifth flight in the last three contests, going a perfect 3-0 in that time.
Eccleston, who played at the fifth flight for most of the year, jumped up to the fourth flight for two of the last three contests ... Eccleston has a singles record of 18-7 this year, including a mark of 9-3 in dual-match action.
Junior Jessica Easdale, a co-captain along with Christine Chiricosta, has played at the sixth flight for all but one match this spring ... Easdale is 6-5 in duals and 11-11 overall ... sophomores Katie Grubb and Jade Johnson have a combined singles record of 12-4 this season to date ... Johnson jumped into the lineup for the YSU match, posting a convincing win at the sixth flight.
In doubles, Christine Chiricosta and Eccleston have played every match at the top flight ... they are 9-3 in duals and 17-7 this year, and enter the UB dual having won six-straight matches ... the two freshmen, Nikki Chiricosta and Reuland, are 6-4 at the second flight in dual-match play ... sophomores Grubb and Johnson are 2-0 in second-flight doubles action.
Grubb and Hill combined for a 7-3 mark at the third flight, but Hill has teamed with Nikki Chiricosta in third-flight action in the last two matches, winning both times.
Overall this season, the eight players on the BGSU roster have combined for a singles record of 114-50 (69.5%) ... Falcon competitors have combined for a 55-24 mark (69.6%) this year to date.
BGSU finished the 2009-10 season with an overall record of 12-10 and a MAC mark of 2-6 ... BG tied for sixth place in the final regular-season standings, and the Falcons were the seventh seed for the MAC Championships ... the Falcons fell to second-seeded Akron, 4-1, in the league tourney's quarterfinal round.
CHRISTINE CHIRICOSTA RECORD WATCH
Senior Christine Chiricosta, as mentioned earlier, already owns two BGSU career wins records ... Chiricosta has 83 singles victories and 165 overall wins, good for first place on both school career lists ... with 82 doubles victories as a Falcon, she is just two wins shy of tying that school record.
CHRISTINE CHIRICOSTA ON BGSU CAREER RECORDS LISTS
SINGLES WINS: 83, FIRST
Broke Stefanie Menoff's record of 81 in the Detroit match on Feb. 27
DOUBLES WINS: 82, Second
Jenny Cheung (1995-98) holds school record with 84 doubles wins
COMBINED WINS: 165, FIRST
Broke Deidee Bissinger's record of 153 in Jan. 30 match at Butler
DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE ...
The Falcons are one win away from recording at least 10 dual-match victories for the ninth consecutive season ... prior to the current streak – eight seasons, obviously – the longest string of double-digit win totals was four-straight years, on two prior occasions (1988-92 and 1996-2000) ... additionally, the Falcons finished the 2009-10 campaign with a winning mark for the sixth-straight season, extending that school record ... that 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).
... DOUBLE YOUR FUN
The Falcons, as mentioned, have won the doubles point in nine of this year's first 12 dual matches ... last season, BG picked up the doubles point in 14 of the 22 dual matches, including in five of the eight MAC matches ... over the last three-plus years, BGSU has won the doubles point in 52 of 73 matches.
THE OPPONENTS / THE SERIES
Buffalo enters the weekend with a dual-match record of 4-6 ... most recently, the Bulls posted a 7-0 sweep of Long Island during the team's spring trip to Orlando, Fla. ... that victory snapped a two-match losing streak ... the Bulls went 9-9 overall last season, finishing with a MAC ledger of 4-4 ... the team downed Toledo in the MAC Tournament quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Miami in the semifinal round ... head coach Kathy Twist welcomed back five returnees from that team ... one of the team's newcomers, sophomore Shelby Bates, transferred to UB after one season at Coastal Carolina Univ., where she was a teammate of BGSU's Mary Hill ... Hill, also a soph, played at CCU last year as well.
The Falcons lead Buffalo, 11-3, in the all-time series between the teams, but the Bulls captured last year's meeting, with a 5-2 victory at the Perrysburg Tennis Center (April 24, 2010) ... two years ago, BG picked up a 4-3 victory in the team's last road match in the series (April 11, 2009) ... the Falcons captured the first nine series meetings, UB won the next two, and BG then captured two consecutive matchups before Buffalo's win last year.
Akron enters the weekend with an overall record of 10-3 ... the Zips host Western Michigan on Friday before meeting BGSU the following day ... UA has won four of the last five matches, including a road victory over Louisiana Lafayette last weekend ... last season, the Zips went 19-3, posting the most wins by the program in nearly two decades ... Akron was 7-1 in the MAC to set a school single-season record for conference wins ... UA returns its entire roster from last season for first-year head coach Brandon Padgett.
BGSU leads Akron, 25-5, in that series, but the Zips have won three-straight meetings ... Akron snapped BG's 16-match series winning streak with a 6-1 win over the Falcons in the Rubber City two years ago (April 10, 2009) ... then, UA swept a pair of meetings in 2009-10, coming to Keefe Courts and posting a 6-1 win in the regular season (April 23, 2010), before downing the Falcons in the MAC Tournament in Kalamazoo, 4-1, one week later (April 30, 2010) ... prior to the current three-match streak, 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 2-1 in neutral-site contests vs. the Zips.
