BGSU Heads to DeKalb for MAC Championships

FALCONS vs. EASTERN MICHIGAN
Friday, April 27 • 10:00 a.m. CT • DeKalb, Ill.
MAC Championships • Quarterfinal Round

THIS WEEK
The Bowling Green State University tennis team, having completed the 2011-12 regular season, heads to DeKalb, Ill., for this weekend's Mid-American Conference Championships, hosted by Northern Illinois University. The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, the fifth seed for the nine-team tournament, will face fourth-seeded Eastern Michigan University in Friday's (April 27) quarterfinal round. The BGSU-EMU match is scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. local time (11:00 a.m. ET) at DeKalb High School. In the event of inclement weather, matches will be played indoors at the Vaughan Athletic Center in Aurora, Ill.

LINKS
2012 MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS CENTRAL
BGSU NOTES & STATS - PDF
BGSU STATS ONLY - PDF
MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS BRACKET - PDF
2011-12 MEDIA GUIDE

LIVE STATS
If you can't make it to DeKalb this weekend, live statistics for every match are scheduled to be available, according to the Northern Illinois athletics web site (NIUHuskies.com). The links can be accessed through the MAC Championships page, and a link will also be provided at BGSUFalcons.com. From the tennis home page here at BGSUFalcons.com, click the "2012 MAC Championships" link on the right side of the page. Live stats for all eight tourney matches are scheduled to be available.

MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE
The MAC Championships run from Thursday through Sunday (April 26-29) in DeKalb. Most matches are scheduled to be held at the West Tennis Courts on the NIU campus, but several contests, including the BGSU-EMU dual, are slated for the DeKalb High School courts. The complete MAC Championships schedule follows ...

2012 MAC WOMEN'S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Huskie Tennis Courts (unless noted); DeKalb, Ill.
First Round – Thursday, April 26
#8 Toledo vs. #9 Ball State, 1:00 p.m.

Quarterfinals – Friday, April 27
#1 Miami vs. Toledo/Ball State winner, 10:00 a.m.
#4 Eastern Michigan vs. #5 Bowling Green, 10:00 a.m. (DeKalb H.S.)
#3 Western Michigan vs. #6 Buffalo, 2:00 p.m. (DeKalb H.S.)
#2 Akron vs. #7 Northern Illinois, 2:00 p.m.

Semifinals – Saturday, April 28
Miami/UT/BSU winner vs. BGSU/EMU winner, 10:00 a.m.
WMU/Buffalo winner vs. Akron/NIU winner, 2:00 p.m.

Championship – Sunday, April 29
Semifinal winners, Noon
All times Central

THE FALCONS IN THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Falcons have a record of 10-17 since the MAC Championships went to the current format (teams advance rather than individuals) prior to the 1996-97 season. Last April, the Brown and Orange posted a 4-0 win over Toledo in the quarterfinal round, before losing by the same score to Miami in the semifinals the following day. BGSU has advanced to the semifinal round in three of the last five years, after failing to do so in each of the six years (2001-06) prior to that time.

SEVEN NOTES NO SELF-RESPECTING MEDIA MEMBER OR FALCON TENNIS ENTHUSIAST SHOULD BE WITHOUT
• BGSU enters the MAC Championships with an overall record of 9-9, and the Falcons finished the regular season with a 4-4 conference slate. The Brown and Orange split a pair of 4-3 decisions last week, with a loss at Eastern Michigan Friday (April 20) and a win against Toledo on Saturday (April 21).

• Each of the Falcons' last three matches have ended in a 4-3 result. BG suffered a one-point home loss to Western Michigan (April 13) prior to the EMU/UT weekend. It marks the second time in as many years that the Falcons played three-straight 4-3 matches. Last season, BGSU lost at UIC (April 9, 2011) before posting home wins over both EMU (April 15) and UT (April 16). The last time the Falcons played three consecutive MAC matches that ended in one-point results? Never.

• Four of the Falcons' eight conference matches this year ended in 4-3 scores. It is probably no surprise that the Falcons, who have .500 overall (9-9) and conference (4-4) records, have split those four matches. BGSU downed Buffalo and UT by 4-3 scores, while falling to WMU and EMU by the same result.

• The 2011-12 season marks the third-straight year that BGSU played a pair of 4-3 matches on the EMU/Toledo weekend. This year, BG split those two matches on the road. Last April, the Falcons downed both the Eagles and the Rockets at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. And, two seasons ago, the Brown and Orange lost road matches to both Eastern and UT.

• The Falcons' two sophomores, Emily Reuland and Nikki Chiricosta, lead the team in wins. Reuland has 48 overall victories, with identical 24-8 records in both singles and doubles. She leads the Falcons on all three lists.

• Chiricosta is second on the team in all three categories. She has 22 singles victories and 22 doubles wins for a total of 44 wins this year to date. In addition to Chiricosta and Reuland, juniors Mary Hill (41) and Maddy Eccleston (40) each have posted 40 combined wins this season as well.

• Both Chiricosta and Reuland finished regular-season play with singles records of 6-2 in league contests, and the duo combined for a 6-2 doubles mark at the number-one flight vs. conference foes.

DOUBLE(S) YOUR PLEASURE, DOUBLE(S) YOUR FUN
• The Falcons enter the MAC Tournament having won the doubles point in five of the last six matches. The only team to take the first point of the match vs. BG during that span was Friday's opponent, Eastern Michigan.

• BGSU won the doubles point in six of the eight MAC regular-season matches, and the Brown and Orange captured the initial point in 12 of the 18 total contests. BG won at all three doubles flights in six of those matches – including four in MAC play – sweeping Cincinnati, Northern Illinois, Buffalo, Ball State, Valparaiso and Western Michigan.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
BGSU, as mentioned, has an overall record of 9-9 and a MAC mark of 4-4. Head coach Penny Dean's team finished with a home record of 4-4, and the Falcons have records of 5-3 in away contests and 0-2 in neutral-site matches to date. Six of this season's eight six home contests were played indoors, at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. BG went 3-3 at the PTC and 1-1 at Keefe Courts.

Individually, a pair of sophomores lead the Falcons in wins. Emily Reuland has 48 total victories, while classmate Nikki Chiricosta has 44. All seven players on the BGSU roster have winning records this year, with four players having won over 60 percent of their matches. Reuland leads the way with a 48-16 overall mark (.750), with Chiricosta at 44-19 (.698) overall.

Juniors Mary Hill and Maddy Eccleston each have reached the 40-win plateau. Hill is 41-24 overall (.630), and Eccleston has gone 40-23 (.635) to date. Eccleston, a co-captain, has won at least 40 total matches in each of her three seasons at BGSU.

Chiricosta, Hill (a transfer from Coastal Carolina Univ.) and Reuland, all in their second season with the Falcons, each have won 40 or more matches in both seasons.

Eccleston and Chiricosta have split time at the top-two singles flights this season, with Chiricosta playing at the No. 1 spot in 10 of the 18 duals. Each played at the top flight in four of the eight MAC matches.

Reuland has spent the bulk of the season at the number-three flight, but moved up to the second spot for back-to-back matches several weeks ago. Reuland has won six consecutive singles matches heading into Friday's EMU contest.

Hill has been penciled into the number-four position in Dean's singles lineup for 17 of the 18 matches this spring, while senior co-captain Jessica Easdale and junior Katie Grubb have held down the other two spots. For the most part, Grubb has played at the fifth flight and Easdale the sixth. Last Saturday, however, junior Jade Johnson played at the fifth spot during the Toledo match.

In doubles, Dean shuffled her lineup just prior to the MAC opener, and the Falcons posted a 17-7 record in doubles play during the league schedule. Chiricosta and Reuland have teamed up to go 8-2 overall, including 6-2 in MAC play, at the number-one flight. Eccleston and Grubb went 4-3 in conference contests, all at the second flight, while the Hill/Johnson duo went 6-2 in MAC matches. Hill and Johnson played at the second flight at UT, after teaming up at the third level in each of the previous eight matches.

Overall this season, the seven players on the BGSU roster have combined for a singles record of 123-78 (.612). Falcon doubles competitors have teamed for a 66-31 mark (.680) this year to date.

FALCONS IN THE CHARTS
Numerous BGSU players have etched their names into the record books this season. Sophomore Emily Reuland has 48 overall wins this year, the seventh-highest single-season total in program history. She is tied for sixth with 24 singles wins, and is deadlocked for eighth on the doubles wins list, with 24 this year.

Sophomore Nikki Chiricosta has 44 total wins to tie for 12th on that chart, while juniors Mary Hill (41, T-20th) and Maddy Eccleston (40, T-22nd) also are on that list.

Chiricosta's total of 22 doubles wins ties her for 15th on that seasonal list, with Eccleston and Hill deadlocked for 21st with 21 doubles victories apiece.

On the career lists, Eccleston is tied for 15th in program history with 126 total victories. She has 68 doubles wins to tie for 11th at BGSU, and her 58 singles wins place her 18th on that list.

Chiricosta, just a sophomore, picked up her 50th career singles win at Toledo Saturday, moving her into a tie for 21st on that list. She has 97 total victories, the 25th-highest total in school annals.

Reuland, also only a soph, has 47 singles wins, tying her for 24th all time, and she has 88 total wins to place 28th at BGSU. Hill, also in just her second year with the Falcons, has 92 total victories, the 26th-best total in school history.

Senior Jessica Easdale is tied for 28th in program history with 45 singles wins.

THE OPPONENT / THE SERIES
Eastern Michigan has an overall record of 9-14, and the Eagles finished the regular season with a MAC mark of 5-3. Like the Falcons, Eastern split a pair of 4-3 matches last weekend. EMU downed BG on Friday (April 20) before dropping a close match to Western Michigan on Saturday (April 21). Eastern and Western tied for third in the final standings, but the Broncos earned the third seed for the MAC Championships by virtue of head-to-head record with the Eagles. A year ago, head coach Ryan Ray's team went 10-13 overall and 3-5 in MAC action.

BGSU trails Eastern Michigan, 28-12, in the all-time series between the teams. Eastern's 4-3 win last weekend came after the Falcons posted a 4-3 home victory last year (April 15, 2011). In last season's meeting, BG came from behind after losing the doubles point at the Perrysburg Tennis Center. Five of the last six regular-season matches between BGSU and EMU have ended in 4-3 scores.

BGSU VS. EMU IN THE MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Falcons and Eastern Michigan have met on five previous occasions in the MAC Championships, and EMU holds a 3-2 lead in those matches. Just like Friday's matchup, all five previous tilts have taken place in the quarterfinal round.

The teams met in three-straight seasons from 1997-99. BGSU captured the first matchup, 5-3, at the 'old' Keefe Courts in '97, but the Eagles won the next two tourney meetings; 5-1 in 1998 in Akron, and 4-2 in the '99 season in Muncie, Ind. The Falcons and Eagles met in Muncie again in 2005, with Eastern pulling out a 4-1 win. Three years later (2008), the Brown and Orange picked up a 4-2 victory vs. EMU in Buffalo, N.Y.

UP NEXT
The winner of the BGSU-Eastern Michigan match will advance to Saturday's (April 28) semifinal round. The opponent will be either top-seeded Miami, eighth-seeded Toledo or ninth-seeded Ball State. That semifinal will be the first of the day, and will start at 10:00 a.m. locally (11:00 a.m. ET), and the winner will move on to Sunday's (April 29) championship match. The league tourney champion, of course, earns the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

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