Falcons Head to Minnesota

Emma Norris v Cleveland State - John Enright photo

The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team takes to the road for the first time in the 2012 season. The Falcons of interim head coach Kellie Evans head to Minnesota to play a pair of matches, beginning with a Thursday night (Aug. 30) contest against the University of Minnesota. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. Eastern).

BGSU WOMEN'S SOCCER NOTES - PDF
Click here or scroll to the bottom of the page for an interview with Coach Kellie Evans

Then, the Falcons will face Western Kentucky University on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 1) in a neutral-site contest. That match will begin at 1:00 p.m. locally (2:00 p.m. Eastern). Both matches will take place at UM's home facility, Elizabeth Lyle Robbie Stadium in St. Paul, Minn.

Live stats will be available on the web at GopherSports.com as well as BGSUFalcons.com.

The Falcons snapped a two-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over IUPUI at Cochrane Field on Sunday (Aug. 26). After a scoreless first half, juniors Tracy Togba and Madeline Wideman each scored early in the second stanza to give the Brown and Orange a two-goal lead. The Jaguars cut the lead in half midway through the period, but the hosts prevented IUPUI from netting an equalizer.

Minnesota is 2-2-0 on the season. The Golden Gophers opened the year by splitting a pair of one-goal games at home against nationally-ranked opponents, losing to fourth-ranked Florida State before posting an overtime win over No. 24 South Carolina. Last weekend, the Gophers headed to California and fell to San Diego, 3-2 in double OT, before downing USC by a 4-1 count.

Taylor Uhl leads the Gophers in scoring. Uhl already has 12 points, including five goals, this season. Cat Parkhill has played every minute in goal and has a goals-against average of 1.87 for head coach Stephanie Golan, who came to Minnesota from Army in the summer of 2012. Last year, the Gophers went 9-10-2 overall and 5-4-2 in Big Ten Conference play.

Minnesota leads the Falcons, 1-0-0, in the all-time series between the teams. In the only previous meeting, the 23rd-ranked Gophers broke a scoreless tie in the 68th minute of the match en route to a 2-0 win at BGSU's Cochrane Field two years ago (Sept. 10, 2010). Parkhill had two saves to earn the shutout in net for the visitors.

Western Kentucky will take a 3-1-0 record into Saturday's match with the Falcons. The Hilltoppers have picked up wins over Evansville, Xavier and Northern Kentucky, and the team's lone loss came to Tennessee. Amanda Buechel has nine points, including four goals, for WKU, while Nikki Hall has started all four matches in goal. Hall has a GAA of 1.36 and one shutout for head coach Jason Neidell.

Neidell welcomed back 16 letterwinners, including six starters, from last year's team that went 13-6-3 overall and finished with a 7-3-1 mark in Sun Belt Conference matches.

Saturday will mark the first-ever meeting between BGSU and WKU in women's soccer.

Thursday's Minnesota match begins a three-game road swing for the Falcons. Following this weekend's two contests, the Brown and Orange will venture to Northwest Indiana next weekend, facing Valparaiso University on Sunday, Sept. 9. BGSU's next home game is Friday, Sept. 14, against Illinois State University.

ADDITIONAL FALCON NOTES
• Junior Tracy Togba currently has a modest two-game point-scoring streak. After earning an assist on a goal by freshman Jessica Jarvis against Cleveland State (Aug. 19), Togba scored the opening goal of Sunday's IUPUI match.

• Togba's goal vs. the Jaguars was the fourth of her career. She leads the 2012 Falcons with three points this season to date, and has nine points as a Falcon.

• Junior Madeline Wideman's goal vs. IUPUI was the fourth of her BGSU career. Wideman now has 16 career points, the most among active Falcons.

• Togba, Wideman and senior Sarah VonderBrink share the career goal-scoring lead among 2012 team members, with four goals apiece at BG.

• Redshirt sophomore Kylie Briem and freshman Demy Whitaker each picked up their first collegiate point on Sunday. Both players assisted on Wideman's goal, as Briem played a long ball forward to Whitaker, who found the onrushing Wideman with a nifty backheel pass.

• Head coach Kellie Evans and assistant coach Bubby Leasure have used the bench liberally in the first three matches. A total of 21 different players saw action in the Michigan State match, and 20 Falcons got onto the pitch against both Cleveland State and IUPUI.

• One of those players, junior defender Alyssa Carmack, has played all 276-plus minutes this season. She is the only field player to be on the pitch for every second of action this fall to date.

• Carmack led the Falcons in minutes played last season, playing 1,830 of the 1,834 total minutes. As a freshman, she was third on the team in minutes played.

• Sophomore Lindsey Thompson made the first start of her collegiate career vs. IUPUI on Sunday. A total of 15 different Falcons have made at least one start this season.

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