BGSU Battles Butler, UIC This Weekend

The Bowling Green State University tennis team, looking to extend a nine-match winning streak, returns to action with a pair of matches this weekend. The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will host Butler on Saturday afternoon (March 16) to conclude a season-long seven-match homestand, before taking to the road for a Sunday (March 17) match vs. UIC.

Saturday's Butler match is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts, weather permitting. In the event of inclement weather, the match would be moved indoors to the Perrysburg Tennis Center. Sunday's UIC match is slated to begin at 10:00 a.m. Central time (11:00 a.m. Eastern) at Match Point Tennis in Griffith, Ind.

LINKS
BGSU STATS & MATCH-BY-MATCH RESULTS
2012-13 BGSU TENNIS MEDIA GUIDE

BGSU enters the weekend with a record of 9-1 in dual-match play. The Falcons have won nine consecutive matches since a road loss to then 19th-ranked Notre Dame back on Jan. 18. Most recently, the Falcons captured a pair of matches at the Perrysburg Tennis Center, topping IPFW, 4-3, on Feb. 22, before downing California (Pa.) by a 6-1 score two days later.

Both the IPFW match and the California contest saw the Falcons capture a closely-contested doubles point. Against the Mastodons, BGSU would go 3-3 in the singles matches, making the doubles point all the more important. The Brown and Orange won five of the six singles matches. vs. the Vulcans.

BG briefly entered the national polls, as the Falcons were listed 74th in the Feb. 26 Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) rankings. The Brown and Orange, without playing a match, dropped out of the ITA's top 75 when last week's (March 5) poll was released.

**MADDY ECCLESTON'S CAREER DOUBLES RECORD BY PARTNER**
Katia Babina	2- 0
Katie Brozovich	2- 2
Christine Chiricosta	44-18
Nikki Chiricosta	4- 2
Jessica Easdale	0- 0 ^
Katie Grubb	20- 8
Jade Johnson	10- 4
Emily Reuland	5- 2
TOTAL	87-36
^ won a match by forfeit

The IPFW match was the second-straight time BGSU had gone 3-3 in doubles play, as the Falcons had downed Cincinnati, 4-3, on Feb. 10. Despite those results, BGSU competitors have a combined record of 43-11 in singles and 23-4 in doubles during the team's nine-match winning streak.

BGSU's two juniors rank one-two on the team in total wins, as Nikki Chiricosta is 40-12 on the season, while Emily Reuland is 38-14. Chiricosta saw a personal winning streak snapped at 15 matches (singles and doubles combined) with a narrow loss in doubles play vs. California. But, she bounced back with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at the top singles flight, marking her ninth consecutive singles win.

Senior Katie Grubb and freshman Katie Brozovich each have 31 wins this season, and both players -- like Chiricosta and Reuland -- have won more than two-thirds of their overall matches. Chiricosta has a winning percentage of 76.9% in 2012-13, with Grubb at 73.8% (31-11), Reuland 73.1% and Brozovich 67.3% (31-15).

In fact, all eight players on the BGSU roster have at least 20 total wins, and every Falcon is at least three games over .500, with seven of the eight players at least nine games above the break-even mark.

Senior co-captain Maddy Eccleston has an overall mark of 27-18 this spring, while classmate Jade Johnson is 23-14. Freshman Drew Fillis has a 21-10 record in her first season with the Falcons, and senior Mary Hill, a co-captain along with Eccleston, is 20-17.

Chiricosta leads the Falcons in singles wins, with 19, while Brozovich (18) and Reuland (17) are close behind. Grubb has 15 singles wins to date.

In doubles, both Chiricosta and Reuland are 21-7, and are 18-6 this season when playing as a tandem. Eccleston is 18-8 in doubles play, with Johnson 17-6, Grubb 16-5 and Fillis 14-5. Every player on the team has at least 12 doubles wins, and all eight Falcons are five or more games over .500.

Brozovich, like Chiricosta, enters the weekend having won nine consecutive singles matches. Both players are 9-1 in singles during the dual-match portion of the schedule, having lost only at Notre Dame.

Grubb is also 9-1 in singles action during the dual-match season, with her lone loss having come against Cincinnati.

Reuland has an eight-match doubles winning streak entering the Butler match. She has played with Chiricosta in six of those matches and Eccleston in the other two. Eccleston is 8-2 in doubles since the start of dual-match play, and she has won eight of her last nine doubles matches.

Eccleston is looking to make history in the very near future. She enters the weekend with a career total of 87 doubles wins, ranking second in school history. Eccleston is just two doubles wins away from matching Christine Chiricosta's school record. Chiricosta had 89 doubles wins from 2008-11. Eccleston teamed with Chiricosta for 44 of her 87 doubles wins.

Eccleston is also second on the BGSU combined career wins list, with a total of 154 victories as a Falcon. She recently passed Deidee Bissinger (153 wins from 1997-2000) on that list. Christine Chiricosta holds that BGSU record as well, with 178 total wins as a Falcon.

All four BGSU seniors and both Falcon juniors are on the list of the top-30 players in school history in combined career wins. All six players are within the top 20 on the school's doubles wins list, while five of the six are among the top-25 all-time Falcons in singles wins. All three lists can be found by clicking the PDF stats link near the top of this page.

Butler enters Saturday's match with an overall record of 3-12, and the Bulldogs will be looking to snap a four-match losing streak. Most recently, BU suffered a 7-0 loss to UNC-Wilmington at home on March 6. Butler's three wins have come against Dayton, Morehead State and Evansville. The Bulldogs have played three Mid-American Conference schools to date, having lost to Western Michigan and Northern Illinois at home and to Ball State on the road. Last season, BU finished 9-15 overall and 5-3 in Horizon League play. The Bulldogs are a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference this season.

UIC is 7-1 on the year, and the Flames are riding a seven-match winning streak. UIC captured a 6-1 decision over Northern Illinois last weekend (March 9), and the team's victims also include MAC members Toledo and WMU. The Flames' lone loss to date came by a 6-1 count at Marquette on Feb. 1. UIC is at Wisconsin on Saturday (March 16) before facing the Falcons the following day.

Last season, UIC went 18-4 overall and 10-0 in the Horizon League, winning a 16th consecutive league title and advancing to the NCAA Championships for the 14th-straight spring. The Flames have won an NCAA-record 143 consecutive conference matches, dating to April 21, 1996. That includes time in the Mid-Continent Conference as well as the HL. Current coach Shannon Tully is 110-0 in conference play through her first 11 seasons.

BGSU holds a 14-0 lead over Butler in the all-time series between the teams. The last meeting saw the Falcons pick up a 7-0 victory on the road two years ago (Jan. 30, 2011). BG's last home match vs. the Bulldogs was also a 7-0 win, at the PTC on Feb. 27, 2009.

The Falcons lead UIC, 10-9, in that series, but the Flames have won the last four meetings. Last season, UIC picked up a 5-2 win in Perrysburg (Feb. 5, 2012). BG's last road match vs. the Flames saw UIC escape with a 4-3 victory in the Windy City (April 9, 2011). The teams have met in each of the last 16 seasons.

Following this weekend's matches, the Falcons will begin MAC action with home duals vs. Toledo (March 22) and Eastern Michigan (March 23). Both matches are scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. at Keefe Courts, weather permitting.

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