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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Dean, Falcons Announce 2013-14 Schedule
August 28, 2013 | Women's Tennis
BGSU looks to build upon last year's 17-5 campaign
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CLICK HERE for the most up-to-date BGSU schedule
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"We are certainly excited about our 2013-14 schedule, and we can't wait for the season to begin," said Dean, who enters her 24th year at the Falcon helm. "Our fall schedule has a nice mix of tournaments, with several invites we have attended in the past, as well as a few different destinations."
The Falcons will open the season at home, with the two-day BGSU Invitational. This year's edition of the tourney, which BG has hosted every year since 1993-94, will be held on Friday and Saturday, Sept. 20-21. Most matches will be played at Keefe Courts on the BGSU campus, weather permitting, with the remainder of the matches held at Bowling Green High School.
"The BGSU Invitational is always one of the highlights of our fall schedule," said Dean. "It is a chance for us to play in front of our home fans, and with this year's BGSU Invitational taking place on a home football weekend, it should be a fun atmosphere. We hope to see a lot of Falcon fans out at Keefe Courts."
The Falcons' other fall tournaments will take them to two other Mid-American Conference venues, as the Brown and Orange will head to Oxford, Ohio, for the Miami Invitational (Sept. 28-29) and to Kalamazoo, Mich., for the Western Michigan Super Challenge (Nov. 8-10). In between those two trips, the Falcons will participate in the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich. (Oct. 10-15) and the UC Bearcat Invitational in Cincinnati (Nov. 1-3).
"The tournaments at Miami and Cincinnati will be a nice change of pace for our returnees," said Dean. "We will face a number of strong and talented teams from throughout the region, so those should be good chances to test ourselves and see where we stand. The Western Michigan tournament always provides very strong competition, and is a great way for us to conclude the fall schedule."
When the team resumes play in the spring, BG is scheduled to play a total of eight home duals, including at least three at the Perrysburg Tennis Center, the indoor home of the Falcons. The late March and April matches, including four MAC duals, are slated to be played at Keefe, weather permitting.
The spring schedule begins on Sunday morning, Jan. 26, with a match vs. Youngstown State at the PTC. Following that match, the Falcons are slated to play five of the next six contests on the road, including trips to Duquesne (Feb. 1) and Michigan State (Feb. 8). BGSU hosts perennial Horizon League power UIC at the PTC on Feb. 9, before hitting the road once again to face three in-state foes in Cleveland State (Feb. 14), Xavier (Feb. 21) and Cincinnati (Feb. 22).
After a home match vs. California (Pa.) on Feb. 28, the Brown and Orange will prepare for a spring break journey to Palm Springs, Calif. The opponents and match dates for BGSU's duals on the left coast will be announced at a later date.
Upon the team's return to the Midwest, the MAC schedule begins with a home match vs. Western Michigan on Saturday, March 22. BG defeated the Broncos for the first time in program history on the final day of the 2012-13 regular season.
A three-match road swing follows, including matches at arch-rival Toledo (March 28), Eastern Michigan (March 29) and Northern Illinois (April 4). Then, the Falcons return to Keefe Courts, briefly stepping outside conference play with a match vs. Chicago State on April 5.
That CSU dual begins a three-match homestand, which includes contests vs. Akron (April 11) and Buffalo (April 12). The UB match will be Senior Day at Keefe Courts.
The regular season ends on the following weekend, as the Falcons travel to Muncie, Ind., and Oxford to take on Ball State (April 18) and Miami (April 19), respectively. The RedHawks posted a pair of narrow 4-3 victories over BGSU during 2012-13, with the second meeting coming in the championship match of the 2013 MAC Championships at BSU.
This year's MAC Championships will be hosted by the RedHawks, with the top six teams in the final regular-season standings converging upon Oxford for the league tourney on April 25-27.
The Falcons are looking to build upon arguably the best season in program history. Dean's 2012-13 team had an overall record of 17-5, setting a school record for wins. BGSU tied for second in the MAC's final regular-season standings, and the Falcons earned the number-two seed for the MAC Championships. Both the regular-season finish and the tourney seed were the highest in BG annals, and the Falcons set another program milestone by advancing to the league tournament's championship match for the first time ever, before dropping that narrow 4-3 decision to MU. Three of BGSU's five losses on the season came by 4-3 scores.
A large part of that team has graduated, as last year's senior class of Maddy Eccleston, Katie Grubb, Mary Hill and Jade Johnson combined for 222 singles wins and 312 doubles victories. However, Dean – the 2012-13 MAC Coach of the Year – welcomes back a talented nucleus in seniors Nikki Chiricosta and Emily Reuland, along with sophomores Katie Brozovich and Drew Fillis.
"We are experienced and young at the same time," said Dean. "We return three of our top players from last year's singles lineup in Nikki, Emily and Katie, and Drew has a year under her belt and has gained a great deal of experience. The returning players are motivated to build upon the success of last season."
Chiricosta led the Falcons with 51 total wins last season, and is on track to set the school career wins records. Reuland, who alternated with Chiricosta at the top singles flight and teamed with her classmate at the number-one doubles flight, is within striking distance of the current school records as well. She ranked third on the Falcons with 45 overall wins a season ago.
In her first year of collegiate tennis, all Brozovich did was go a team-best 29-9 in singles play, including a 7-1 mark at the fourth flight in MAC action. Fillis won over two-thirds of her matches in her first season with the Falcons. That quartet will be joined by a trio of freshmen in Hannah Drayton, Harley Hutchison and Brittany Plaszewski in 2013-14.
"We've added three freshmen who have unlimited potential, and we will need to count on them right away," said Dean. "We need to work on developing their games during the fall, because they will be integral to our lineup in the spring.
"We lost two strong, point-earning doubles teams with the graduation of our four seniors. The potential is there to enjoy similar success in 2013-14, but the fall will be important for us in terms of experimenting with doubles teams as well as the singles lineup. We need to learn from whatever mistakes we might make in the fall and continue to improve every day.
"As always, we want to win as many matches as possible in the fall, but we want to identify our strongest lineups to get ready for the dual-match schedule which in turn will prepare us for the MAC schedule. We want to be playing our best tennis in late March and April."
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WTEN: Konstantina Adamopoulou vs. Northern Kentucky (2-27-26)
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BG Tennis : Coach Bonnell Postmatch 2.17
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