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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Sunday, January 26
Perrysburg, OH
11:00 AM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Youngstown State
Falcons Host YSU Sunday to Begin Dual-Match Schedule
January 23, 2014 | Women's Tennis
BGSU faces Penguins in 11 a.m. start at Perrysburg Tennis Center
BGSU STATS, RESULTS & RECORDS - PDF
Sunday's match will mark the Falcons' first action in roughly two-and-a-half months. Dean's team played in five fall competitions, with the final invitational -- the WMU Super Challenge -- running from Nov. 8-10.
The Falcons are coming off arguably the most successful season in program history, but Dean and her staff lost four players from that eight-woman roster. The 2012-13 team had a dual-match record of 17-5, earning the second seed for the MAC Championships and advancing all the way to the championship match before losing a 4-3 decision.
The four returnees include a pair of seniors, Nikki Chiricosta and Emily Reuland, along with sophomores Katie Brozovich and Drew Fillis.
Chiricosta led the Falcons with 19 total victories during the fall portion of the schedule, while Reuland had 15 wins, Brozovich 13 and Fillis 11.
Dean and her assistant coaches, Jim Kaser and Cindy Yonker, have three freshmen on the 2013-14 roster. That trio, Hannah Drayton, Harley Hutchison and Brittany Plaszewski, combined for 19 wins during their first semester on campus.
On Wednesday (Jan. 22), the MAC office announced the preseason coaches' poll, and the Falcons were picked to tie for fifth in the nine-team league.
The two seniors are ranked near the top of each of BGSU's career wins lists. Chiricosta ranks second in school history in career singles wins, third in overall wins and fourth in career doubles victories. She now has 168 total victories, including 85 in singles and 83 in doubles.
Chiricosta is just one win shy of second-place Maddy Eccleston on the combined career list, and she is just 10 wins away from tying the school record, held by her sister, Christine Chiricosta (178 overall wins from 2008-11).
Nikki Chiricosta is just four singles wins away from matching her sister's career-record total of 89.
Reuland has 149 total wins as a Falcon, and is tied for fifth place on that list. Her singles win on the final day of the fall season was the 76th of her career, putting her in a seventh-place tie. She is also tied for seventh on the BGSU career doubles wins list, with 73.
This weekend's YSU match will utilize the new rules proposed by the NCAA Championships/Sports Management Cabinet, which recommend, among other things, that singles matches use a super tiebreaker (first player to 10 points) in place of a third set, and that competitors play a six-game set in doubles with a tiebreaker at six all.
YSU, like BGSU, opens the dual-match schedule on Sunday. The Penguins played in three fall tournaments, crossing paths with the Falcons once. Both teams sent participants to the ITA Midwest Regional Championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., in mid-October, but did not play any matches against one another that weekend.
YSU's roster features four seniors, one junior and one freshman. Head coach Mickael Sopel was named head coach in September after spending the 2012-13 season as an assistant coach with the Penguins.
BGSU is looking to continue an impressive streak, as the Falcons are a perfect 14-0 all time in dual matches vs. Youngstown State, including a 12-0 mark at home. Last season, the Falcons posted a 6-1 win over YSU at the PTC (Feb. 2, 2013), sweeping the doubles matches and taking five of the six singles contests. The teams did not meet in the previous season, but played in each of the nine previous years.
Sunday's match will be the teams' third at the PTC, including last year's match and a 7-0 BG win four years ago (Jan. 31, 2010).
Following the YSU match, the Falcons will hit the road for the next two duals, beginning with next weekend's trip to Pittsburgh, Pa. BG will take on Duquesne on Saturday, Feb. 1, before meeting Michigan State the next Saturday (Feb. 8) in East Lansing, Mich. Both matches are scheduled to begin at 10:00 a.m. The Falcons then host UIC on Sunday, Feb. 9, in a 9:30 a.m. start at the PTC.
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