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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Saturday, February 8
East Lansing, MI
10:00 AM
Bowling Green State University
at
Michigan State
Two Matches on the Docket for Tennis Falcons this Weekend
February 06, 2014 | Women's Tennis
BGSU heads to MSU Saturday before hosting UIC Sunday
Then, on Sunday morning (Feb. 9), the Brown and Orange will be back in Northwest Ohio to take on UIC in the only home match in a two-month span. The Falcons and Flames will meet in a 9:30 a.m. start at the Perrysburg Tennis Center.
BGSU Stats & Records - PDF
Dean and the Falcons are coming off a 5-2 win at Duquesne last weekend. The Falcons dropped the doubles point, but won five of the six singles matches for the road win. Senior Nikki Chiricosta and sophomore Katie Brozovich were victorious in both singles and doubles play, while sophomore Drew Fillis and freshmen Harley Hutchison and Brittany Plaszewski each picked up singles wins for the Brown and Orange.
The Falcons' seniors, Chiricosta and Emily Reuland, are among the team's wins leaders, with 23 and 17 total victories, respectively. Chiricosta has team-leading totals of 10 singles and 13 doubles wins, while Reuland has nine singles wins and eight doubles triumphs. Brozovich, like Reuland, has 17 wins this year, including a total of 10 doubles wins to rank second on the team in that category. Fillis has 13 overall wins this year to date.
Chiricosta, Brozovich and Hutchison all are 2-0 in singles matches during the young dual-match season, while Plaszewski and fellow freshman Hannah Drayton each are 1-0.
In her young career, Brozovich now has a singles record of 22-2 in dual-match play. She has posted her two wins at the third flight this year after spending time at the fourth (10-1), fifth (2-0) and sixth (8-1) flights last spring.
Both Fillis and Plaszewski picked up the first dual-match singles wins of their BGSU careers in last weekend's Duquesne match. Fillis won in straight sets at the fourth singles flight, while Plaszewski also needed just the minimum two sets in her sixth-flight victory.
BGSU lost the doubles point at Duquesne, after dropping the doubles point only twice in last season's 22 dual matches. The Falcons rallied to win in one of those 2012-13 contests, the regular-season finale at Western Michigan (April 20, 2013).
The seniors are moving up the BGSU career wins lists, as both players rank among the top 10 on all three school charts.
Chiricosta enters the MSU match with 87 singles wins and 172 total wins as a Falcon, ranking second on both school lists. She is just two singles victories and six overall wins away from tying the school records, both of which are held by her sister, Christine. Nikki Chiricosta also has 85 doubles wins, and has moved into sole possession of third place on that BG list.
Reuland is tied for fifth on the doubles wins chart, with 74 as a Falcon. She also ranks fifth in school history with 151 total career wins, and she is tied for sixth on the singles wins list, with 77.
Michigan State is off to a 4-1 start, and the Spartans have taken two of three matches vs. Mid-American Conference opponents. State has beaten Toledo, Detroit, Cleveland State and Eastern Michigan, with the lone loss coming to Ball State, 4-3. All five of MSU's matches have been played at East Lansing.
Head coach Simone Jardim's Spartans had an overall record of 11-16 and a Big Ten Conference mark of 1-10 last year. Jardim and her staff returned nine of 11 letterwinners from that team.
MSU leads BGSU, 16-1, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Spartans have won 11-straight meetings since BG's lone series win, in the 1999-2000 season. The last time the teams met, MSU came away with a narrow 4-3 victory two seasons ago (Feb. 10, 2012). All but one of the 17 total series meetings have taken place in East Lansing.
UIC enters this weekend with a dual-match record of 1-3. The Flames face Toledo on Saturday (Feb. 8) before meeting the Falcons the following day. UIC has defeated ASA College, and lost to Marquette, Akron and nationally-ranked DePaul in the season's first few weeks.
Head coach Shannon Tully's team was picked to win the Horizon League title in the preseason coaches' poll. The Flames have won 17 consecutive league championships, and UIC has advanced to the NCAA Championships in each of the last 15 seasons. Last year, the Flames went 14-5 during the dual-match season.
BGSU leads UIC, 11-9, in that series, and the Falcons captured a 5-2 victory last season (March 17, 2013) in Griffith, Ind. That win snapped a four-match series winning streak for the Flames. In the teams' last meeting in Northwest Ohio, UIC picked up a 5-2 win at the PTC two years ago (Feb. 5, 2012). The teams have met in each of the last 17 seasons.
Following this weekend's matches, the Falcons will prepare for a stretch of six-straight contests away from home. That sojourn starts with a trip to the Northeast Ohio to face Cleveland State on Valentine's Day (Feb. 14, obviously). That match will begin at 7:00 p.m. This weekend's UIC match is BGSU's last home action until March 22.
BG Tennis : Hannah Neuman Postmatch 2.17
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Saturday, February 18
BG Tennis Highlights vs Findlay 2.13
Sunday, February 13
BG Tennis : Ioanna Tsadari Post-Match 2.13
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