Falcons Close Regular Season At No. 7 UCLA

BGSU (7-7) AT NO. 7 UCLA (7-3) W/ UTAH STATE (8-7)
Date	March 16, 2014
Time	5:00 PM
Location	Los Angeles, Calif. \| Pauley Pavilion
Coverage	Live Stats \| Live Video
Additional Information	Twitter \| Facebook \| Performance List

Bowling Green, Ohio – The Bowling Green State University gymnastics team closes out the regular season with a critical triangular meet at No. 7 UCLA Sunday, along with Utah State. The Falcons are looking to improve their Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) to move into position for an NCAA Regional berth at the meet, scheduled to begin at 5 pm.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Links to live stats and live video (as available) can be found at BGSUFalcons.com for all meets. Fans can follow the BGSU Gymnastics team through Twitter on the official team account @FalconGymn and through the official account of the Athletics Department @BGAthletics.

CLOSING OUT THE MAC
Bowling Green posted its fourth-highest score in program history Thursday but the Falcons still ended up on the short end of its meet at Kent State to close out Mid-American Conference action. The Golden Flashes ended the regular season with a 6-0 league record and Central Michigan was second at 5-1. BGSU posted a third-place league finish at 4-2.

SUNDAY'S MEET
Both UCLA and Utah State are positioned for NCAA Regional berths with the Bruins at No. 7 in the country and Utah State currently tied for 35^th. With BGSU at No. 39, the Falcons have an opportunity to overtake a team they are competing with for one of the 36 regional spots. By apparatus, UCLA is ranked as high as No. 6 on the uneven bars and Utah State peaks out at No. 33 on vault. Individually, UCLA's Danusia Francis is ranked No. 2 in the country on balance beam with an average score of 9.893.

REGIONAL QUALIFICATION
In its loss to Kent State, Bowling Green posted a season-best score of 195.925 that helped the Falcons improve their Regional Qualifying Score (RQS) from 194.355 to 194.690. The top 36 teams in the country advance to NCAA Regionals and BGSU is currently No. 39, but is just barely outside of the top 36. Currently, the Falcons would need an RQS of 194.745 to be safe in the top 36. RQS is determined by taking each team's top three away scores and their next three top scores (either home or away). The top score is dropped and the five remaining scores are averaged. The Falcons would increase their RQS Sunday with a score better than 194.325.

FALCONS IN THE RANKINGS
Despite posting their season-best score Thursday at Kent State, Bowling Green dropped in the team rankings from No. 38 to No. 39. But the Falcons inched closer to a handful of teams in front of them and are in position to close the year strong and finish in the top 36 to earn an NCAA Regional berth. The team's best event this year has been the floor exercise and the team ranks No. 31 in the country on that apparatus. Individually, Alyssa Nocella is ranked 51st in the country in the all-around. Listed below are all BGSU individuals ranked in the top 100 in the country in an event:

Vault – 84. Lauren Feely, 99. Amanda Lievendag
Floor – 57. Megan Harrington, 64. Alyssa Nocella
All-Around – 51. Alyssa Nocella, 64. Megan Harrington, 65. Gina Locigno, 66. Lauren Feely

LAST TIME OUT
Bowling Green went to Kent State for an opportunity to earn a share of the Mid-American Conference regular season title and the Falcons had one of their top performances ever, scoring a 195.925, the fourth-highest team score in BGSU history. Unfortunately, Kent State was just slightly better with a 196.225. Amanda Lievendag's 9.925 on uneven bars helped her earn her third MAC Specialist of the Week honor and Alyssa Nocella had a 39.350 in the all-around, a career-best mark achieved by only two other Falcons in program history.

FACING THE BEST
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner has bulked up the non-conference schedule and the Falcons are facing numerous ranked teams this year. In the season opener, Bowling Green competed in a triangular against No. 12 Oregon State and then-No. 19 Ohio State (now No. 23). In Chicago, BGSU faced then-No. 18 Boise State (now No. 17) and then met then-No. 19 Central Michigan (now No. 18) in venerable Anderson Arena two days later. Last week, the Falcons faced Kent State, a team currently ranked No. 25 in the country. No. 7 UCLA is on the docket this week as well.

WHAT A WIN WOULD MEAN
Bowling Green has an opportunity to finish .500 or better for the first time since the 2002 team went 17-1. With at least a split this weekend against UCLA and Utah State, the Falcons would achieve that.

LIEVENDAG NAMED MAC SPECIALIST OF THE WEEK THREE TIMES
Junior Amanda Lievendag has earned the Mid-American Conference's Specialist of the Week honors three times, most recently on March 11 after posting meet-best scores on both vault and uneven bars, including a 9.925 on bars. She earned the honor Feb. 25 after a meet-best 9.825 on vault against Northern Illinois and also picked up the award on Jan. 14 after a meet-best 9.987 on bars against No. 12 Oregon State and No. 19 Ohio State.

HARRINGTON NAMED GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
BGSU senior Megan Harrington was named MAC Gymnast of the Week on Feb. 10 following a career-best 39.100 in the all-around last weekend at the Chicago meet. Harrington also posted an all-around score of 39.075 just two days later at Central Michigan. Both scores were good for second place at both meets. Harrington also scored season-highs in the vault with a 9.800 as well as on the bars with a 9.725 in weekend's first meet in Chicago. Harrington then went on to score a career-best on beam with a 9.850, while tying her bars score of 9.725 in the meet against CMU. She posted at least a 9.675 in all eight rotations on the weekend.

NOCELLA NAMED GYMNAST OF THE WEEK
BGSU sophomore Alyssa Nocella was named MAC Gymnast of the Week on Jan. 28 after scoring a career-best 39.150 in the all-around and leading BGSU to its second-highest team score since 2005 in a win over Eastern Michigan. Nocella posted at least a 9.725 on all four apparatuses, tying her career-best with a 9.775 on vault.

PRESEASON POLL
BGSU was picked to finish third in the MAC Preseason Poll, as voted on by the league's coaches. The Falcons finished third during the regular season a year ago and fifth at the MAC Championship. Defending MAC Champion Kent State was picked to repeat, followed by Central Michigan. Following BGSU, Northern Illinois was selected fourth and Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan and Ball State round out the preseason standings.

SOLID FOUNDATION
BGSU Head Coach Kerrie Turner was named MAC Coach of the Year in 2013 with good reason. She has pushed the program forward after the team went 0-6 in the MAC in 2011. The 2012 team improved incrementally to 1-5 and the 2013 squad moved to 3-3. The Falcons return most of their contributors from a year ago, as well as adding a strong freshman class, and went 4-2 in MAC play.

THE MAC CHAMPS ARE BACK
BGSU is the only school in the MAC to return a pair of individual champions from a year ago in junior Jamilah Ali and sophomore Alyssa Nocella. Ali won the vault a year ago and Nocella claimed the balance beam title. The duo represent just the second and third MAC individual champions under Turner, who began her head coaching tenure at BGSU in 2008.

FIVE ADDED FOR 2014
Earlier this fall, BGSU announced five additions to the gymnastics program for the 2015 season. Morgan Denlinger (Lancaster, Pa./Hempfield HS/Prestige Gymnastics Club), Taylor Livingston (Hartland, Mich./Hartland HS/Geddert's Twisters Gymnastics Club), Shannon Goniwiecha (Rochester Hills, Mich./Stoney Creek HS/Oakland Gymnastics), Kylie Bosco (Illinois Gymnastics Institute) and McKenna Schoenberger (Maple City Gymnastics) will all join the program next year.

HALL OF FAME
BGSU gymnastics alumnus Marny Oestreng was inducted into the BGSU Athletics Hall of Fame over the summer. Oestreng, a 2002 BGSU graduate, won the 1999 NCAA Championship in the floor exercise. Her school- and career-best score in the all-around while at BG was 39.600, and she also posted the program's best-ever scores in the floor exercise (9.975), uneven bars (9.950), vault (9.950) and balance beam (9.925).

SCHOLASTIC ALL-AMERICANS
In August, five Falcons were named Scholastic All-Americans by the National Association of College Gymnastics Coaches for Women (NACGC). Student-athletes must have a grade point average of 3.50 or higher to be honored. Senior Megan Harrington and sophomores Caroline Ellingboe and Alyssa Nocella, along with graduates Monica Eaton and Sunny Marchand (who is now an assistant coach with the team), received the recognition.

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