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Bowling Green State University Athletics
Friday, April 25
Oxford, OH
2:00 PM
Bowling Green State University
vs
Eastern Michigan (Quarterfinals)
BGSU Heads Back to Oxford for MAC Championships
April 23, 2014 | Women's Tennis
Sixth-seeded Falcons face EMU Friday afternoon
The Bowling Green State University tennis team heads to Oxford, Ohio, to take part in this weekend's Mid-American Conference Championships. The Falcons of head coach Penny Dean, seeded sixth for the league tourney, will face third-seeded Eastern Michigan University in first-round action on Friday (April 25). First serve is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Hepburn Varsity Tennis Courts on the Miami University campus.
The BGSU-EMU winner will advance to face second-seeded Ball State University in the semifinal round on Saturday (April 26), with that match also slated for a 2:00 p.m. start. The championship match will be Sunday (April 27) at noon.
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| THIS WEEK IN BGSU TENNIS | |
| Fri.-Sun., April 25-27 | MAC CHAMPIONSHIPS |
| First-Round Matchup | #6 BGSU vs. #3 Eastern Michigan - Friday, April 25 - 2:00 p.m. - Oxford, Ohio |
| Handy PDF Links | BGSU Stats & Records | 2013-14 BGSU Media Guide |
| Match-by-Match Series Info vs. MAC Opponents | MAC Championships Bracket | |
| The Opponent(s) | Eastern Michigan tennis | Ball State tennis (BGSU-EMU winner faces BSU) |
| In Other News... | Chiricosta Earns Falcon Medal of Honor |
The Falcons are heading to Oxford for the second time in less than a week. BG saw a season-best four-match winning streak come to an end last weekend, suffering a pair of road losses against two of the top teams in the MAC. BGSU dropped a narrow 4-3 decision at Ball State on Friday (April 18), before falling by a 5-2 score at Miami the following afternoon. MU won the MAC's regular-season crown and earned the number-one seed for this weekend's MAC Championships, while BSU tied with Eastern Michigan for second place in the final conference standings. The Cardinals earned the tourney's second seed by virtue of a win over the Eagles in the teams' regular-season match.
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| MAC STANDINGS | ||
| 1 | Miami (15-6) | 7-1 |
| 2 | Ball State (16-8) | 6-2 |
| Eastern Michigan (13-8) | 6-2 | |
| 4 | Buffalo (14-5) | 5-3 |
| Toledo (14-6) | 5-3 | |
| 6 | Bowling Green (10-8) | 4-4 |
| 7 | Western Mich. (13-11) | 2-6 |
| 8 | Northern Illinois (7-12) | 1-7 |
| 9 | Akron (10-15) | 0-8 |
The Falcons' four-match winning streak included victories over Northern Illinois (6-1; April 4) and Chicago State (7-0; April 5) at the Perrysburg Tennis Center, and wins against Akron (6-1; April 11) and Buffalo (5-2; April 12) at Keefe Courts.
For the Falcons, last season's MAC Championships run was the most successful in school history. BGSU had never scored more than one point in the league tourney's semifinal round prior to 2013, and the Brown and Orange had dropped six-straight semifinal matchups by identical 4-0 scores. But, last year's team posted a 4-2 win over Akron to advance to the championship match for the first time in program history. Last year's championship match saw Miami squeak past the Falcons by a 4-3 score.
BGSU enters Friday's EMU match with an overall record of 12-19 in MAC Championships play since the tournament went to a dual-match format prior to the 1996-97 season. BG is 7-9 in quarterfinal-round matches, 1-7 in the semifinal round and 0-1 in the championship match. Additionally, the Falcons were 1-0 in first-round matches and 3-2 in back-draw and/or fifth-place matches, none of which take place under the current format.
This season, senior co-captain Nikki Chiricosta leads the Falcons with 41 overall wins, while sophomore Katie Brozovich has 38 and senior co-captain Emily Reuland 32. Chiricosta has a team-leading 19 singles wins this season, with Brozovich and Reuland right behind with 18 apiece. In doubles, Chiricosta paces the team with a record of 22-10, including an 18-7 mark when competing with Brozovich. Brozovich has an overall doubles mark of 20-9 this season to date.
Chiricosta is just the second player in school history to record at least 40 wins in each of her four seasons as a Falcon. Her former teammate, Maddy Eccleston, was the first.
Chiricosta joined Eccleston on another list earlier this week, the list of Falcon Medal of Honor award winners. The Falcon Medal of Honor, the highest award given by the BGSU Department of Athletics, is given to one male and one female student-athlete who embody the essence of the qualities BGSU Athletics holds important for all student-athletes -- scholarship, athletics, leadership and service. Eccleston earned that honor in 2013, while Nikki's sister, Christine Chiricosta, received the award in 2011.
Freshman Harley Hutchison has 27 overall wins this season, while sophomore Drew Fillis has won 24 matches and freshman Hannah Drayton 23. Freshman Brittany Plaszewski currently has nine wins in her initial season with the Falcons.
In MAC play, Chiricosta went 6-2 in singles matches, competing exclusively at the number-one flight. Reuland and Brozovich each went 5-3 vs. conference competition, competing at the second and third flights, respectively.
Brozovich and Chiricosta were 5-2 in doubles play during the conference portion of the schedule, while Drayton and Hutchison went 5-3 vs. league foes.
In her young career, Brozovich has a singles record of 33-7 in dual-match play. She is 13-5 at the third flight this year after spending time at the fourth (10-1), fifth (2-0) and sixth (8-1) flights last spring.
Dean's two seniors are ranked high atop the school's career wins lists. Chiricosta and Reuland each are listed among the top-five players in BGSU history on all three charts.
Chiricosta is the winningest player in BGSU history, with 190 overall wins, and she also holds the school record with 96 singles victories. The Avon Lake, Ohio, native broke both records, originally set by her sister, Christine (2008-11), in the Falcons' win over Western Michigan in the MAC opener (March 22). Nikki Chiricosta has 94 doubles victories to rank second on that list, three behind Eccleston (2010-13).
Reuland is fourth in school history with 166 total victories, and the Oswego, Ill., native sits in third place on the singles wins list. With 86 singles victories as a Falcon, she is the winningest player not named Chiricosta in BGSU singles history. Reuland is three wins behind second-place Christine Chiricosta on that chart. Reuland has 80 career doubles wins, good for sole possession of fifth place on that list.
The BGSU season and career records can be found by clicking the "BGSU Stats & Records" PDF link near the top of this page.
Eastern Michigan enters Friday's match with an overall record of 13-8, and the Eagles finished the MAC regular-season schedule with a 6-2 slate. Eastern tied with Ball State for second place in the final conference standings, but the Cardinals earned the second seed and a quarterfinal-round bye by virtue of a 4-3 win over the Eagles in the teams' meeting in Ypsilanti on April 12. EMU began MAC play with five-straight wins, before losing back-to-back 4-3 decisions to Miami (April 11) and BSU. Five of the team's eight MAC matches ended in 4-3 scores. Eastern went 6-2 in home matches and 5-5 in away contests, and the Eagles are currently 2-1 in neutral-site duals to date. Last season, the Eagles finished with a 9-13 overall mark and a MAC record of 4-4.
The Falcons trail Eastern Michigan, 30-13, in the all-time series between the teams, and the Eagles have captured each of the last two meetings. This season, Eastern downed the Falcons by a 7-0 result (March 29, 2014), marking BG's first loss by that score to a MAC opponent in just under two years. Last season, the Eagles captured a 4-3 win at the Perrysburg Tennis Center (March 23, 2013). Prior to this year's match, six of the teams' last seven regular-season meetings had ended in a 4-3 score. 06. BGSU is 9-10 in home matches, 2-16 on the road and 2-4 in neutral-site contests vs. the Hurons/Eagles over the years.
Eastern Michigan is BGSU's most common MAC Championships opponent. The Falcons and Eagles are meeting for the seventh time in league tourney play, having split the first six meetings. All six of those matchups, like this year's contest, have taken place in the quarterfinal round, with BG posting wins in 1997, 2008 and 2012, and EMU picking up victories in 1998, '99 and 2005.
Complete match-by-match series information for BGSU against all MAC teams can be found by clicking the PDF link near the top of the page.
As mentioned, Friday's BGSU-EMU winner will advance to take on Ball State on Saturday in the semifinal round. The championship match is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, with the winner earning the MAC's automatic berth in the NCAA Championships.
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