Falcons Host Buffalo and Akron on Homecoming Weekend

Friday, October 13

Bowling Green, OH

7:00PM

Bowling Green State University

Buffalo

Photo by: BGSU Strategic Communications

October 11, 2017 | Women's Soccer

By: by Matthew Daley, Athletic Communicationis Assistant

LINKS
BGSU Women's Soccer Game Notes (.pdf)
Live State | Live Audio | Live Video
BGSU-EMU Game Recap
BGSU-CMU Game Recap
2017 BGSU Women's Soccer Stats
2017 MAC Women's Soccer Stats
2017 NCAA Women's Soccer Stats
BGSU Women's Soccer Record Book

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team concludes the home portion of their 2017 regular season schedule with a pair of Mid-American Conference contests this week. The Falcons celebrate Homecoming weekend at Cochrane Stadium on Friday at 7:00 p.m. when they host the Buffalo Bulls. BGSU bookends the weekend by hosting Akron at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday. With five games remaining in the conference season, the Falcons are eighth in the MAC with nine points; the top eight teams at the end of the season make the MAC Tournament.

SCOUTING BUFFALO
Buffalo is currently second in the MAC East with a 3-2-1 record in conference play and in a three-way tie for fifth for MAC Tournament seeding with 10 points. Overall, the Bulls are 5-6-2 and 3-3-1 on the road. Buffalo's strong start to their MAC schedule includes wins over Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, and Ohio. They also earned a scoreless draw with Central Michigan. Last weekend, they scored twice in 1:02 during the final six minutes for a comeback 2-1 win at Ohio. On Sunday, they lost a 1-0 heartbreaker at home to division-leader Kent State.

The Bulls have outscored opponents 18-15 this year despite being outshot 208-174. Laura Dougall has started all 13 games in goal and has 71 saves (.826 save%) and a 1.11 goals against average. Carissima Cutrona leads the team with five goals, four assists and 14 points. She's also taken 25 of Buffalo's 70 shots on goal (.357).

Buffalo head coach Shawn Burke is in his fourth season with the Bulls and owns a 39-24-13 record. His teams have made the MAC Tournament in each of his first three years, and they won the tournament crown in 2014.

SCOUTING AKRON
Akron currently owns a 1-11-2 overall record and an 0-5-1 mark in MAC play. They are 0-3-1 away from home. The Zips started the season 1-0-1. Since, they are 0-11-1 and have only one multi-goal game: a 3-2 loss to Dayton. Against MAC teams, Akron has been shut out four times, including twice last weekend at Kent State (3-0) and against Ohio (5-0). Their lone point thus far came via a 1-1 draw with Central Michigan.

The Zips have scored just nine goals and allowed 30 in 14 games. They are generating just 4.8 shots on goal and 3.9 corners per game, while allowing opponents to score on 30 percent of shots on goal. Ashley Amato leads the team with three goals and six points; Erica Schrader has a goal and a team-best three assists. Amani Jiu has started all 14 games in goal and has a .704 save percentage and 2.02 goals allowed average.

Akron head coach Noreen Herlihy is in her third season at the helm of the Zips. Her record is currently 11-35-8. Prior to Akron, she spent 20 years as the head coach at Slippery Rock, where she accumulated 250 wins and nine NCAA Tournament berths.

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
Admission to all home BGSU men's and women's soccer matches at Cochrane Stadium is free. For those who cannot make it to a given match, live stats are available online via BGSUFalcons.com. Live game updates will also be provided on Twitter through @BGSUWSoccer. In addition, weekly game notes and updated statistics can be obtained through BGSUFalcons.com.

FALCON OUTFITTERS AT COCHRANE
Falcon Outfitters will host a merchandise sales table at Cochrane Stadium in 2017. The table will be available for fans at men's soccer matches held on Saturdays and women's soccer matches held on Fridays.

LAST WEEK
BGSU split their pair of MAC contests for the third time in three weeks. On Thursday at Eastern Michigan, the Falcons took a first half lead in the 23rd minute on a Sophia Barnes goal. However, EMU tied the game in the second half, then won on a golden goal with 2:54 left in double overtime. It was BGSU's first overtime game of 2017. The Falcons rebounded for a 3-1 home win over Central Michigan on Sunday. CMU took a 1-0 lead in the 39th minute, but Marissa Swindell tied the game after just 1:15 and scored the game-winner just five mintues later.

FIRST-TIME SCORERS
The Falcons feature eight first-year players on their 2017 roster, and four of them have combined for seven of the team's 27 goals. Marissa Swindell scored twice on Sunday and now has three goals, while Sophia Barnes earned her second last Thursday. Paige Casto's goal at Western Michigan was the first of her career, and Nikhita Jacob scored at Detroit Mercy. First year Falcons have also combined for ten assists. Additionally, junior Alexis Fricke posted her first career goal in 2017.

SWINDELL IS SWELL
Marissa Swindell started for an injured Skylar Fleak against CMU and made the most of her opportunity. She scored twice in a span of 4:38 to take BGSU from down 1-0 to ahead 2-1. Swindell has at least one goal or assist in four of BGSU's eight wins and has both a multi-goal and multi-assist game in 2017. She currently has three goals and three assists and is third on the team with nine points.

HOORAY FOR HUBERT
Redshirt junior Erica Hubert had a four-point week against EMU and CMU, as she contributed during three of BGSU's four goals. She posted an assist on the Falcons' lone goal at EMU, then assisted on the game-tying goal in the 3-1 win over CMU. She also scored her own goal in the 85th minute. Her one-goal, one-assist game against CMU was her first since her first career game against Chicago State in 2015. She currently has five goals and 12 points and leads BGSU in shots (51) and shots on goal (23).

OFFENSE ON THE PROWL
BGSU continues to own the MAC's best offense. They have a league-best 27 goals (2.08/game), scored by 11 different players. Fourteen players have combined for a MAC-best 31 assists (2.38/game). The Falcons are also first with 16.54 shots per game The Falcons have outshot their opponents in all but one game this year and have a current margin of 215-126 (1.7:1). BGSU is on pace for its most shots (298) since 2008, most goals (37) since 2004, fewest-ever shots allowed (174), and its fewest goals allowed since 2008 (22).

FANTASTIC FLEAK
Senior forward Skylar Fleak (Sunbury, Ohio) continues to be a critical asset in the MAC's best scoring offense (2.08 goals/game). Against Miami, Fleak scored twice in the first 20 minutes of the match to lead BGSU to a 4-1 victory. In addition to her seventh career game-winning goal, she also assisted on the final score of the match to earn a five-point game. She leads the MAC with three game-winning goals and ranks second for points (20), points per game (1.67), goals (8) and goals per game (0.67). She has two multi-goal games and two games of five-or-more points. Fleak is a two-time MAC Offnsive Player of the Week in 2017.

MAUREEN THE ASSISTS MACHINE
By helping her teammates score goals, Maureen Kennedy is marching herself into BGSU history. Kennedy assisted on three of BGSU's five goals on the opening weekend of MAC play. Her streak of five straight games with an assist tied the BGSU record (Julie Trundle, 2002). Her six-game streak with at least one point was one shy of Trundle's school-record. Her seven assists in 2017 rank seventh nationally, and she is eighth in the country with 0.64 assists per game.

With five games to go, Kennedy is just three assists shy of tying the single-season BGSU record. In 30 career games, she already has 11 assists, two away from BGSU's career top ten. Six of those 11 career assists came on game-winning goals.