Important Trips to Ohio and Kent State Await Falcons This Week

LINKS
BGSU Women's Soccer Game Notes (.pdf)
Live Stats (Ohio) | Live Stats (Kent State) | Watch (Kent State)
BGSU-Buffalo Game Recap
BGSU-Akron 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 heads to the road for both matches this week as the final stretch of the 2017 regular season begins. On Thursday at 3:00 p.m., the Falcons play at Ohio University. The team is seeking its first-ever win in Athens. On Sunday at 1:00 p.m., BGSU plays a critical match at Kent State. The Golden Flashes begin this week as the top team in the MAC with 21 points (7-1-0).

LAST WEEK

Bowling Green swept their final two home games of the regular season with an epic comeback against Buffalo and a shutout of Akron. Against the Bulls, BGSU fell behind 2-0 early in the second half, but Skylar Fleak rescued the Falcons by scoring a hat trick in a span of 20:16. Her header into the net in the 83rd minute gave the Falcons a 3-2 win. Against the Zips, Madison Schupbach and Erica Hubert each posted a goal and an assist, while BGSU allowed no shots on goal in a 2-0 win.

SCOUTING OHIO

The Bobcats are tied for sixth in the MAC and third in the Eastern Division with a 4-3-1 conference record and 15 points. Overall, Ohio stands at 7-8-1 and shares two out-of-conference common opponents with BGSU: Robert Morris (W, 2-0) and Butler (W, 1-0). In MAC play, Ohio has split the last two weekends with wins over Akron (5-0) and Western Michigan (2-1) and losses to Buffalo (2-1) and Northern Illinois (1-0). At home, the Bobcats are 3-0-0 in the MAC and 5-2-0 overall.

Ohio has outscored opponents 19-18 overall and 14-8 in the MAC. Allie Curry is the team's leading goal scorer with six goals, and her 14 points include two assists. Sydney Leckie leads the Bobcats with six assists, while goalkeeper Sydney Malham has emerged with a 5-2-0 record and two shutouts. She has allowed just seven goals against 45 shots in 702:14 for an .844 save percentage and 0.90 goals against average.

Ohio head coach Aaron Rodgers is in his fifth season with the Bobcats. His record in that time is 30-54-7 overall and 16-32-4 in the MAC.

SCOUTING KENT STATE

The Golden Flashes have begun the 2017 season with an 11-4-1 record and own the MAC's best mark at 7-1-0. KSU dropped three of its first four games, allowing two goals in each of the losses. Since, they are 10-1-1 with only three goals allowed. They have six shutouts in their last seven MAC games, including five 1-0 wins.

Kent State's calling card in 2017 is its defense. It has limited opponents to nine goals in 16 games and only two in eight MAC contests. While they have allowed 173 total shots, only 65 (.376) have been on goal. Opponents' overall shot percentage is .052. Goalkeeper Ashleagh McDonald has 11 starts with seven goals allowed (0.62) in 1010:00 against 50 shots (.860). Katie Kingsbury has added five starts with just two goals allowed in 450 minutes. On offense, Vital Kats leads KSU with four goals.

Kent State head coach Rob Marinaro is in his 17th season with the Golden Flashes. He owns a career record of 163-129-36 with the Golden Flashes. He is 96-73-18 in the MAC and owns 12 MAC Tournament berths and three MAC Coach of the Year awards. In 2016, he led KSU to its first MAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament berth.

FANTASTIC FLEAK

Senior forward Skylar Fleak is having one of the best offensive seasons in BGSU history. Against Buffalo, she posted her second hat trick of 2017 with three goals in 20:16, the fourth-fastest hat trick by a Falcon, as BGSU came back from 2-0 down to beat Buffalo. Her first hat trick was a four-goal game at Oakland. She added an assist in a 2-0 win over Akron for a seven-point weekend. She now has 11 goals and 27 points (each third-most in BGSU history) and a personal-best five assists. She leads the MAC and is in the top 20 nationally in goals and points. In her career, Fleak has 27 goals (third most at BGSU) and 64 points (fourth most at BGSU). Her efforts have earned three MAC Offensive Player of the Week awards in 2017.

SENSATIONAL SCHUPBACH

BGSU scored five times across two wins last weekend, and senior Madison Schupbach played a role in four of them. Against Buffalo, she posted a pair of assists, the last of which came via a corner kick that Skylar Fleak headed home for the game-winner in a two-goal comeback. In the 2-0 win over Akron, Schupbach scored her first career game-winning goal and assisted on the second. Her five-point weekend is a career best, and her six assists in 2017 have doubled her career total. She also has a personal-best three goals and 12 points this season.

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.

HOORAY FOR HUBERT

Redshirt junior Erica Hubert has been a constant source of offense for the Falcons over the last three weeks. Last weekend, she earned a game-winning assist and an insurance goal in BGSU's 2-0 win over Akron for a three-point weekend. This follows a four-point weekend against EMU and CMU. In all, she has three goals and three assists (nine points) in her last five games. She leads BGSU with 63 shots and is second in shots on goal (28), goals (6) and points (15).

OFFENSE ON THE PROWL

BGSU continues to own the MAC's best offense. They have a league-best 32 goals (2.13/game), scored by 11 different players. Fourteen players have combined for a MAC-best 37 assists (2.47/game). The Falcons are also first with 17.40 shots per game The Falcons have outshot their opponents in all but one game this year and have a current margin of 261-142 (1.84:1). BGSU is on pace for its most shots (313) since 2004, most goals (38) since 2004, fewest-ever shots allowed (171), and its fewest goals allowed since 2008 (22).

HOLDING AKRON TO ZIP

Bowling Green earned its third shutout of 2017 last Sunday in a 2-0 victory over Akron. During that win, the Falcons allowed only four total shots and no shots on goal. That match qualifies as only the second in Falcon history in which the team has permitted no shots at the keeper; the other occurred in a 2-0 win over Miami at Cochrane Stadium on Oct. 8, 2004.

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.

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Sophia Barnes

Paige Casto

Skylar Fleak

Alexis Fricke

Erica Hubert

Nikhita Jacob

Madison Schupbach

Marissa Swindell

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