Falcons Face WVU in MAC Tourney Final

FALCONS vs. WEST VIRGINIA – Sunday, Nov. 17
MAC TOURNAMENT FINAL
1:00 p.m. | FirstEnergy Stadium | Akron, Ohio
• Video/Web Stream: ESPN+
• Live Stats: GoZips.com | Twitter: @BGSUmenssoccer

MATCH DAY / FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• Links to any live audio/video/stats will be available on the men's soccer schedule page at BGSUFalcons.com on match day

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UP NEXT IN FALCON FUTBOL
• The Bowling Green State University men's soccer team, after posting a road win over the defending Mid-American Conference Tournament champion on Friday night, will play in the league tourney final for the first time in five years. Head coach Eric Nichols and the Falcons, the number-four seed for the MAC Tournament, will face West Virginia University in Sunday's (Nov. 17) championship match. First touch is set for 1:00 p.m. at FirstEnergy Stadium in Akron, Ohio.

• The Falcons defeated top-seeded Akron, 1-0, in Friday's semifinal round. WVU, the number-six seed, posted a 3-2 victory over second-seeded Western Michigan in Friday's first semifinal.

FIRST TOUCH: FALCONS IN THE FINAL
• BGSU has advanced to the championship match of the MAC Tournament for the 10th time in program history, and the first time since 2014.

• The Falcons have an all-time record of 3-6-0 in championship-game appearances since the MAC began sponsoring men's soccer prior to the 1994 season. BGSU won the league tournament title in three consecutive seasons from 1995-97.

• BG also appeared in the championship match in 1994, '98, 2000, 2002, '03 and 2014.

(Note: For many more fun Falcon facts, click on the PDF version of these notes near the top of the page)

THE FALCONS AND THE MAC TOURNAMENT
• BGSU enters Sunday's WVU match with an all-time record of 20-17-0 in the MAC Tournament. The Falcons are now 7-5-0 in quarterfinal-round matches after Tuesday's 2-1 win over Northern Illinois at a frigid Cochrane Stadium.

• The Falcons are now 10-6-0 in semifinal-round matchups, and BGSU is 3-6-0 in the championship match through the years.

• BG has a record of 5-2-0 in overtime contests in the league tournament.

• BG is now 6-3-0 at Cochrane Stadium in MAC Tournament action. The Falcons are now 5-6-0 in true road matches, and BG is 9-8-0 in neutral-site games.

• The NIU match was BGSU's first MAC Tournament contest at Cochrane Stadium in 12 years, since another quarterfinal-round match vs. the Huskies in 2007.

• Tuesday's match marked the third time the Falcons have hosted a MAC Tournament quarterfinal-round match, and all three have come against NIU. BG downed the Huskies, 2-1, in the 2003 tournament, but NIU picked up a 3-0 victory over the Falcons in '07.

• Friday's match was BGSU's first road win in the MAC Tournament since 2006, when the Falcons topped Western Michigan in the quarterfinals in Kalamazoo.

• BGSU is now 5-4-0 all-time when playing a MAC Tournament match as the number-four seed. The Falcons are now 4-5-0 in matches against the number-one seed, and BG enters Sunday's match with a 3-1-0 record vs. the sixth seed.

• BG qualified for the MAC Tournament in each of the first 15 years in which it was held (1994-2008), and also advanced to the tourney every other year over the past decade (2010, '12, '14, '16 and '18).

• The Falcons won three-straight league tourney titles from 1995-97, part of a run in which the Brown and Orange advanced to the championship match in five consecutive seasons between 1994 and '98. BG got back to the final in 2000, 2002, 2003 and most recently in 2014.

• A complete match-by-match list of BGSU's league tourney results can be found on page 13 of the PDF version of these notes.

FALCONS VS. WVU IN THE MAC TOURNAMENT
• BGSU enters Sunday's match with a record of 1-0-0 vs. West Virginia in the MAC Tournament. The teams' only previous league tourney meeting also came in Akron, as the Falcons got a Max Auden goal in the first minute of overtime to post a 3-2 victory in the 2014 semifinals.

FALCONS. MOUNTAINEERS. TOURNEY TIME.
(BGSU's meetings with WVU in the league tourney)
Year Seeds* Round Site Result
2014 3-2 Semis N (Akron, Ohio) W 3-2 (OT)
2019 4-6 Final N (Akron, Ohio) Sunday
* BG's seed listed first, then WVU's seed

THE OPPONENT
• West Virginia is 8-8-2 on the season. The Mountaineers went 0-4-1 in MAC regular-season play, but are 2-0-0 in league tourney action. WVU snapped a seven-match winless streak with a 1-0 win at SIUE in Tuesday's quarterfinal round, and the Mountaineers posted a 3-2 victory vs. Western Michigan in Friday's first semifinal in Akron. WVU went 3-5-1 at home this season, and the Mountaineers are 4-3-1 in road matches and 1-0-0 in neutral-site contests. Rodrigo Robles Grajera has seven goals and 17 points this year, while Andres Muriel Albino has six goals and 14 points. Steven Tekesky has played every second in goal this season, and has 54 saves and a 1.51 GAA. A year ago, coach Marlon LeBlanc's team went 14-7-0 overall and 5-0-0 in MAC play, capturing the league regular-season title.

THE SERIES
• The Falcons lead West Virginia, 7-3-3, in the all-time series, and BG picked up a 3-0 home win in this year's regular-season meeting. Exactly one year prior to that, the Mountaineers scored a pair of late goals for a 3-2 win in Morgantown. That result had snapped a four-match series unbeaten streak for BG. The Falcons are 3-1-1 at home, 1-2-1 on the road and 3-0-1 at neutral sites vs. WVU through the years.

DOWN THE ROAD...
• The BGSU-WVU winner earns the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The national tournament field will be announced on Monday (Nov. 18) at 1:00 p.m, and first-round games will be held on Thursday (Nov. 21) at campus sites.

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