BGSU Blanks Buffalo; Falcons Return to the Final

Thursday, November 4

4:00 PM

Bowling Green State University

10-6-3, 8-2-1

Buffalo (Semifinals)

13-4-3, 6-2-3

Buffalo

Bowling Green

Lacee Bethea's sixth goal of the year lifted the Falcons past UB and into the league tourney final

Photo by: Stephen Linsky, BGSU Athletics

November 04, 2021 | Women's Soccer

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Bethea's goal sends BG to the championship match for the fifth consecutive season

By: by Mike Cihon, BGSU Strategic Communications

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Falcons are in the final for the fifth-straight season.

Lacee Bethea's goal in the 27th minute lifted the Bowling Green State University women's soccer team to a 1-0 win over the University at Buffalo
Thursday afternoon (Nov. 4). The match, a Mid-American Conference Tournament semifinal-round match, was held at Cochrane Stadium.

With the victory, the Falcons (10-6-3), the number-one seed for the tournament, advance to Sunday's final. BGSU will face third-seeded Kent State (13-4-3) in that match. KSU defeated number-two seed Ohio (11-6-3), 3-2, in Thursday's second contest at Cochrane.

The Bulls (13-4-3), the tournament's fourth-seeded team, see the season come to an end.

The winning goal came at the 26:41 mark. Defender Audrey Shea played a long ball forward from BGSU's defensive end, and Nikki Cox, facing away from goal, leaped and nodded the ball behind her. The flick-on headed toward the Buffalo penalty area, and Lynsey Spotts split a pair of UB defenders and poked the ball to her left, away from goalkeeper Emily Kelly. Spotts put the ball directly into the path of the onrushing Bethea, who tapped it into the vacated net.

Lili Berg made two saves in goal for the Falcons, while Kelly also had two stops for the visitors.

NOTE OF THE DAY
• BGSU advances to the MAC Tournament final for the fifth consecutive season. The Falcons, seeded fourth, won a pair of matches in the 2017 tourney before losing the final match to Toledo in overtime.
• The Orange and Brown rolled through the MAC in both 2018 and '19, finishing with identical 10-1-0 conference regular-season marks. In each case, BG picked up a pair of wins to get to the championship match, then advanced past the opponent – Ball State in '18, Eastern Michigan in '19 – via penalty kicks to capture the MAC Tournament crown.
• In 2020(-21), BGSU won the league's East Division title, then defeated West Division winner BSU by a 2-1 count at Cochrane.
• In all, the Falcons have advanced to the MAC Tournament's championship match a league-record 10 times.

POST-MATCH REACTION
"The first half was probably as well as we've played all season. We created a lot of chances, we looked dangerous, we scored a good goal and had a couple of other chances that could have gone in.

"And then, I don't think it was necessarily us not playing well in the second half. Buffalo was very, very good in the second half. They came out with a huge intensity in the first 10-15 minutes and had us on the back foot. We had to make some tactical adjustments and weather the storm a little bit.

"But, we held on, and we'll take the result and move on. That Buffalo team is a very, very good team. I thought we were the better team in the first half and they were the better team in the second half.." – Head Coach Jimmy Walker

Let's take a look at that first half goal by BGSU's Lacee Bethea!

Falcons lead Buffalo as we begin the second half, 1-0. @bgsuwsoc | #MACtion pic.twitter.com/nQdXFNOKG8
— #MACtion (@MACSports) November 4, 2021

STATS, NOTES & NUMBERS
• The Bulls outshot the Falcons by an 8-6 count. After BGSU had a 5-1 lead in that category in the first half, UB had a 7-1 lead in the second.
• BGSU had a slim 3-2 lead in shots on goal, and the Bulls had the only corner kick of the match.
• Marcy Barberic had a game-high five shot attempts for the Bulls, putting one shot on goal. Lacee Bethea led the Falcons with three total shots, including two on frame.
• Bethea's goal was her sixth this season and the seventh of her BGSU career. It was her first game-winning goal as a Falcon.
• Lynsey Spotts had the primary assist on the goal, her third helper of the season and the fifth of her career. The senior now has 13 career points.
• Nikki Cox also assisted on Bethea's winner, after scoring the winning goal in each of BG's previous two matches (at Akron and vs. Toledo). Cox now has a team-leading eight assists this season.
• In her Falcon career, Cox now has 18 assists and 64 points in 71 matches.
• Lili Berg has started 27 matches for the Falcons, and has been a part of 15 shutouts. She has 11 complete-match shutouts and has combined for four additional clean sheets.
BGSU now has an overall record of 57-25-11 since the start of the 2017 season. The Falcons are 39-9-2 in MAC regular-season matches and 47-10-4 in all games vs. conference foes in that time.
• And, since the beginning of the 2018 campaign, the Falcons are now 44-18-10 overall, 33-5-1 in MAC regular-season action and 39-5-3 in all games vs. league opposition.

UP NEXT
• The Falcons, as mentioned, face Kent State in Sunday's (Nov. 7) final. That contest will begin at 1:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and will be streamed via ESPN+.

Gallery: (11-4-2021) W.Soccer v Buffalo - Nov 4 2021

FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• For more information on the women's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter (@BGAthletics and @BGSUWSoccer), Instagram (bgsuwsoccer) and Facebook (bgsuwsoccer) as well as on the web right here at BGSUFalcons.com.