.png&type=webp)
Bowling Green State University Athletics
Photo by: Drake Harlett, BGSU Athletics
BGSU Battles Broncos in Friday Night's Final
November 06, 2025 | Women's Soccer
Falcons Face WMU with a MAC Tournament Title on the Line
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 7 | 7:30 P.M. | HISTORIC CREW STADIUM | COLUMBUS, OHIO
 |
BOWLING GREEN FALCONS (10-2-9, 4-1-7 MAC) |
vs. | WESTERN MICHIGAN BRONCOS (15-3-1, 10-1-1 MAC) |
.png) |
| WATCH: ESPN+ | LIVE STATS: BGSU v WMU | TWITTER/X: @BGSU_WSoccer | INSTAGRAM: bgsu_wsoccer | ||||
SETTING THE SCENE / FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team has advanced to the championship match of the Mid-American Conference Tournament for a league-record 11th time. Head coach Chris Fox and the Falcons, the tournament's number-six seed, face top-seeded Western Michigan University in Friday's (Nov. 7) final, with first touch set for 7:30 p.m. at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus.
• The winner of the BGSU-WMU match will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The NCAA tourney field will be announced on Monday (Nov. 10) at 4:00 p.m.
• Fox, who was associate head coach at High Point and head coach at Morehead State prior to coming to BGSU, has advanced to a conference tournament championship match for the fourth time in six seasons.
The entire MAC Tournament schedule is below...
2025 MAC WOMEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
(all times Eastern; all matches at Historic Crew Stadium; Columbus, Ohio)
Quarterfinals – Saturday, November 1
Game 1 – No. 6 Bowling Green 1, No. 3 Buffalo 0 (2-OT)
Game 2 – No. 4 Ball State 0, No. 5 Kent State 0 (2-OT) (BSU advances 5-4 via PKs)
Semifinals – Tuesday, November 4
Game 3 – Bowling Green 0, No. 2 Miami 0 (BGSU advances 4-3 via PKs)
Game 4 – No. 1 Western Michigan 1, Ball State 0
Final – Friday, November 7
Game 5 – Bowling Green vs. Western Michigan, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
WHERE TO WATCH
• Friday evening's BGSU-WMU match will be aired on ESPN+.
STATS & SOCIAL MEDIA
• Links to live stats (as well as to any available audio/video) for all 2025 matches can always be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com – both on the women's soccer schedule page and in the right column on the main page – on match day.
THE STARTING XI
I – The Falcons enter the Western Michigan match with an overall record of 10-2-9 (.690). BGSU is guaranteed to end the season with the fewest losses in school history, as well as one of the top-three winning percentages in program history (not counting the COVID-19 season). BGSU went 6-1-1 in the abbreviated Spring 2021 season, but until now, the Falcons have never lost fewer than five matches in a full season. The 2025 season is the 29th in the history of the program, which began in 1997.
II – Head coach Chris Fox and Company have lost just one of the last 19 matches heading into the league tourney final vs. WMU. BG put together a school-record 13-match unbeaten streak between 1-0 home losses to Illinois (Aug. 17) and Ball State (Oct. 19).
III – The Falcons went 4-1-7 in MAC play, with the wins coming against Kent State (2-1), Central Michigan (4-0), Northern Illinois (1-0) and Massachusetts (3-1). BGSU, as mentioned, lost to BSU, and the Falcons tied everyone else. The Falcons played to 1-1 draws against Ohio, WMU, Eastern Michigan, Miami and Akron, and BG battled to scoreless stalemates at both Toledo and Buffalo. Overall, BG went 5-2-4 in home games and 4-0-4 in road contests during the regular season.
IV – The Falcons advanced to the semifinals by virtue of a 1-0, double-overtime win over Buffalo in Saturday's (Nov. 1) quarterfinal round. Junior Ella Kane made an impressive run into the penalty area and found classmate Isabella Mazzaferro for a one-time finish in the 107th minute. Then, BGSU battled Miami to a scoreless, double-OT draw on Tuesday (Nov. 4), before Payton O'Malley saved two MU penalty kicks as BG advanced to the final, 4-3, via PKs.
V – The Falcons are now 22-9-9 all-time in MAC Tournament matches. Mazzaferro's goal vs. Buffalo was BGSU's fourth "Golden Goal" in a league tournament contest in program history, and the first in 18 years.
VI – BGSU, as mentioned, has advanced to the championship match for the 11th time, a MAC record. Western Michigan is second on that list, as the Broncos are in the final for the eighth time.
VII – Junior Emma Stransky leads the Falcons in scoring, with eight goals and 17 points on the year. She has scored four game-winning goals this season to date. Junior defender Gabby Lamparty has nine points to rank second on the team, while sixth-year collegian Ellie Pool has eight points and juniors Lizzie Bultynck, Emme Butera and Mazzaferro seven apiece. Butera leads the Falcons with five assists, while Pool has four.
VIII – O'Malley, a sophomore, has started all 21 matches in goal, and has 65 saves, a goals-against average of 0.56 and a save percentage of .844. She currently leads the MAC in GAA and ranks second in save pct.
IX – Butera, Lamparty and Stransky all were named to the All-MAC First Team, while Minah Syam was chosen to the MAC's All-Freshman Team.
X – A total of 26 different players have seen action this season, with 21 Falcons having made at least one start. Three players – Butera, Lamparty and O'Malley – each have started all 21 games.
XI – BGSU finished the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 7-7-4 and a MAC ledger of 4-4-3, good for sixth in the league. Fox and his staff – first-year assistants Steven Samuel and Kyle Pettican – were joined by a total of 20 returning student-athletes, including seven starters from a year ago.
XII (off the bench) – Western Michigan is 15-3-1 overall, and the Broncos won the MAC regular-season title with a 10-1-1 record in league action. WMU enters Friday's game riding a six-match winning streak, including a 1-0 victory over Ball State in Tuesday's semifinal round. Individually, Abby Smothers and Drew Martin have 25 and 22 points, respectively. Smothers has a team-high 10 goals, while Martin leads the MAC with 12 assists. Reagan Sulaver has started all 19 matches between the posts, and has 50 saves, nine clean sheets and a GAA of just 0.59. Last season, head coach Lewis Robinson's club went 13-2-6 overall and 8-0-3 in the MAC, winning the league's regular-season and tournament titles.
XIII (multiple substitutions) – The Falcons trail Western Michigan, 18-11-4, in the all-time series, but BGSU is 4-1-3 in the last eight meetings. This year's regular-season matchup ended in a 1-1 tie at Cochrane Stadium (Sept. 21, 2025), with Lexi White scoring the Falcons' goal. BGSU is 6-6-3 in home games, 3-12-1 in road games and 2-0-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Broncos through the years.
XIV (yep, 14 notes instead of just 11) – BGSU is 4-1-0 against WMU in MAC Tournament matchups, including a 2-0-0 mark at neutral sites. BG won the first-ever league tourney meeting with Western, 2-1, in the 2000 semifinals in Buffalo, N.Y. The lone previous meeting in a championship match came in 2003 in Kalamazoo, as the host Broncos picked up a 4-1 win. BG turned the tables the following year with a 4-1 win in the 2004 tourney semifinals, and the Falcons posted 2-0 wins in the quarterfinals in both 2008 and 2022 at Cochrane Stadium.
BGSU WSOC FEATURES & LINKS
Nov. 5 - BG Falcon Media - From Mountaineer to Falcon: Lamparty Finds Her Fit at Bowling Green
Oct. 30 - BG Falcon Media - Michelle.Hochstadt on Her Transition from Bundesliga II to BG
Oct. 27 - BG Falcon Media - Taylor.Green: The Junior Leader of the Youngest Team in the MAC
Oct. 1 - BG Falcon Media - Global Game, Local Impact: How International Recruiting Shapes BGSU Women's Soccer
Sept. 30 - BG Falcon Media - Tailgates, Team Spirit & Big Saves: The O'Malley Effect at BG
Sept. 29 - Inside The Game - ITG Interview: Chris Fox
Sept. 28 - BG Falcon Media - Adapting Across Cultures: Evie Underhill's Journey to BGSU
Sept. 8 - BG Falcon Media - Zig Zone One on One: Taylor Green
Aug. 15 - BG Falcon Media - Searles' Spotlight: Fourth-Year Falcon Earns First Collegiate Start
Aug. 9 - BCSN - Pool Returns to the Pitch for Final Season as a Falcon
FOR MORE INFORMATION...
• For more information on the women's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSU_WSoccer), Instagram (bgsu_wsoccer) and Facebook (bgsuwsoc), and on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.
• The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team has advanced to the championship match of the Mid-American Conference Tournament for a league-record 11th time. Head coach Chris Fox and the Falcons, the tournament's number-six seed, face top-seeded Western Michigan University in Friday's (Nov. 7) final, with first touch set for 7:30 p.m. at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus.
• The winner of the BGSU-WMU match will earn the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships. The NCAA tourney field will be announced on Monday (Nov. 10) at 4:00 p.m.
• Fox, who was associate head coach at High Point and head coach at Morehead State prior to coming to BGSU, has advanced to a conference tournament championship match for the fourth time in six seasons.
The entire MAC Tournament schedule is below...
2025 MAC WOMEN'S SOCCER CHAMPIONSHIP
(all times Eastern; all matches at Historic Crew Stadium; Columbus, Ohio)
Quarterfinals – Saturday, November 1
Game 1 – No. 6 Bowling Green 1, No. 3 Buffalo 0 (2-OT)
Game 2 – No. 4 Ball State 0, No. 5 Kent State 0 (2-OT) (BSU advances 5-4 via PKs)
Semifinals – Tuesday, November 4
Game 3 – Bowling Green 0, No. 2 Miami 0 (BGSU advances 4-3 via PKs)
Game 4 – No. 1 Western Michigan 1, Ball State 0
Final – Friday, November 7
Game 5 – Bowling Green vs. Western Michigan, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)
WHERE TO WATCH
• Friday evening's BGSU-WMU match will be aired on ESPN+.
STATS & SOCIAL MEDIA
• Links to live stats (as well as to any available audio/video) for all 2025 matches can always be found on the web at BGSUFalcons.com – both on the women's soccer schedule page and in the right column on the main page – on match day.
THE STARTING XI
I – The Falcons enter the Western Michigan match with an overall record of 10-2-9 (.690). BGSU is guaranteed to end the season with the fewest losses in school history, as well as one of the top-three winning percentages in program history (not counting the COVID-19 season). BGSU went 6-1-1 in the abbreviated Spring 2021 season, but until now, the Falcons have never lost fewer than five matches in a full season. The 2025 season is the 29th in the history of the program, which began in 1997.
II – Head coach Chris Fox and Company have lost just one of the last 19 matches heading into the league tourney final vs. WMU. BG put together a school-record 13-match unbeaten streak between 1-0 home losses to Illinois (Aug. 17) and Ball State (Oct. 19).
III – The Falcons went 4-1-7 in MAC play, with the wins coming against Kent State (2-1), Central Michigan (4-0), Northern Illinois (1-0) and Massachusetts (3-1). BGSU, as mentioned, lost to BSU, and the Falcons tied everyone else. The Falcons played to 1-1 draws against Ohio, WMU, Eastern Michigan, Miami and Akron, and BG battled to scoreless stalemates at both Toledo and Buffalo. Overall, BG went 5-2-4 in home games and 4-0-4 in road contests during the regular season.
IV – The Falcons advanced to the semifinals by virtue of a 1-0, double-overtime win over Buffalo in Saturday's (Nov. 1) quarterfinal round. Junior Ella Kane made an impressive run into the penalty area and found classmate Isabella Mazzaferro for a one-time finish in the 107th minute. Then, BGSU battled Miami to a scoreless, double-OT draw on Tuesday (Nov. 4), before Payton O'Malley saved two MU penalty kicks as BG advanced to the final, 4-3, via PKs.
V – The Falcons are now 22-9-9 all-time in MAC Tournament matches. Mazzaferro's goal vs. Buffalo was BGSU's fourth "Golden Goal" in a league tournament contest in program history, and the first in 18 years.
VI – BGSU, as mentioned, has advanced to the championship match for the 11th time, a MAC record. Western Michigan is second on that list, as the Broncos are in the final for the eighth time.
VII – Junior Emma Stransky leads the Falcons in scoring, with eight goals and 17 points on the year. She has scored four game-winning goals this season to date. Junior defender Gabby Lamparty has nine points to rank second on the team, while sixth-year collegian Ellie Pool has eight points and juniors Lizzie Bultynck, Emme Butera and Mazzaferro seven apiece. Butera leads the Falcons with five assists, while Pool has four.
VIII – O'Malley, a sophomore, has started all 21 matches in goal, and has 65 saves, a goals-against average of 0.56 and a save percentage of .844. She currently leads the MAC in GAA and ranks second in save pct.
IX – Butera, Lamparty and Stransky all were named to the All-MAC First Team, while Minah Syam was chosen to the MAC's All-Freshman Team.
X – A total of 26 different players have seen action this season, with 21 Falcons having made at least one start. Three players – Butera, Lamparty and O'Malley – each have started all 21 games.
XI – BGSU finished the 2024 campaign with an overall record of 7-7-4 and a MAC ledger of 4-4-3, good for sixth in the league. Fox and his staff – first-year assistants Steven Samuel and Kyle Pettican – were joined by a total of 20 returning student-athletes, including seven starters from a year ago.
XII (off the bench) – Western Michigan is 15-3-1 overall, and the Broncos won the MAC regular-season title with a 10-1-1 record in league action. WMU enters Friday's game riding a six-match winning streak, including a 1-0 victory over Ball State in Tuesday's semifinal round. Individually, Abby Smothers and Drew Martin have 25 and 22 points, respectively. Smothers has a team-high 10 goals, while Martin leads the MAC with 12 assists. Reagan Sulaver has started all 19 matches between the posts, and has 50 saves, nine clean sheets and a GAA of just 0.59. Last season, head coach Lewis Robinson's club went 13-2-6 overall and 8-0-3 in the MAC, winning the league's regular-season and tournament titles.
XIII (multiple substitutions) – The Falcons trail Western Michigan, 18-11-4, in the all-time series, but BGSU is 4-1-3 in the last eight meetings. This year's regular-season matchup ended in a 1-1 tie at Cochrane Stadium (Sept. 21, 2025), with Lexi White scoring the Falcons' goal. BGSU is 6-6-3 in home games, 3-12-1 in road games and 2-0-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Broncos through the years.
XIV (yep, 14 notes instead of just 11) – BGSU is 4-1-0 against WMU in MAC Tournament matchups, including a 2-0-0 mark at neutral sites. BG won the first-ever league tourney meeting with Western, 2-1, in the 2000 semifinals in Buffalo, N.Y. The lone previous meeting in a championship match came in 2003 in Kalamazoo, as the host Broncos picked up a 4-1 win. BG turned the tables the following year with a 4-1 win in the 2004 tourney semifinals, and the Falcons posted 2-0 wins in the quarterfinals in both 2008 and 2022 at Cochrane Stadium.
BGSU WSOC FEATURES & LINKS
Nov. 5 - BG Falcon Media - From Mountaineer to Falcon: Lamparty Finds Her Fit at Bowling Green
Oct. 30 - BG Falcon Media - Michelle.Hochstadt on Her Transition from Bundesliga II to BG
Oct. 27 - BG Falcon Media - Taylor.Green: The Junior Leader of the Youngest Team in the MAC
Oct. 1 - BG Falcon Media - Global Game, Local Impact: How International Recruiting Shapes BGSU Women's Soccer
Sept. 30 - BG Falcon Media - Tailgates, Team Spirit & Big Saves: The O'Malley Effect at BG
Sept. 29 - Inside The Game - ITG Interview: Chris Fox
Sept. 28 - BG Falcon Media - Adapting Across Cultures: Evie Underhill's Journey to BGSU
Sept. 8 - BG Falcon Media - Zig Zone One on One: Taylor Green
Aug. 15 - BG Falcon Media - Searles' Spotlight: Fourth-Year Falcon Earns First Collegiate Start
Aug. 9 - BCSN - Pool Returns to the Pitch for Final Season as a Falcon
FOR MORE INFORMATION...
• For more information on the women's soccer program, follow the Falcons on Twitter/X (@BGSU_Athletics and @BGSU_WSoccer), Instagram (bgsu_wsoccer) and Facebook (bgsuwsoc), and on the web at BGSUFalcons.com.
Players Mentioned
F
/ Women's Soccer
M
/ Women's Soccer
D
/ Women's Soccer
F
/ Women's Soccer
GK
/ Women's Soccer
F
/ Women's Soccer
F
/ Women's Soccer
M
/ Women's Soccer
F
/ Women's SoccerChris Fox Post-Match Interview (Nov. 7, 2025)
Saturday, November 08
Taylor Green Post-Match Interview (Nov. 7, 2025)
Saturday, November 08
Chris Fox Post-Match Interview (Nov. 4, 2025)
Wednesday, November 05
Payton O'Malley Post-Match Interview (Nov. 4, 2025)
Wednesday, November 05