April 16, 2008

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio (BGSUFalcons.com) - The Bowling Green State University tennis team, having won four of the last five matches, has one final regular-season test before the Mid-American Conference Championships begin ... but, that test will be a difficult one, to say the least ... the Falcons of head coach Penny Dean will take on perennial league power Western Michigan Saturday afternoon (April 19) ... the final regular-season match is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m., at BGSU's Keefe Courts, weather permitting ... the Falcons' first-year tennis complex is located on the north side of Stadium Drive, between Steller Field (baseball) and the BGSU Softball Field.

BGSU Notes, Stats & Records in PDF Format
BGSU-WMU Match Program in PDF Format

WHAT'S AT STAKE
• The Falcons still have a chance to finish as high as the third seed, or as low as sixth, for the upcoming nine-team MAC Championships ... BGSU will face either Buffalo, Eastern Michigan or Toledo in the quarterfinal round of the league tourney ... the MAC Championships will be held from Thursday through Sunday, April 24-27, at Buffalo.

• Western Michigan will enter Saturday's match having clinched at least a share of the MAC regular-season championship for the fourth consecutive season ... the Falcons will be looking to snap the Broncos' 33-match MAC winning streak ... WMU can win the championship outright with a win over the Brown and Orange.

SENIOR DAY
Saturday's Western Michigan match will be "Senior Day" for the Falcon tennis program, with senior co-captains Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle honored.

FIVE MORE NOTES THAT NO SELF-RESPECTING MEDIA MEMBER OR BG TENNIS ENTHUSIAST SHOULD BE WITHOUT
• BGSU split a pair of road matches last weekend, with both ending in 6-1 scores ... the Falcons lost to Miami (tied for first place in the MAC at the time), before rebounding with a victory at Ball State the next day.

• Saturday's (April 12) victory at Ball State moved the Falcons' dual-match record to 15-3 this year to date ... BGSU's current win total is tied for the second highest in school history ... coach Penny Dean's 1998-99 team holds the record, having gone 16-7 ... the 1989-90 team also had 15 victories, going 15-7 ... that team was coached by Sheila Chiricosta, the mother of current Falcon freshman Christine Chiricosta.

• The Falcons will have at least two chances to get that school record-tying 16th win ... BG will close the regular season Saturday vs. Western Michigan, then will play a MAC Championships quarterfinal-round match on Friday, April 25.

• Even if BGSU were to lose each of the next two matches, the Falcons will end the 2007-08 season with the highest winning percentage in nearly three decades ... at worst, the Brown and Orange would finish 15-5 this year, for a .750 win rate ... that would be the highest percentage since the 1980-81 team finished 9-3 (.750) in dual matches ... the school record is .909 (10-1), by the Janet Parks-coached 1974-75 squad.

• This year's edition of the Falcons already has broken one record ... with the win at Ball State, BGSU now has won 54 dual matches over the last four years, the most victories in a four-year span in school history ... the old record was 51 wins, amassed from the 1996-97 to 1999-2000 seasons ... obviously, the senior class of Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle is the winningest class in program history ... they also will be only the third class in BG women's tennis annals to post a winning dual-match record in all four seasons.

ANOTHER WINNING RECORD
BGSU clinched a winning dual-match record several weeks ago ... the Falcons will finish with a winning mark for the fourth consecutive year, tying the school record ... BG also had four-straight winning seasons from 1974-75 through 1977-78, as well as from 1996-97 through 1999-2000.

HOME SWEET HOME
The Falcons' win over Akron (April 5) came in BGSU's first-ever dual match at the program's new tennis complex ... the only other event for the Brown and Orange at the venue was the season-opening BGSU Invitational on Sept. 15-16, 2007.

HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME SWEET HOME-AWAY-FROM-HOME
Due to inclement weather, BG's April 4 win over Buffalo came at the Shadow Valley Tennis Club in Toledo, and continued the Falcons' recent run of success at the team's 'home away from home' ... BG has won 16 consecutive dual matches at Shadow Valley, and the team is an impressive 30-1 at the facility over the last three-plus years ... the Falcons went 6-0 at the venue in the 2004-05 season, 8-1 in '05-06 and a perfect 8-0 last year, and BG is 8-0 at the site this year to date.

SHE'S THE DEAN
After the Falcons' win over Ball State last weekend, head coach Penny Dean now is just one victory shy of 200 wins with the Brown and Orange ... Dean currently has a dual-match record of 199-180 in her 18th season at the BGSU helm ... she is 245-224 in her 22nd year as a collegiate head coach.

ABOUT THE FALCONS
The Falcons are 15-3 in dual-match action this season, and BGSU enters the weekend with a MAC ledger of 4-3 ... BGSU, after reeling off 11 consecutive wins to begin the dual-match schedule, suffered a pair of narrow losses to start MAC play, falling at Eastern Michigan and Toledo by identical 4-3 scores ... but, the Brown and Orange bounced back to win the next three contests, downing Northern Illinois, Buffalo and Akron ... Miami snapped that streak with a 6-1 win over the Falcons Friday (April 11), but BG bounced back, beating Ball State by a 6-1 score the following afternoon.

BGSU spent three weeks in the national rankings prior to the EMU and UT losses ... the Falcons broke into the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings on March 4, debuting at 60th in the poll ... that is believed to be the first national ranking in program history ... the Falcons were 54th in the country in the March 11 rankings, and 56th in the March 18 poll.

BG has posted at least 10 dual-match victories for the sixth consecutive season, extending the school record ... prior to the current streak, the longest string of double-digit win totals was four-straight seasons, on two prior occasions (1988-92 and 1996-2000) ... as mentioned earlier, the Falcons are just one win shy of matching the school single-season record of 16.

Individually, all eight Falcon competitors have posted more than 20 total wins this year to date, with seven of the eight having surpassed 30 victories ... freshman Christine Chiricosta and sophomore Katia Babina have 42 overall wins apiece, with sophomore Samantha Kintzel sitting at 41 ... junior Kelsey Jakupcin has 37 wins and senior Andrea Volle 35 ... both senior Jenna Nussbaum and junior Stefanie Menoff enter the Western Michigan match with 33 overall wins this year.

In singles play, all eight Falcon players have winning records ... Chiricosta has a 20-7 mark, while Menoff is 19-5 and Kintzel 18-6 ... Jakupcin has a singles record of 17-9 to date, while Babina is 16-9 heading into the WMU match ... Volle is 15-7 and Nussbaum 13-8 in singles play, while junior Libby Harrison is 12-6.

In doubles action, Babina has a stellar 26-3 mark, while Kintzel is 23-4 and Chiricosta 22-7 ... Jakupcin, Nussbaum (both 20-10) and Volle (20-12) all have 20 wins ... in fact, all eight Falcons have winning doubles ledgers, with each of them having posted at least 14 victories heading into the WMU match.

In dual-match action, Jakupcin has a mark of 14-4 at the top singles flight, while Chiricosta is 13-5 at the second level ... Babina has a record of 12-5 at the third flight, with Kintzel 10-3 at flight number four ... Menoff (4-3 at flight five, 7-0 at flight six), Nussbaum (3-1 at both #5 and #6) and Volle (6-1 at flight five, 2-3 at flight six) also have seen time in the Falcons' singles lineup in dual-match play ... Harrison played at the sixth flight in Saturday's Ball State match, picking up a win.

In doubles, Chiricosta and Jakupcin have teamed up for a record of 13-5 at the #1 flight in dual-match action ... the tandem of senior co-captains Nussbaum and Volle is 14-4 at the second level in duals, while the sophomore duo of Babina and Kintzel has gone a stellar 13-1, including 4-0 in MAC play, since the dual-match season began ... Babina teamed with Harrison in both of last weekend's matches, with that combo going 2-0 at the third flight.

THE OPPONENT
Western Michigan is 14-7 in dual-match play this year, and the Broncos sit atop the conference standings with a 7-0 MAC record ... last weekend, WMU downed BSU and Miami by 6-1 scores, with the latter match pitting the MAC's two unbeatens to that point ... with the win over the RedHawks, Western clinched at least a tie for the MAC regular-season crown, and the Broncos will be the number-one seed for next week's conference tournament in Buffalo ... WMU, ranked 62nd in the nation in the latest ITA poll (April 15), has won 33 consecutive MAC regular-season matches, and has earned at least a share of the conference regular-season crown for the fourth-straight year ... last year's edition of the Broncos went 22-6 overall and 8-0 in the MAC.

Believe it or else, the Falcons have never defeated the Broncos ... BGSU trails Western Michigan by a 32-0 margin in the all-time series between the teams ... last season, the Broncos downed the Falcons by a 6-1 score in the teams' regular-season meeting in Kalamazoo (April 14, 2007) ... BG's point in that match was the Falcons' first since a 6-1 loss to Western in the 2000-01 season ... the teams also met in the semifinal round of the 2007 MAC Championships in Toledo, with WMU winning by a 4-0 final (April 28, 2007) ... the closest the Falcons have come to downing the Broncos were 5-4 results in both the 1981-82 and 1997-98 seasons.

ANOTHER AWARD FOR KELSEY
Junior Kelsey Jakupcin earned her third conference weekly award this year, being named a MAC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on April 3 ... the award is presented to one male and one female each week, who has a cumulative GPA of 3.00 or better and performs well during the previous week's competition ... Jakupcin earned the honor after winning at both singles and doubles in the Falcons' win over Northern Illinois ... she has a 3.69 cumulative GPA as a communication disorders major ... Jakupcin has twice been named MAC Player of the Week this year to date, being recognized on both January 23 and February 13.

FASCINATING FALCON FACTS
• The Falcons have had a tremendous amount of success in doubles play this season ... BGSU won the doubles point against both Miami and Ball State last weekend ... the Falcons have captured the doubles point in 16 of this season's 18 duals, and BG has all three doubles matches on 10 of those occasions.

• BG doubles teams now have an aggregate record of 80-29 this year to date ... Falcon singles competitors have a combined record of 130-57 on the season.

• Sophomore Katia Babina teamed with junior Libby Harrison at the third doubles flight in each of last weekend's matches, the first time the duo had ever played together ... the Babina/Harrison duo posted 8-6 wins at both Miami and Ball State.

• Entering the Western Michigan match, Babina has an eye-popping doubles record of 26-3 on the year ... she is 6-0 in MAC doubles, having teamed with fellow soph Samantha Kintzel for four conference matches and Harrison for the last two.

• Babina's doubles win total is the third-highest in school history ... Devon Bissinger and Tracy Howitt share the record, with 32 doubles wins in the 1998-99 season.

• Senior co-captains Jenna Nussbaum and Andrea Volle each picked up a pair of doubles wins last weekend, teaming for 8-4 victories at the second flight against both the RedHawks and the Cardinals ... the win at Miami was the 100th overall victory of Volle's Falcon career.

• Of the eight members of the 2007-08 Falcon squad, four are on the BGSU top-20 list for combined career wins ... junior Stefanie Menoff became the latest Falcon to crack the list, doing so in the Akron match ... she ranks 20th with a career total of 92 victories.

• Junior Kelsey Jakupcin is the Falcons' active career leader in overall wins ... she now has 108 career victories, ranking 15th in BGSU annals ... Nussbaum has 104 career wins, ranking her 16th in school history ... Volle currently ranks 19th with 102 victories as a Falcon.

• Volle, BGSU's active career leader in doubles wins, now has 60, and has moved into 10th place on that BGSU list ... Nussbaum is right behind, with 59 career doubles victories to tie for 11th in Falcon history.

• Jakupcin now has 52 career doubles wins, and is 17th in BG annals.

• Menoff has 60 career singles wins, tops among active Falcons ... she ranks 13th in BG history ... Menoff is a stellar 60-14 in career singles play, including a 14-2 mark in MAC dual-match action.

• Jakupcin now has 56 career singles wins to tie for 15th in BG history, while Nussbaum is 19th with 47 such wins.

• Babina now has won 16-straight doubles matches, with her last loss also coming on Jan. 20 ... Babina teamed with Kintzel for 13 of those doubles contests, played one match with Menoff (Wright State on Jan. 27) and partnered with Harrison for last weekend's two matches.

• Babina and freshman Christine Chiricosta each have 42 overall wins this season to tie for the team lead ... that total deadlocks the two for ninth place on the school's single-season list ... Kintzel is 13th with 41 wins this year to date ... Kintzel (23, T-sixth) and Chiricosta (22, T-9th) join Babina on the seasonal doubles chart as well.

UP NEXT
Following the WMU match, the Falcons will head to Buffalo, N.Y., for the MAC Championships ... the four-day, single-elimination event begins on Thursday, April 24 ... BGSU's first match will come in the quarterfinal round on Friday, April 25 ... the tourney continues with semifinal matches on Saturday, April 26, and the championship contest on Sunday, April 27.