SETTING THE SCENE / FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team, looking to continue the best start in program history, heads to the Mid-American Conference's "West Coast" for a Thursday-night (Oct. 16) matchup. Head coach Chris Fox and the Falcons face Northern Illinois University, with first touch set for 8:00 p.m. ET at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will return home to face Ball State University on Sunday (Oct. 19). That match will begin at 1:00 p.m. at Cochrane Stadium, and admission is free.

WHERE TO WATCH
• Thursday's Northern Illinois contest will be streamed via NIU All-Access.

• Sunday's Ball State match will be streamed on YouTube, and produced by WBGU-TV.

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, at 7-1-6 (.714) overall, are off to the best start in school history. The 2018 team also had a .714 winning percentage through 14 matches, after beginning the year with a 9-3-2 record. The 2025 season is the 29th in the history of the program, which began in 1997.

II – Head coach Chris Fox and Company will put a school-record 12-match unbeaten streak on the line in Thursday's NIU match. BGSU is 6-0-6 since a 1-0 loss to Illinois on Aug. 17. As of Wednesday morning (Oct. 15), the Falcons are one of just 15 teams in the nation with one loss or fewer.

III – The Falcons are 2-0-5 in Mid-American Conference play, including wins over Kent State (2-1, Sept. 14) and Central Michigan (4-0, Sept. 28), 1-1 draws against Ohio, defending MAC champion Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan, and a scoreless tie vs. Toledo. BGSU is the only MAC team without a loss in league action.

IV – Most recently, the Falcons played to another 1-1 draw, vs. Miami at Cochrane Stadium on Sunday (Oct. 12). Junior Emme Butera scored BGSU's goal in the 82nd minute, after a handball violation was called on the RedHawks after Ella Kane's shot in the penalty box.

V – BGSU lost four matches in MAC play last year, falling to Ohio, WMU, KSU and CMU. Those were the Falcons' first four opponents in league action this season. BG picked up eight points in the four matches vs. that group, after getting zero points against that quartet in 2024.

VI – Junior Emma Stransky leads the Falcons in scoring, with six goals and 12 points on the year. She has scored the game-winning goal in each of BGSU's last three wins, vs. Duquesne, KSU and CMU. Fellow juniors Lizzie Bultynck and Gabby Lamparty and sixth-year collegian Ellie Pool all have seven points, while Butera has six points including a team-high four assists. Two more juniors, Kane and Isabella Mazzaferro, have five points apiece.

VII – Sophomore Payton O'Malley has started all 14 matches in goal, and has 47 saves, a goals-against average of 0.65 and a save percentage of .839. She currently ranks second in the MAC in both GAA and save pct.

VIII – A total of 26 different players have seen action this season to date, with 21 Falcons having made at least one start. Four players – Butera, Lamparty, O'Malley and Pool – each have started all 14 games.

IX – The Falcons have matched the win total for all of last season. 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 – have a total of 20 returning student-athletes, including seven starters from a year ago. Six of the top-nine scorers from '24 returned.

X – Northern Illinois is 4-6-3 overall, and the Huskies are 2-3-2 in MAC play after splitting a pair of 1-0 matches last week. On Thursday (Oct. 9), NIU became the first MAC team to beat Western Michigan in regular-season play since 2022. Tyra King leads the Huskies with two goals and four points on the year. Three goalkeepers have started at least two matches this season. Lauren Pearson has started seven of the 13 games, and has 24 saves, three shutouts and a 1.09 GAA. Last season, coach Michael O'Neill's Huskies went 9-5-5 overall and 3-4-4 in MAC action.

XI – The Falcons lead NIU, 14-11-3, in the all-time series, and BGSU has won the last three matches, all by one-goal margins. Last season, the Falcons picked up a 2-1 win at Cochrane Stadium (Oct. 5, 2024). The last meeting in DeKalb saw the Orange and Brown score two goals in the final 2:12 of the match for a 2-1 victory (Oct. 27, 2022). Ellie Pool scored the tying goal in that 2022 match, while Emma Stransky has found the back of the net in each of the last two meetings with NIU. BGSU is 7-7-1 in home games, 7-3-2 in road games and 0-1-0 in neutral-site matches vs. the Huskies through the years.

XII (off the bench) – The 2025 and 2026 MAC Women's Soccer Championships each will take place at Historic Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. This will mark the first time in conference history that the event will be held at a neutral site. The quarterfinals are set for Nov. 1, with the semifinal matches taking place on Nov. 4 and the championship match held on Nov. 7.

BGSU WSOC FEATURES & LINKS
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.