THURSDAY, AUGUST 21  |  4:00 P.M.  |  COCHRANE STADIUM  |  BOWLING GREEN, OHIO

SETTING THE SCENE / FOLLOW THE FALCONS
• The Bowling Green State University women's soccer team concludes a season-opening three-match homestand this week. Head coach Chris Fox and the Falcons host Cleveland State University in Thursday (Aug. 21) action at Cochrane Stadium. That match, the first half of a BGSU soccer doubleheader, will begin at 4:00 p.m. Admission is free to all BGSU home soccer matches.

• Then, the Orange and Brown will be idle until heading to the Motor City to face the University of Detroit Mercy the following Thursday (Aug. 28), in a 7:00 p.m. start at Titan Field.

WHERE TO WATCH
• Thursday's Cleveland State match will be televised by BCSN in the Toledo area, and also will be streamed via the BCSN+ app as well as ESPN+.

• The UDM match will also be streamed 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 are 1-1-0 on the young season after splitting a pair of 1-0 matches at Cochrane Stadium in week one. Head coach Chris Fox and Company defeated Oakland on Thursday (Aug. 14) before falling to Illinois three days later (Aug. 17).

II – A pair of transfers combined for the winning goal vs. Oakland. Junior Ella Kane got on the end of a nifty cross from classmate Isabella Mazzaferro, knocking the ball home at the far post early in the second half.

III – Fox and his staff – first-year assistant coaches Steven Samuel and Kyle Pettican – have a total of 20 returning student-athletes. That group includes seven starters from a year ago. Six of the top-nine scorers from '24 returned, including junior Emma Stransky, who had four goals and 10 points to top the returnees.

IV – Fellow juniors Emme Butera and Taylor Green are also back after each player started all 18 matches a year ago. Butera had seven points en route to earning All-Mid-American Conference Second-Team honors, while Green anchored a BG back line that kept six clean sheets. Another junior, Michelle Hochstadt, led the Falcons with five assists in her first season in Northwest Ohio.

V – Sophomore Payton O'Malley started the final nine matches of her freshman season and recording a 1.56 GAA and a pair of shutouts. O'Malley kept a clean sheet vs. Oakland and saved eight of nine shots on goal in last week's two games.

VI – BGSU finished the 2024 season with an overall record of 7-7-4 and a MAC ledger of 4-4-3. The Falcons finished in sixth place in the 12-team conference. The Falcons went 4-1-3 at home and 3-6-1 on the road in 2024.

VII – The 2025 roster includes no fewer than 14 players who did not see action for the Orange and Brown last fall. The group of nine newcomers includes five NCAA Division-I transfers and four true freshmen. Additionally, five Falcons – Christie Fransen, Audrey Oliver, Ellie Pool, Jayna Searles and Minah Syam – missed the entire 2024 campaign due to injury. Pool, a sixth-year collegian, has scored 39 total points in 58 collegiate matches.

VIII – Cleveland State, like BG, is 1-1-0 on the young season, with a 1-0 loss to Kent State and a 2-0 victory at Southern Indiana. Hayleigh.Lewis, a BGSU transfer, made a total of 16 saves in goal in the two matches. Elise Boyd and Sophia Cucchetti scored the Vikings' goals in the win at USI. The Falcons lead CSU, 5-3-0, in the all-time series. Last year, in the teams' first meeting since 2014, visiting BG posted a 2-0 win to snap a three-game CSU series win streak. Mark Sappington, who was an assistant under Chris Fox at Morehead State, is in his second season at CSU after going 2-14-1 overall and 2-8-0 in the Horizon League a year ago.

IX – BGSU is 49-13-11 in home games since the start of the 2017 season.

X – There are 11 home matches on the 2025 schedule. BGSU has not played as many as 11 home games since the 2021 campaign, but two of those contests came in the MAC Tournament. The last time the Falcons played 11 regular-season matches at home was in 2016.

XI – 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. 

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.