A look at BG Olympic sports – Sept. 6

I haven’t forgotten that the Falcons’ other fall sports have started. Here’s a look at the upcoming schedules for BG’s Olympic sports, with kudos to the Falcons’ women’s teams for combining to win the 2011-12 Mid-American Conference Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) Academic Achievement Awards.  Bowling Green has won this award, which was designed to recognize the conference institution with the overall highest grade point average (GPA) rank by gender, in three of the last four years:

MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY: The men will run next at the Buffalo Stampede Invitational hosted by the University at Buffalo on Saturday, Sept. 15. The Falcons got the season started with a second-place finish at the Mel Brodt Collegiate Opener they hosted on Aug. 31. Leading the way for the Falcons was freshman Tim Jurick, who finished ninth overall with a 16:46.50 clocking on the 5000-meter course.

WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY: The next race for the Falcons will be at the Buffalo Stampede Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 15. BG placed second at the Mel Brodt Collegiate Opener on Aug. 31, with junior Abby Koch leading the Falcons with a time of 18:58.0 to finish seventh.

MEN'S GOLF: The Falcons will open the 2012 fall schedule by play at the Marshall Invitational in Huntington, W.Va., on Monday-Tuesday, Sept. 10-11.

WOMEN'S GOLF: The first match for the Falcons this fall is on Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 8-9, when they play in the Redbird Invitational hosted by Illinois State and held in Normal, Ill.

MEN'S SOCCER: The Falcons will play in the Coastal Carolina Invitational in Conway, S.C., on Friday and Sunday, Sept. 7 and Sept. 9. BG will play Wofford on Friday starting at 5 p.m., then take on the host school Sunday at 2:30 p.m. BG is 1-1-1 to start this season, claiming a 3-0 won over St. Bonaventure to start the season, followed by a 1-2 loss to Michigan State and a 0-0 tie in two overtimes to Marshall. Four different Falcons have scored goals this season – sophomore Danny Baraldi, junior Ryan Cominskey, senior Zach Lemke and junior Brandon Silva – while junior Anthony Grant and senior Chris McLean each have a pair of assists. Defensively, junior goalkeeper Michael Wiest has a 0.62 goals-against mark.

WOMENS SOCCER: The Falcons will finish a three-match road trip with a contest at Valparaiso on Sunday, Sept. 9 starting at 2 p.m. BG is 1-4-0 so far this season, with their lone win a 2-1 decision over IUPUI. Bowling Green lost at home to Michigan State (4-0) and Cleveland State (2-1, overtime) and has lost on the road to Minnesota (7-0) and Western Kentucky (2-1). Junior Tracy Togba leads the team in scoring with three points this year thanks to a goal and an assists. Senior goalkeeper Becca Ison has a 2.88 goals-against average.

TENNIS: The Falcons open the fall season by competing in the Ohio State Muirfield Village Collegiate Championships in Columbus on Friday-Sunday, Sept. 14-16.

VOLLEYBALL: The Falcons will compete in the BYU Nike Invitational in Provo, Utah on Friday-Saturday, Sept. 7-8. BG will play Portland State on Friday starting at 6 p.m., then face the host school Saturday at 2 p.m. before finishing against Utah on Saturday starting at 7 p.m. BG currently is 1-4 this season, having lost to Marquette and Northwestern at the Marquette Challenge, then going 1-2 at the Indiana Invitational by losing to Georgia Tech and Cleveland State while beating Indiana. Individually, junior Danielle Tonyan ranks third in the MAC in kills per set (3.56 kps) while junior Paige Penrod is eighth in that category with 3.33 kills per set and also stands second in service aces with 0.56 per set. Junior Laura Avila is eighth in assists with 8.50 per set, while junior Kaitlyn Skinner ranks third in blocks with 1.22 per set. And junior Ashley Dunn ranks 10th in digs with 3.89 digs per set.