BOWLING GREEN — As Elisa Baeron stepped to the penalty spot with a chance to send Bowling Green to the NCAA women’s soccer tournament, the hushed whisper of anticipation fell over the crowd at Cochrane Field.
The Mid-American Conference tournament championship on Nov. 4 came down to penalty kicks. Watching with bated breath from the sideline was a mob — made up mostly of BG athletes from other sports — ready to storm the field.
“You could tell from the photographs of the other teams that were watching their friends play, they were so engrossed in the game,” Bowling Green women’s soccer coach Matt Fannon said.
And storm the field they did, as Baeron’s converted penalty set off bedlam at the stadium.
The Falcons earned their first NCAA tournament bid in 13 years, though Fannon said the accomplishment was shared by the whole school.
“As much as we loved winning it, it felt like it was BG who won,” Fannon said. “It wasn’t women’s soccer winning, it was BG winning that day.”
Even as the football team struggled during the 2018 season, the Bowling Green Olympic sports teams had their most successful fall season during this decade.
The soccer team went farther than any other BG team by winning the conference tournament, but volleyball won the MAC regular season, men’s soccer earned the No. 2 seed in the MAC tournament, and men’s cross country finished second at the MAC championships and 10th in the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.
The Falcons rank third among MAC teams in the Director’s Cup standings, which measure success across all sports.
“We want to be a comprehensive athletic program and have success in all of our sports,” Falcons director of athletic Bob Moosbrugger said. “The success of some of our teams — particularly women’s soccer, volleyball, cross country to a certain extent — has been encouraging. I’m happy for those coaches and those student athletes.”
With a few teams attempting to build off good seasons, Bowling Green is hoping to have more of its teams join the party.
“We talk about that all the time in our head coaches meeting,” Moosburgger said. “Winning is contagious. You get one team winning, and other student-athletes want to experience the same thing.”
The winter season already has two good candidates. The swimming and diving program is off to a 7-0 start, and the Falcons’ hockey program looks as if it could again return to national contention this season.
The Falcons, who were ranked No. 12 last week, are likely to move upwards after a two-game sweep of No. 3 Minnesota State over the weekend, adding to a resume that includes two victories against 17th-ranked Western Michigan and 1-0-1 mark against No. 7 Ohio State.
When one team does well on campus, Falcons hockey coach Chris Bergeron said their athlete peers take notice.
“I think these kids are proud of one another within the department,” Bergeron said. “There’s 450 student athletes, and I do think they follow other teams and they get excited about the other teams.”
Fannon said the Falcons hope to grow into a mid-major power in women’s soccer, and the Moosbrugger said the men’s soccer team isn’t far away. Akron, which was the four seed in the MAC tournament, won the league title and made a run all the way to the national championship game.
Even with significant financial disadvantages at Bowling Green — the Falcons spend less on athletics than almost all of their MAC competition — Moosbrugger, a former BG baseball player, said he sees no reason BG can’t be competitive in all of its varsity sports.
“I want to compete for championships in every sport,” Moosbrugger said. “Are we 100 percent set up to do that now? Not necessarily.
“But we’ve proven we can win here at BGSU whether or not we have all the resources we need.”
First Published December 16, 2018, 6:34 p.m.
