New women’s soccer coach Lindsay Basalyga will begin her era here at the team’s season opener at Cleveland State University on August 25th. The Falcons will look to gain a revenge win against CSU as they lost 2-1 this past year in overtime giving the Vikings their first win against BG in the program’s history.
Lindsay Basalyga will be coming back to a conference she has previous experience in. She worked as an assistant at the University of Toledo for three years before getting her first head coaching job at Eastern Kentucky University. She was the head coach of EKU for a total of eight years and earned many accomplishments on the field and in the classroom. For the 2011-2012 academic years EKU’s women soccer team earned the NSCAA Team Academic Award with a cumulative 3.15 GPA.
“Coach Basalyga has been a great leader and has us going in the right direction as a program,” senior Alyssa Carmack said. “She stresses us being a family on and off the field and that is a bit different to how it was last year.”
Basalyga took the Colonels to their first ever appearance in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in 2008 and finished second in the league in 2008, 2010 and third in 2012.
In 2012 her team finished 10-7-3, which was the team’s first winning season in school’s history and set records for wins, conference victories, goals, assists, points and shots.
“Coach Basalyga definitely makes a point of what she wants and you are either with her or not and I believe that is only going to make us better in the future,” Carmack said.
This Falcon team will be led by newly appointed captains Carmack and Jenny Fowler as they were appointed by teammates and coaches. Carmack has been a starter in each of her three years at BG and has only missed one game since stepping foot on campus.
“This season is about the program and showing the girls some leadership and trying to lead the program in the direction that we want to go,” Carmack said. “We have been working really hard this spring. Hopefully we can get some wins and leave our mark this season.”
Fowler is a fifth-year senior and has been named co-captain for the second straight season. She started 45 of her 57 games played as a Falcon. She was also named Academic All-Mid-American Conference Team this past fall.
“For me this season is about turning the program while trying to leave my mark on the program and helping to change the culture around,” Fowler said.
The Falcons will look to forget about this past year’s disappointing season and take a step forward with coach Basalyga, Carmack and Fowler leading the way.
