With their 2015-2016 season fast approaching, the Bowling Green State University Womens Basketball team is working hard to bounce back after last season’s disappointing ending, which saw the Falcons lose five players to injury and drop their last 12 games. Healthy and determined, the Falcons are looking to make some noise in the MAC this year as they head into their exhibition match this Saturday against Ashland University.
“We’re getting ready to get started with our game against Ashland University this Saturday,” Head Coach Jennifer Roos said. “They’re former division two national champions, and they run a very similar offense to us and I think it’ll be a great exhibition game.”
Staying healthy is one of the most important focuses for the Falcons this season, who saw five players miss significant time last season with injuries. Two of those injuries were career ending.
“I have learned in a hurry that our best ability is availability,” Roos said. “Simply stated, we need to maintain good health, but our other goals are simple as well. We want to be getting better each day and be playing our best basketball come March.”
Four of the five injured players for the Falcons last season were post players, leaving BG without one of the important pieces of their offense. The return of redshirt senior forward Erica Donovan, who was named to the preseason All-MAC team, should help the team get back a stronger post presence. The team will also look to share the ball within their offense and get balanced contributions from a roster that includes five new faces.
“We are a ball screen offense, where we want to screen on the wing, up top, in transition, as much as possible. We’re big believers in that style of play,” Roos said. “Defensively we will be mixing it up between man and zone, and we’re hoping to hold teams to a low field goal percentage.”
The nonconference schedule for the Falcons looks to be challenging, with eight of their twelve games being played on the road. It will be important for Bowling Green to learn from their nonconference schedule in order to maintain momentum when they move into MAC play.
“We have a very tough nonconference schedule in my opinion, with Cincinnati on the road, with the University of Virginia on the road out of the ACC, and three Missouri Valley Conference teams,” Roos said. “We don’t have a lot of home games in our nonconference schedule, so we have to become a little bit of road warriors. But we need to use this nonconference schedule to prepare for conference play come January.”
The Falcons exhibition against Ashland this Saturday will take place at 4 p.m. at the Stroh Center. They will open their season on November 13th at home against Illinois State.
