ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Buffalo is 11-13 overall this season, and the Bulls will bring a 4-8 MAC record into Friday's match. UB ended a four-match losing streak with wins in each of last week's contests. The Bulls captured home matches vs. Central Michigan Friday (Oct. 29) and Ohio Sunday (Oct. 31), winning each contest in four games. Buffalo went 10-23 a year ago, including a MAC record of 0-18. Nadine Lilavois, in her first year at the UB helm, is 126-180 in her ninth year as a collegiate head coach.

Northern Illinois is 7-12 on the year, and the Huskies are 3-8 in MAC action heading into a Wednesday (Nov. 3) home contest vs. Central Michigan. NIU, bitten by the injury bug this season, split a pair of home matches last weekend. The Huskies lost a Friday contest to Kent in four games, then snapped a three-match losing streak with a three-game win over then-East Division leader Akron. A year ago, Northern finished 27-7 overall, and tied for the MAC's West Division title with a league ledger of 15-3. Todd Kress, 101-57 in his fifth season as a head coach, is in his first year at the NIU helm.

THE SERIES: The Falcons lead the all-time series with Buffalo, 1-0, but BGSU trails Northern Illinois by a 14-1 count in that series.

BGSU's only previous meeting with UB came last Oct. 2 in Anderson Arena. The Brown and Orange recorded a three-game win (15-7, 15-8, 15-11).

The NIU Huskies have won all six series matches in Bowling Green, and the Huskies have won five consecutive matches overall. BGSU's only win in the series came in a 1989 tournament at Eastern Michigan.

LAST WEEK: The Falcons went 1-1 last week, with a Wednesday (Oct. 27) loss to visiting Eastern Michigan and a Sunday (Oct. 31) win at Marshall ... BGSU fell to EMU in five games (14-16, 15-10, 9-15, 16-14, 8-15), ending the Falcons' winning streak at eight matches ... EMU received 29 digs and nine blocks from Jill Hutton, while teammate Sara Schaub had 27 kils and 23 digs ... the Eagles played solid defense, with 104 digs ... senior Melissa Lewis led the Falcons with 28 kills, adding 16 digs ... sophomore Amber Vorst had a team-high 19 digs to go along with 11 kills and a .300 hitting percentage ... junior JoAnna Papageorgiou, seeing her first extended action in several weeks, had 12 kills and hit a team-best .303 off the bench ... senior Heather Greig had 51 assists ... it appeared that Greig had won the first game of that match, when her second-ball attack landed on the EMU side of the net with the Falcons already leading, 14-13 ... but, Greig was called for a ball-handling error, and the visitors rallied to score the next three points and take the game ... BG captured all three games at Marshall Sunday (15-4, 15-13, 15-7) ... Lewis, for the 21st time in 24 matches, led the Brown and Orange in kills ... she had 22 kills and hit .341 ... senior Kris Pesorda had a stellar .519 hitting percentage, with 15 kills and a single error in 27 attempts ... Lewis led the Falcons with 11 digs, while senior Lori Kemerer had eight block assists ... BGSU hit at least .317 in every game en route to a .349 team percentage for the match ... the Falcons allowed the Thundering Herd to hit .146 on the day, including a game-one percentage of -.024.

FALCON NOTES:
The Falcons have doubled last season's MAC win total ... BGSU, 4-14 in conference play last year, is 8-4 this season ... BG's eight-match winning streak (snapped by Eastern Michigan) was the team's longest in seven years ... BGSU had a 10-match win streak from Sept. 18-Oct. 10, 1992 ... despite that EMU loss, BGSU has won nine of the last 10 matches ... the Falcons have won five consecutive road matches, the most since a seven-match road win streak in 1992 (Sept. 12-Oct. 10) ... BGSU, 2-7 in MAC road matches last year, is 4-1 on the road in league play this fall ... senior Kris Pesorda led the Falcons with a .370 hitting percentage last week ... last Monday afternoon (Oct. 25), senior Melissa Lewis was named the MAC's co-Offensive Player of the Week, the second time in three weeks she had earned league P-O-W honors ... last month, senior Lori Kemerer became just the third player in BGSU history with 1,000 kills, 1,000 digs and 400 blocks in her career ... Kemerer, who surpassed the millennium mark in digs during the Wright State match (Oct. 5), now has 1,136 kills, 1,105 digs and 488 total blocks in her BGSU career ... Kemerer now ranks seventh on the BGSU career lists in kills, having passed Lori Hilton (1993-96) in the Marshall match ... Kemerer is seventh all-time at BG in digs (just two out of sixth), and she is second in total blocks ... Kemerer passed Tammy Schiller (1988-91) in career TB ... additionally, Kemerer ranks second at the school in career block assists (380), fifth in attack attempts (3,018) and is tied for sixth in solo blocks (108) ... Lewis has led BG in kills in 21 of this season's 24 matches ... she surpassed the 1,000-kill mark for her career last month, just the ninth player to do so ... Lewis now has 1,154 career kills, moving her into sixth place on the BGSU career list ... she jumped two spots on that list last week ... Lewis ranks seventh all-time in school history with 2,968 career attack attempts ... junior JoAnna Papageorgiou is working her way back into the lineup ... "Pop" started the first 12 matches of the year, but then missed the next five contests due to injury ... she saw brief action in each of the next five matches, before recording 12 kills vs. EMU ... senior Heather Greig is fifth in school history with 2,264 career assists ... sophomore Amber Vorst had a double-double in four consecutive MAC matches ... she fell just two digs shy of extending that streak vs. Marshall.

FALCON QUICK FACTS

THIS WEEK
Buffalo at BGSU - Fri., Nov. 5
Anderson Arena - 7:00 p.m.
Northern Ill. at BGSU - Sat., Nov. 6
Anderson Arena - 7:00 p.m.

LAST WEEK
Eastern Michigan 3, at BGSU 2
Wed., Oct. 27 - Anderson Arena

BGSU 3, at Marshall 0
Sun., Oct. 31 - Huntington, W. Va.

1999 RECORDS
Overall: 15-9 (.625)
Mid-American Conf.: 8-4 (.667)

HEAD COACH - Denise Van De Walle (17th season)
  Alma Mater: Ball State, 1976
  Record at BGSU: 311-209
  Overall Career Record: 311-209

ASSISTANT COACHES
Tom Hanna (fourth season)
  Alma Mater: Marist, 1991
Wendy Teaman (first season)
  Alma Mater: Bowling Green, 1998

BOWLING GREEN RECORDS
All-Time: 409-325-3 (.557) (1976-present / 24th year)
MAC: 141-110 (.562) (1983-present / 17th year)

• MAC TITLES ­ 1989, 1991, 1992
• MAC TOURNEY TITLES ­ 1991
• NCAA APPEARANCES ­ 1991
• NIVC APP'S ­ 1992, 1993