• BGSU has a 5-1-0 record, with five shutouts in six matches. The Falcons have outscored opponents, 15-2, this spring, with a 10-0 margin in the last three games.

• Madi Wolfbauer has five goals over the last three games. She is the first BGSU player with back-to-back multiple-goal games in over a decade (since Alyssa Zuccaro in 2010).

• Katie Cox scored the game-winning goal in each of BGSU's last two matches, vs. Kent State and Ohio. Cox now has four career goals, and three have been GWG.

• The Falcons enter Saturday's match with an all-time record of 17-7-7 in the MAC Tournament, and BGSU is in the final for the ninth time in program history. BG has records of 9-1-4 in MAC Tournament games at home and 1-3-4 in the championship match. BGSU has advanced past the opponent (winning outright of via penalty kicks) a total of 23 times in 31 MAC Tournament contests over the years.

• The Falcons trail Ball State, 15-4-4, in the all-time series, and the Cardinals downed BGSU, 1-0, in the teams' most recent meeting, at Cochrane Stadium on Oct. 20, 2019. BGSU and BSU are 0-0-2 in MAC Tournament meetings, with the Falcons advancing via PKs each time. The teams played to a 2-2 draw in the semifinal round in 2007 in Muncie, then battled to a scoreless draw at Cochrane in the championship match in 2018.

• BG is one of three MAC teams listed in this week's United Soccer Coaches regional rankings. The Falcons are fourth in the Midwest Region, while Buffalo is fifth and BSU seventh.

• BGSU is 46-19-7 overall, 31-7-1 in MAC regular-season matches and 37-8-3 in all games vs. conference foes since the start of the 2017 season. Since the beginning of the 2018 campaign, the Falcons are 33-12-6 overall, 25-3-0 in MAC regular-season action and 29-3-2 in all games vs. league opposition.

• The winner of Saturday's BGSU-BSU match earns the MAC's automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

• The Cardinals have played in the title game twice before: in 2013 against Western Michigan and in 2018 against this same Bowling Green program. The teams played to a 1-1 draw in that one before the Falcons emerged on their home turf in penalty kicks.
 
• Ball State has surrendered only seven goals in its nine games and has featured a variety of goal scorers led by Diceman and All-MAC Second Team forward Tatiana Mason with three each. Bowling Green has scored 15 goals and surrendered only two (both in its lone loss to Buffalo) in six games. The Falcons did not play their last four scheduled games because of a COVID pause.

 
• Ball State has been standard bearer for more than half a decade, going 50-9-5 in conference play over the past six seasons for an .820 winning percentage that is far and away the best in the league. Bowling Green has become a dominant program over the second half of that stretch, going 25-3-0 for an .893 winning percentage over the past three years.
 
• One of those three losses came last season to these Ball State Cardinals on the same Cochrane Stadium turf that will host Saturday's championship game. All-MAC First Team midfielder Nicky Potts scored in the 101st minute that afternoon for a double-overtime BSU victory.
 
• Ball State will look to channel some of that positive energy this time around against a Bowling Green team that has won each of the past two MAC Championship games in PKs (two years ago against BSU, last year against Eastern Michigan).
 
• If they can, they will write an historic new chapter for an already accomplished program and book their ticket to the NCAA Tournament later this month in North Carolina.