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In her eight years at the helm, all she did was become the winningest coach in school history while turning the Falcons into a perennial Mid-American contender. Her 2004 team posted the first MAC Tournament title in school history and advanced to NCAA Regional play, and both the 2005 and 2006 squads won a pair of games en route to a top-four finish at the league tourney. In her eight years (1999-2006) as head coach, Ross had an overall record of 237-198-2 (.545). BGSU's final win of 2003, vs. Northern Illinois in the MAC Tournament, made Ross the winningest coach in school history. In 2004, she also became the school's leader in MAC victories, and she is also first in league winning percentage. Ross had a league mark of 114-72 (.613). In all games, she ranks second in winning pct., trailing only Sandy Haines (.557; 57-45-3 from 1981-83). Ross was the fastest coach in Falcon annals to get to 100 overall wins as well as 50 MAC victories. The Falcons' final victory of 2005, against Western Michigan in the conference tourney, made Ross the first coach in BG softball annals to reach 200 career wins. The 2006 Falcons tied the school record for wins, going 37-23 overall. BGSU finished MAC play with a 16-6 record, good for a second-place finish, just one-half game out of first, in the East Division. The '06 squad set a school record with 29 home runs, and advanced to the MAC Tournament for the eighth time in nine seasons. The team had a total of five All-MAC selections, including three first-team picks in Abby Habicht, Gina Rango and Hayley Wiemer. Wiemer was named the MAC Freshman of the Year, while Rango became the first player in BGSU softball history to earn All-MAC First-Team honors in each of her four years. Liz Vrabel and Desiree Miller were named to the all-conference second team, giving Ross and the Falcons the most total All-MAC picks since 2001. Vrabel, named to the all-league first-team once and the second team three times, joins Rango as the only two BGSU players to earn all-league honors four times. Rango went on to earn All-Great Lakes Region First-Team honors for the fourth consecutive year, and was named an Easton-Bell All-America Third-Team selection for the second-straight season, again going where no Falcon had gone before her in each case. In 2005, Ross and the Falcons finished 12-10 in MAC action. The Brown and Orange, with just one senior on the roster, won a pair of games in the MAC Tournament, before succumbing to the eventual tourney champ. The '05 Falcons, under Ross's direction, had both the MAC Player of the Year (Rango) and Pitcher of the Year (Vrabel). Ross's 2004 squad had an overall record of 34-30, and posted a MAC ledger of 13-11 to finish third in the West Division and in a fifth-place tie overall. BGSU was seeded sixth for the six-team MAC Tournament, and the Falcons lost to Western Michigan, 3-0, to open tourney play. But, the Falcons knocked off each of the top-four seeds, in order, advancing through the loser's bracket to win the tournament with five consecutive victories. In that tourney, BG beat top-seeded Central Michigan (3-0), #2 Kent State (6-0) and #3 WMU (8-6) to advance to the championship bracket. Needing to defeat #4 Miami twice on Sunday, May 16, the Falcons did just that, topping the RedHawks by scores of 1-0 and 4-3 to capture the title and advance to NCAA play. The 2004 edition of the Falcons became the sixth team in school history to win at least 30 games and the '06 squad was the seventh such team. Ross became the first BGSU coach with three 30-win seasons in '04, and now has four seasons of at least 30 wins. Ross-coached teams have posted four of the top-seven win totals in school history. In 2003, BGSU opened conference play with an 0-5 record, but the Falcons reeled off a school record-tying 10 consecutive wins, all in league play, to get back in the race. The Falcons finished fourth in the West Division, but fifth overall, to return to the league tourney, en route to a 26-26-1 overall mark. In the '03 MAC Tournament, the Falcons opened with a win over NIU. With that victory, Ross moved past Jacquie Joseph into first place on the BGSU career wins list. Ross was also the only coach in school history to string together three consecutive winning seasons in MAC play. The Falcons, who also had a winning league ledger in Ross's last year as an assistant (1998), posted four-straight winning MAC marks for the first time ever from 1998-2001, and matched that mark with winning records in each of the last four seasons (2003-06). The original streak ended in 2002, as BGSU ended with a 22-25-1 record and a MAC ledger of 11-13. The Falcons finished in a tie for third place in the MAC's East Division and just missed out on a trip to the league tournament. In 2001, the Falcons captured the East Division title outright, going 19-5 in league play, including a 15-1 mark against divisional rivals. The Brown and Orange went 35-19 overall, with the school's win total tying for the second most in BGSU history at the time. Ross's coaching peers in the league named her the MAC Coach of the Year. In the spring of 2000, the Falcons tied for the East title with a 13-7 record and made the school's third consecutive MAC Tournament appearance. Then, after dropping the opening game, the Falcons ran off three-straight elimination-game victories, advancing all the way to the championship game before posting a runner-up finish. The team's 33 overall wins in 2000 marked the fourth-highest single-season total in BGSU history at the time. Under Ross's guidance, the Falcons posted back-to-back 30-win seasons (in 2000 and 2001) for only the second time in school history. In her first year as head coach, 1999, Ross guided the Brown and Orange to the MAC Tournament and led the team to its best record in six years. The Falcons, after contending for the MAC's East Division title until the final weekend of the regular season, finished second in the division. Also in that '99 season, BGSU shattered the school seasonal record by hitting 19 homers. The 2000 Falcons matched that record by clubbing 19 more round-trippers, and the 2001 team set a new record with 21. The 2003 Falcon offense accounted for 20, and the '04 team again broke the school record, with 26. That record lasted for all of two years, until the 2006 edition of the Falcons hit a total of 29. As the previous paragraph would attest, there was a noticeable increase in the Falcons' power numbers after Ross assumed the head-coaching helm. In the first 20 years (1979-98) of BGSU varsity softball, no Falcon team had a double-digit homer total. The school single-season record was eight when Ross assumed the job. BGSU amassed double-digit homer totals in seven of Ross's eight seasons, with at least 19 round-trippers in six of those years. The first 20 Falcon teams combined for a total of 80 homers, an average of 4.00 per year. In Ross's eight-year head-coaching tenure, BG hitters hit a total of 152 homers, an average of exactly 19.00 per season. In 1998, as the assistant coach, Ross helped the Falcons to a 15-13 MAC record and a spot in the league tournament. BG won the opening game of the tourney. In her first year with the BGSU program, Ross helped the 1997 Falcons win 11-of-13 games down the stretch. Ross, a native of Ottawa Lake, Mich., came to the Falcon program after serving as the head coach at Notre Dame Academy in Toledo for four seasons (1993-96). During her tenure, she was named the top coach in the City League three times. Ross's teams compiled an overall record of 70-15 and won three league titles. She also served as the assistant athletic director and development coordinator at Notre Dame Academy. Ross was very familiar with the MAC upon her arrival at BGSU in the fall of 1996. A four-year starter in the outfield at the University of Toledo, she graduated in 1992 with a degree in business administration/marketing. Ross helped the 1989 UT squad to the MAC title and a seventh-place finish at the College World Series. In 1991, Ross led the nation with an average of 0.83 stolen bases per game en route to All-America Second-Team honors. Additionally, her .447 batting average that season ranked her fifth nationally and still stands as the MAC record. Ross also holds the MAC career marks for batting average (.398), at-bats (744) and hits (296). She is tied for second in runs scored (143) and ranks third on the MAC stolen-base list (107). A three-time All-Mideast Region selection, she set 11 school records during her UT career and twice was a first-team All-MAC selection. In February of 2001, Ross was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame. Ross participated in the 1994 USA Softball Olympic Team Trials. She finished in the top 150 among over 500 participants in the Level I tryouts. At the Level II trials, Ross was named an alternate to the 35-player national team. A 1987 graduate of Whiteford High School, Ross led her high-school squad to three Michigan state championships and was named all-state three times. She was the valedictorian of her graduating class. Ross has two children; a son, Jared, and a daughter, Teagan. In late August of 2006, Ross was named the head softball coach at Syracuse University.
LEIGH ROSS - YEAR-BY-YEAR AT BGSU
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