Bowling Green State University’s women’s basketball team has faced adversity on the court this season in
terms of game play. After the most recent road trip it will face more adversity — this time in terms of
personnel.
Head coach Jennifer Roos announced Friday that leading scorer Erica Donovan and freshman Lauren Webb will
miss the remainder of the 2014-15 season with ACL injuries sustained in a win at Illinois State on Dec.
19.
Roos also announced that redshirt freshman Leah Bolton will apply for a medical retirement with the NCAA,
ending her playing career. She missed all but two games of last season with an ACL injury and had yet to
appear in a game this season after playing in Bowling Green’s exhibition.
Donovan, a redshirt junior, was averaging 15.3 points per game and a team-best 9.1 rebounds per game
before going down with the non-contact injury with just over two minutes left in the game at Illinois
State.
Webb had played in seven of her first eight games before suffering her injury — also non-contact — early
in the first half of the Illinois State game.
“I walked out to both of them on the floor and they were extremely emotional,” Roos said of the initial
reaction to the injuries.
“Injuries are going to happen to every team throughout the year,” she said. “Unfortunately our injuries
happened in a very short window.
“You can’t prepare for injuries, but you can plan on how to react and respond once injuries occur and
that’s the moment in time we’re in right now,” Roos said.
The three season-ending injuries leaves Bowling Green’s roster at just nine players for the remainder of
the year.
With limited bodies, especially in the post position, Roos said the Falcons will have to be creative with
their lineups for the rest of the year.
Bowling Green (7-4) opens Mid-American Conference play today when it hosts Ball State at 4 p.m. in the
Stroh Center.
“We’ll tweak some things at both ends of the floor having lost post depth and we’ll get creative with
what we have at both ends of the floor,” Roos said.
“It’s going to definitely push us to work better and think a little bit outside the box to see how we can
be effective with potentially a four-guard lineup or with a five-guard lineup,” she added.
The Falcons, who have 11 straight 20-win seasons and 10 straight postseason tournament appearances, were
picked to finish second in the MAC East this year behind Buffalo. Donovan was a preseason All-MAC
selection.
The impressive streaks and accolades have not been on the minds of the Falcons, according to Roos, and
they are not setting their sights ahead of the next game on the schedule.
“We talked a lot, not only about Ball State, but we talked about rivalries within this conference,” Roos
said. “Every game in this conference there is some sort of history between the two schools. Our young
ones just don’t know those rivalries yet.
“We also talked about no matter who you play in conference, you’re going to get their best effort just
because the name on your jersey says Bowling Green.”
UNTAPPED POTENTIAL: With recurring knee injuries, Bolton’s career has come
to an end at Bowling Green.
“Leah will remain with our program,” Roos said in a statement released by the university, “but it will be
in a different role due to her medical treatment. I am fortunate that I, along with the rest of our
team, saw what type of player Leah was in practice before her injury. But, our fans and opponents did
not get a chance to see how explosive of a scorer on the court she was.”
NOTES: The Falcons are 11-2 in MAC openers since Roos arrived as an
assistant in 2001 … Bowling Green is 44-15 all-time against Ball State (4-7) … The Cardinals beat
Bowling Green 73-55 in last year’s MAC tournament.