Ashley Huntey is not done com­pet­ing this year as she has joined the women’s bas­ket­ball team after a sea­son of FSU volleyball

Competitive Spirit: Sophomore Ashley Huntey demon­strates that her skills extend beyond her 229 kills and 365 digs attained this sea­son in vol­ley­ball and onto the bas­ket­ball court, help­ing the Bulldogs toward their 75–57 win over Ashland on Friday. Photo Courtesy of Ed Hyde, FSU Photographic Services

After help­ing the Ferris vol­ley­ball team reach the NCAA Division II tour­na­ment, Huntey has her sights on help­ing turn around the women’s bas­ket­ball team, which went 13–15 last season.

Huntey, a Stanwood native, played vol­ley­ball and bas­ket­ball all four years of high school and played soft­ball in her junior year at Morley-Stanwood High School. In vol­ley­ball, she attained all-state hon­ors all four years, was named the Big Rapids Pioneer Dream Team Player of the Year in her final two sea­sons, and helped lead her high school to its first state cham­pi­onship in 2007.

In bas­ket­ball, Huntey was named an all-area per­former from 2004–2006 and was named to the all-state team in 2006.

Since she played mul­ti­ple sports through­out high school, Huntey said it felt strange to play only vol­ley­ball in her first year at Ferris. Continue Reading…

The Bulldogs man­han­dled Grand Valley for their first vic­tory of the sea­son at Wink Arena

Taking the Leap: Freshman Daniel Sutherlin takes a shot at Monday night’s bas­ket­ball game against Grand Valley State. Sutherlin’s slam dunk in the first half helped the Bulldogs along their path to a 67–41 vic­tory. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photographer

The Bulldogs ended their three-game los­ing skid as they won their home opener 67–41 over Grand Valley State. Ferris improved its record to 1–3 over­all and 1–0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). This was the first GLIAC con­test of the sea­son through­out the entire league.

Junior forward/center Justin Keenan paced a bal­anced offen­sive effort for the Bulldogs with 15 points and seven rebounds. Keenan was only 1–7 from the floor, but was 13–18 from the free throw line. Junior guard Darien Gay shot 5–8 from the field en route to 13 points and three assists. Ferris had eight play­ers score five or more points in the con­test. Continue Reading…

Women will be look­ing to shock and awe in NCAA tour­na­ment to close out season

Flying High: Senior Sarah Lark spikes the ball over oppo­nents dur­ing a recent game. The vol­ley­ball team will travel to Indianapolis on the 19^th for the first round of NCAA D-II Midwest Region games. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photgrapher

Ferris was one of the 64 teams selected to take part in the tour­na­ment. Ferris is the sev­enth seed in the Midwest Region and will take on second-seeded Lewis University (27−4). Lewis (Ill.) is cur­rently ranked 11^th nation­ally. The Bulldogs fin­ished the reg­u­lar sea­son with a 19–11 over­all record.

The team will be look­ing to per­form at a high level in order to pull the upset and avenge their 3–0 defeat to Lewis ear­lier this sea­son in the GLVC Crossover tour­na­ment. Coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm believes that this team’s hard work and tena­cious­ness will ben­e­fit them.

“As always we are just going to have to take care of play on our side of the court,” said Brandel-Wilhelm. Continue Reading…

The club hockey team is look­ing for more fan sup­port at home games the rest of the season

Club Hockey: Sophomore Dale Kolatski (#18) in Friday’s game against the University of Toledo. This weekend’s two games took place at Ewigleben Ice Arena and both resulted in vic­to­ries for Ferris, bring­ing the team’s record to 9−5−1. Photo By: Sam Lehnert | Ad Layout Assistant

The team started the year going unde­feated in their first eight games and is cur­rently 9−5−1 over­all. This past week­end, they were able to snap their five-game los­ing streak as they defeated the University of Toledo in both games.

The hockey team is a divi­sion II mem­ber of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA). Ferris com­petes in the Great Midwest Hockey League (GMHL) against teams such as Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State. Continue Reading…

Injuries pose an early concern

The Ferris State women’s bas­ket­ball team has many obsta­cles to over­come and the sea­son has not even begun.

Both injury and the flu have hit the team hard this sea­son. Approximately two weeks ago, the team could hardly prac­tice because it had only four play­ers healthy. Dorow said the team has had sev­eral cases of the flu, includ­ing the H1N1 virus, caus­ing play­ers to miss pre­cious prac­tice time.

The biggest loss the team has suf­fered is their only senior, cen­ter Andrea Clancy, broke her fibula and will miss the remain­der of the year. Head coach Tracey Dorow said the team will miss Clancy’s pres­ence in the paint.

“We are not only going to miss her play, but also her vocal pres­ence and her con­fi­dence,” said Dorow.

Junior and co-captain Stephanie DeNoyelles suf­fered an ACL injury dur­ing the sum­mer and will miss the first part of the 2009–2010 sea­son. She is cur­rently rehab­bing four days a week and is hop­ing to get back on the court in January.

Junior Amy Joostberns and fresh­man Leah Kebler have both suf­fered con­cus­sions and the team hopes they will be able to get back on the court some­time soon.

Going into the sea­son, the team was already very young with only one senior and four juniors on the ros­ter. With the injuries to Clancy and DeNoyelles, the team will have to rely on the younger play­ers to step up. From what the team demon­strated in its exhi­bi­tion game, Dorow believes they are up to the challenge.

“We have a lot of play­ers step­ping up and doing a lot of great things,” said Dorow.

Stephanie DeNoyelles said all the play­ers miss­ing play­ing time may be at a dis­ad­van­tage, but now that they are over the flu, the team is start­ing to find some rhythm.

“We showed in our exhi­bi­tion game against Oakland that we have a lot of poten­tial to be a great team, given our unusual cir­cum­stances,” said DeNoyelles.

The Bulldog Volleyball team is 18–9 over­all this season

Talk It Out: Head Coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm (far right) and Assistant Coach Theresa Beeckman (bot­tom right) advise their team dur­ing a time out. The Bulldogs tri­umphed 3–0 at their most recent game this Saturday against Lake Superior State after Friday’s 3–1 loss to Saginaw Valley State. Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

The Bulldogs dropped a com­pet­i­tive 3–1 deci­sion to Saginaw Valley State on Friday. The Bulldogs lost the first two sets and were not able to rebound as they ended up los­ing in four sets (21−25), (20−25), (25−19), (20−25).

Junior Arielle Goodson led the Bulldogs on their offen­sive attack as she recorded 13 kills and a .357 attack per­cent­age. Redshirt fresh­man Samantha Fordyce recorded 37 assists for the Bulldog offense.

On the defen­sive side, sopho­more Lisa Tobiczyk recorded 14 digs and sopho­more Ashley Hunter con­tributed nine digs for the Bulldogs in the los­ing effort. The loss was the third straight for the team. Redshirt fresh­man Aly Brecht said the team let some mis­takes affect its over­all play.

“We let some of the small things get to us and they were able to go on a few runs,” said Brecht.

On Saturday, Ferris broke its three-match los­ing streak as the team swept the Lake Superior State Lakers 3–0 in straight sets.

Ferris jumped out to a quick start, as they were able to out­hit the Lakers .294 to .188 and coasted to a 25–17 vic­tory. The team then won the next two sets 25–17 and 25–23 to earn the sweep.

“We were able to get every­one on the team involved and we were just able to have fun out there,” said Brecht.

Goodson again led the Bulldog attack as she recorded 12 kills and a .417 hit­ting per­cent­age. Ferris had a .324 attack per­cent­age as a team, while the Lakers had a .174 attack per­cent­age. Fordyce led the women in assists with 36 and six digs for the vis­it­ing team.

Ferris has two more reg­u­lar sea­son matches before the GLIAC Tournament begins on Nov. 11.

On Nov. 6, Ferris will host the Michigan Tech Huskies who are 13–12 over­all and 9–5 in the con­fer­ence. Earlier this year, Ferris trav­eled to Houghton and defeated the Huskies in four sets.

The team will fin­ish the reg­u­lar sea­son on Nov. 7 as they host Northern Michigan, who is cur­rently 17–9. Ferris already accounts for one of their losses, as the Bulldogs were able to pull out a win in five sets on the Wildcats home court.

The results of the final two con­tests of the sea­son will deter­mine which seed Ferris receives for the con­fer­ence tour­na­ment. Northern Michigan is one game ahead of the Bulldogs in the GLIAC North Division while Michigan Tech has the same con­fer­ence record.

Bulldogs look to build off GLIAC Tournament appear­ance last season

The men’s bas­ket­ball team is off to a strong start with eight play­ers return­ing from last year, four of which are starters. This sea­son, the team will strive to sur­pass last year’s third place fin­ish in the GLIAC Tournament. Photo by Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

Last sea­son, the Bulldogs fin­ished with a 14–14 over­all record and a 12–10 con­fer­ence record, which was good for third in the GLIAC. The team earned its fourth trip to the GLIAC Tournament in the last five years.

The team has four starters return­ing from last year: forward/center Justin Keenan, and guards Darien Gay, Dontae Molden, and Josh Young. The Bulldogs have eight play­ers return­ing from last year’s team. This year, the team’s expe­ri­ence of play­ing with the same core group of play­ers should be an advan­tage. Bill Sall is enter­ing his eighth sea­son as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

“We have a lot more expe­ri­ence than in the past and dur­ing the off-season they worked really hard,” said Sall.

Last year, Keenan and Gay were both All-Star can­di­dates for the Bulldogs. Keenan led the GLIAC in scor­ing with 20.2 points per game a sea­son ago and the Sporting News voted him as a pre-season All-American. Gay was an All-GLIAC sec­ond team pick last year.

Ferris will be look­ing to rely on its return­ing play­ers to improve on last year’s 14–14 record. Throughout the sea­son, Ferris aver­aged more points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks, but were not able to turn those num­bers into more wins.

“We have taken a lot of strides in a lot of dif­fer­ent areas,” said Sall.

On the offen­sive side of the ball, Sall feels very com­fort­able with the team’s inside pres­ence and believes the guards will be able to pro­vide some consistency.

Defensively, Ferris will try to pick up the pace and be more pres­sure ori­ented. Sall wants the team to be an aggres­sive and attack­ing team on both sides of the ball.

Overall, the team believes it can improve upon last year and sopho­more cen­ter Jim Boylan believes the Bulldogs have the tal­ent and mind­set to do so.

“We have a good core of return­ing play­ers and we all want to win the GLIAC,” said Boylan.

Ferris opens the reg­u­lar sea­son on Nov. 15 at Lewis University (Ill.).

The Bulldogs have won four con­sec­u­tive games and five out of six overall

Nothing but Net: Senior Blair Riley cel­e­brates a goal at Friday’s game against Robert Morris. Riley showed a strong per­for­mance with one assist and two goals, the first of which was scored in the first 37 sec­onds of the game. Photo by Kate Dupon | Photographer

Ferris posted a 5–4 over-time win Friday night over the vis­it­ing Robert Morris Colonials. Ferris jumped to a quick lead as senior Blair Riley scored 37 sec­onds into the game. The Colonials responded quickly as they scored twice to take a lead 2–1 after the first period.

In the sec­ond period, Riley scored his sec­ond goal of the game at the 6:30 mark as he cashed in on a short­handed oppor­tu­nity. Senior Aaron Lewicki put the Bulldogs back on top as he scored his sec­ond goal of the year to make it 3–2.

Senior Casey Haines lit the lamp for his first goal of the sea­son to give Ferris a 4–2 advan­tage early in the third period. Robert Morris did not back down as they responded with back-to-back goals to tie the game and force overtime.

Haines scored just 32 sec­onds into over­time giv­ing the Bulldogs a 5–4 victory.

Sophomore goalie Taylor Nelson improved his record to 3–0 on the sea­son as he stopped 24 of 28 shots on goal.

The Bulldogs con­tin­ued the trend of out­shoot­ing their oppo­nent as they held a 47–28 advan­tage in total shots. Head coach Bob Daniels was sat­is­fied with how his team per­formed overall.

“I felt like we played well, but we spent a lot of time in the penalty box, which made it hard for us to gain momen­tum,” said Daniels.

The Bulldogs con­trolled the game on Saturday, as they were vic­to­ri­ous 4–1. After a score­less first period, the teams com­bined for four goals in the sec­ond period.

Ferris scored first as junior Todd Pococke lit the lamp at 8:22 of the sec­ond period. The lead was short-lived, how­ever, as the Colonials responded quickly with a goal only 23 sec­onds later. The scor­ing con­tin­ued as junior Justin Menke scored what proved to be the game-winning goal with 10:03 left in the second.

Sophomore Matthew Kirzinger gave the Bulldogs a two-goal lead at the 12:32 mark. Junior goal­tender Pat Nagle made a huge glove save near the end of the period to keep the lead intact.

Robert Morris came out very aggres­sively in the third period, but Ferris proved to be up to the chal­lenge defen­sively as they were able to hold them score­less for the frame.

“The defense has been absolutely phe­nom­e­nal, mak­ing my life easy,” said Nagle.

Senior Aaron Lewicki added an empty-net goal with 21 sec­onds remain­ing to seal the vic­tory for Ferris.

“I’m very proud of how well we played in the third period and that the team did not go into a lull,” said Daniels.

Nagle improved his record to 2–1 this sea­son and has only allowed one goal per game in his first three starts.

“We are rid­ing some con­fi­dence right now, which we have earned,” said Daniels.

The con­fer­ence tour­na­ment is up next for the Bulldogs

Double Teaming: Daniela Dimas and Melissa Flowers are on the offense in their win­ning match against Lake Superior State. The two scored another vic­tory this Saturday over the Tiffin Dragons with a score of 8–0. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photographer

The Bulldogs began their two-game road trip to Ohio by drop­ping a 6–3 deci­sion to the Ashland Eagles. The Bulldogs and Eagles split the six sin­gles matches with three wins apiece. Ashland won all three dou­bles matches, how­ever, to claim the vic­tory. Junior Amy Ingle and sopho­mores Melissa Flowers and Mary Coleman were all vic­to­ri­ous in their sin­gle sets.

“We knew it was going to be a tough match and the sur­face was extremely slip­pery, mak­ing it hard for us to adjust,” said Ingle.

On Saturday, the team took advan­tage of the short­handed Tiffin Dragons, en route to a dom­i­nat­ing 9–0 vic­tory. Tiffin was not able to field a full team, so they ended up for­feit­ing the final two sin­gles matches and the third dou­bles match.

Junior Tiffany Rheynard and senior Daniela Dimas, along with Ingles and Flowers, all recorded vic­to­ries in the sin­gles com­pe­ti­tion. The dou­bles com­bi­na­tions of Natalie Diorio/ Mary Coleman and Daniela Dimas/ Melissa Flowers both claimed vic­to­ries in the two dou­bles sets played.

“It was a good day over­all, even with­out get­ting to play all the spots,” said Ingle.

After the matches this week­end, the team is now 5–4 over­all. The Bulldogs are fifth in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 5–4 record in con­fer­ence play. Of the four teams ahead of Ferris in the con­fer­ence stand­ings, the Bulldogs defeated Grand Valley State and nearly upset Wayne State and Michigan Tech, los­ing 5–4 in both contests.

The week­end series con­cluded the fall reg­u­lar sea­son for the Bulldogs. Ferris trav­els to Lansing to com­pete in the 2009 GLIAC Tournament on Oct. 24–25, in the final event until the spring season.

“We have a team of girls that is very con­fi­dent, hard work­ing, and com­pet­i­tive,” said Ingle, “And I think it is our time to step up and prove our­selves as a team.”

All-America run­ner Tina Muir main­tains her stride at the Ray Helsing Bulldog Invitational. Muir, a junior, took first place in this race. Photo cour­tesy of Sandy Gholston.

The event, hosted by Saginaw Valley State, will be extra chal­leng­ing since the course was just changed to Lynnwood, which none of Ferris’ run­ners have ever experienced.

The women’s team looks to ride the momen­tum from its vic­tory in its last meet, as it hopes to improve on a third place fin­ish in the GLIAC Championships last sea­son. First year head coach Steve Picucci leads both of the teams.

“The women are just look­ing to get bet­ter and improve upon our third place fin­ish last year,” said Picucci.

The women’s team will be look­ing to claim its first ever GLIAC title. In order to do so, they will have to beat a very com­pet­i­tive field includ­ing Grand Valley State, which has won seven con­sec­u­tive GLIAC cham­pi­onships. The Bulldogs have fin­ished third or bet­ter in each of their two pre­vi­ous events.

The men’s team will be look­ing to show that even though they are young, they are an improved team from a sea­son ago. After fin­ish­ing 10^th at the GLIAC Championships last year, Picucci is hop­ing for a bet­ter fin­ish this season.

“We’re really young, so I’m not sure what to expect,” said Picucci, “We are just look­ing for a big improvement.”

The men have fin­ished in the top five at three events this sea­son, includ­ing a fourth place fin­ish at the Wisconsin-Parkside Lucian Rosa Open. The men will also look to end Grand Valley’s dom­i­nance, as the Lakers have won six straight GLIAC championships.

The last time the Ferris men won a con­fer­ence title was in 1985. The Bulldogs won four in a row from 1972–75.