Brandel-Wilhelm Named GLIAC Coach
Of The Year
Women’s
volleyball head coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm was named the 2002 Great
Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Women’s Volleyball
Coach of the Year for the second time on Nov. 14 at Grand Valley
State’s Fieldhouse Arena in Allendale in conjunction with
the 2002 GLIAC Tournament.
Brandel-Wilhelm,
who is in her seventh season at the helm, guided the Bulldogs
to a national top-25 ranking and the school’s fifth consecutive
20-win campaign (24-6) prior to suffering a quarterfinal-round
league tournament loss to Gannon. She previously was named GLIAC
Coach of the Year in 1998 after leading Ferris State to a 25-10
overall mark.
Brandel-Wilhelm
ranks second among Ferris’s all-time coaching victory leaders
with a 268-94 (.740) career mark. She entered the season ranked
11th among NCAA-II’s winningest active coaches and led Ferris
to an NCAA-II National Tournament appearance in 1999.
The Bulldogs
garnered their fifth consecutive GLIAC tournament berth under
Brandel-Wilhelm this season while Ferris’ 15-3 league record
represented its best conference mark since posting a 16-0 GLIAC
record in 1990. The 2002 campaign marks the second consecutive
season and third time in the last five years the Bulldogs have
finished second in the GLIAC’s North Division.
Brandel-Wilhelm
previously spent three seasons as head coach at West Virginia
Wesleyan (1993-95) in Buckhannon, W.Va., where she led the Bobcats
to a fifth-place finish at the 1995 NCAA-II Championships.
