The Bulldogs posted two shootout vic­to­ries over No. 1 Miami (Ohio)

Griggs: Junior Zach Redmond crosses the ice in Miami this week­end. Redmond earned his sev­enth assist of the sea­son on Friday after inter­cept­ing the puck from Miami’s top-ranked team and pass­ing it to team­mate Blair Riley, who scored his sev­enth goal of the sea­son. Photo Courtesy of Miami Student Newspaper Photographer, Michael 

Ferris improved to 7−3−2 over­all this sea­son and 2−2−2−2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) after earn­ing four points in the con­fer­ence stand­ings. Head coach Bob Daniels believes the team is improved, but must con­tinue to work on a few areas.

“After this week­end, I think we have a chance to be a very good team,” said Daniels. “But we have to con­tinue to work hard if we’re going to get there.” Continue Reading…

Torch Staff Report

The new points sys­tem for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) includes one major change from last season.

Each win, whether in reg­u­la­tion or over­time, is worth three points instead of two. If two teams are tied after over­time, then there will be a shootout.

Each team receives one point for reach­ing the shootout and the win­ner receives an addi­tional point for a total of two. Any loss in reg­u­la­tion or over­time gar­ners zero points.

Last sea­son, the CCHA was the first Division I col­lege hockey league to add a shootout after over­time in an effort to reflect more closely the NHL sys­tem. The CCHA stand­ings include four columns, while the over­all stand­ings still have three. An addi­tional col­umn denot­ing shootout wins (SW) indi­cates the num­ber of post-overtime vic­to­ries the team has.

If a team reaches the shootout, it is recorded as a tie in the over­all stand­ings whether they win or lose. When a team’s CCHA record is given, it may con­tain four columns instead of three depend­ing on whether or not they have won a shootout. The Bulldogs have a con­fer­ence record of 2−2−2−2. The team has played six con­fer­ence games, but there are eight num­bers in the stand­ings. The first three num­bers com­bined give the num­ber of games played.

Tina Muir and the women’s cross coun­try team look to fin­ish the sea­son strong

Tina Muir: Junior Tina Muir was recently named to the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II All-Midwest Region Team. Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

Muir, a junior from St. Albans, United Kingdom, has been liv­ing in the United States for four years. She left her fam­ily and moved to Michigan at the age of 19 to pur­sue an edu­ca­tion and to run cross coun­try and track.

“I really wanted to come to school over here exactly for this rea­son because of how sup­port­ive every­one is,” said Muir.

Muir won the Midwest Regional event by 10 sec­onds over Mary Ballinger of Southern Indiana University. Ironically, Southern Indiana is host­ing the NCAA-II National Championships on Saturday in Evansville, Ind. Muir said she is capa­ble of a very high finish.

“Anywhere in the top 10 is a pos­si­bil­ity, but I’d really like top five,” said Muir. “That would be a good goal right now.”

Muir has already piled up many achieve­ments this sea­son as she won the GLIAC and Regional Championships and was named the conference’s “Runner of the Year”. She, along with fresh­man Anna Rudd, was named to the United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Division II All-Midwest Region Team. 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…

Hockey

• Nov. 20 vs. Ohio State 7:05 p.m.
• Nov. 21 vs. Ohio State 5:05 p.m.

Women’s Basketball

• Nov. 20 @ Gannon (Pa.) 6:00 p.m.
• Nov. 21 @ Edinboro (Pa.) 5:00 p.m.
• Nov. 24 vs. Lewis (Ill.) 6:00 p.m.

Men’s Basketball

• Nov. 21 @ St. Joseph’s (Ind.) 3:00 p.m.

Women’s Cross Country

• Nov. 21 vs. NCAA-II National Championships @ Evansville, Ind. 

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…

The Bulldogs are 0–2 to start the 2009–2010 season

Reach for the Sky: Senior Austin Randel pol­ishes up his slam dunk style at prac­tice. The sea­son open­ing game took place this Sunday in Illinois, end­ing with a close 65–60 loss to the Lewis Flyers. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photographer

Ferris started off the week with a 65–60 loss to the Lewis Flyers in a season-opening road con­test on Sunday night.

The Bulldogs and Flyers traded bas­kets in a back-and-forth first half, which included eight lead changes. Neither team could hold an advan­tage for very long, despite a 15-point first half by senior guard Austin Randel. The Flyers man­aged to grab a 32–30 lead at halftime.

In the sec­ond half, Ferris held tight with the Flyers and bat­tled to a three-point lead with 5:42 left in the con­test. The Flyers responded with an 8–0 run to take a 55–50 lead with just 3:43 left on the clock. Continue Reading…

No. 1 ranked Red Hawks up next in Bulldog hockey schedule

Controlling the Puck: Sophomore Derek Graham (#22) breaks away with the puck dur­ing Friday’s game against Bowling Green State. Ferris State pulled off a 5–1 vic­tory, per­pet­u­at­ing their flaw­less 6−0−0 record for home games. Photo By: Kate Dupon | Photgrapher

The Bulldogs swept the Bowling Green State Falcons for their third con­sec­u­tive home sweep to start the sea­son. The Bulldogs dom­i­nated the first match as they skated to a 5–1 victory.

The Falcon’s struck first as they put the puck past sopho­more goal­tender Taylor Nelson, only 59 sec­onds into the sec­ond period. The deficit did not phase the Bulldogs as they went on to score five unan­swered goals, four of which came on the power play.

Senior Blair Riley scored twice to lead the team. Freshmen Travis Ouellette and Matthew Kirzinger, along with junior Justin Menke, each added a goal for the Bulldogs.

The sec­ond con­test was much closer, but the result was the same as Ferris closed out the series with a 3–2 victory.

Bowling Green jumped out to an early lead as they scored at 5:20 in the first period on a power play. The Bulldogs responded quickly as Ouellette scored his fourth and fifth goals of the sea­son to give Ferris a 2–1 lead after 20 min­utes of play.

Late in the sec­ond period, sopho­more Brett Wysopal scored the even­tual game-winner on a short­handed goal to give Ferris a 3–1 lead.

The team had to fight through a slew of penal­ties, as they racked up 33 min­utes of power play time.

“We were very aggres­sive and that lead to some bad reads, which resulted in some penal­ties,” said Bulldog head coach Bob Daniels.

Junior goal­tender Pat Nagle earned his third win on the sea­son as he stopped 29 of 31 shots on goal.

With the pair of wins, Ferris improved to 7–3 over­all and 2–2 in the con­fer­ence on the season.

“I am real happy with our penalty kill and with the end results,” said Daniels.

Next on the Bulldogs’ agenda is a trip to Miami, Ohio to face the No. 1 ranked Red Hawks. Miami is com­ing off a very impres­sive per­for­mance as they swept the fourth ranked University of Michigan in con­vinc­ing fash­ion. Miami is 8−1−1 over­all and 5−1−0 in the conference.

Last sea­son, Ferris per­formed well against Miami as their two games resulted in a 2–2 tie and a 2–1 victory.

“We def­i­nitely don’t need any help get­ting hyped up for this game,” said Daniels. “This is a great mea­sur­ing stick
for us.”

The women’s cross coun­try team advanced to the NCAA-II Championships

Front of the Pack: Junior Tina Muir won her fifth title of the sea­son plac­ing first at the Midwest Regional race. Ferris took third place and will com­pete in the NCAA-II Championships. Photo Courtesy of Ferris State Athletics

For the first time in school his­tory, the women’s cross coun­try team will com­pete in the National Championships in back-to-back sea­sons. The Bulldogs fin­ished with 103 points, behind only Grand Valley State (26) and Southern Indiana (76). Last sea­son, the team also fin­ished third at the regional meet.

Junior Tina Muir set the pace for the Bulldogs and the entire field as she won the event by 10 sec­onds with a time of 21 min­utes, 34 sec­onds. Muir was a Division II All-American and fin­ished fifth at the same event last sea­son. She has claimed five indi­vid­ual titles this season.

“When the team was told that we were going to Nationals for the sec­ond year in a row, the atmos­phere was elec­tric,” said Muir. “Everyone was scream­ing and jump­ing up and down.”

There were 19 teams rep­re­sented and over 130 run­ners in the event. Freshman Anna Rudd and Junior Paige Onweller each fin­ished in the top 20 for the Bulldogs. Onweller said she kept telling her­self to catch the next per­son in front of her.

“You always feel bet­ter when you run smarter, go out a lit­tle slower and pass peo­ple through­out the entire race,” said Onweller.

A sea­son ago, the team placed 17^th at the National Championships. Though the team has been ranked in the top 20 all sea­son long, Onweller said the team’s goal is to improve on their fin­ish from last season.

“We qual­i­fied now, which is a huge accom­plish­ment, but we still have work to do and we want to improve on our team fin­ish from last year,” said Onweller.

The National Championships, hosted by Southern Indiana University, will be held in Evansville, Ind. on Nov. 21. The top three teams from the eight regions nation­wide will com­pete at the event. Muir said she believes the Bulldogs could fin­ish in the top 15 or higher if they per­form their best on that day.

The team enters the GLIAC Tournament as wildcard

The Ferris State vol­ley­ball team split its final home matches of the season.

The Bulldogs began the week­end action on Friday, in which they dropped a close 3–2 deci­sion to the Michigan Tech Huskies. Ferris split the first four sets with the Huskies, but was unable to close out the match, los­ing the final set 15–11.

On the offen­sive side, junior out­side hit­ter Arielle Goodson led the way with a match-high 20 kills. Senior mid­dle hit­ter Kristy Gilchrist chipped in 12 kills and red­shirt fresh­man set­ter Samantha Fordyce posted a match-high 51 assists.

For the Ferris defense, sopho­more out­side hit­ter Ashley Huntey paced the team with 12 digs and sopho­more libero Lisa Tobiczyk chipped in with 11 digs.

The loss against Michigan Tech marked the fourth loss in five matches for the Bulldogs.

After drop­ping the first match of the week­end, the team bounced back and closed out the reg­u­lar sea­son with a 3–1 vic­tory over Northern Michigan on Saturday. Goodson was con­fi­dent the team would bounce back.

“We knew that we’d have to show our men­tal tough­ness after the first loss,” said Goodson. “We knew we had another big game going against Northern Michigan.”

The match started with a spe­cial cer­e­mony to honor the four seniors on the team: Gilchrist, Katie Edwards, Amanda Kettlewell and Sarah Lark.

Ferris was able to jump out to an early lead in the con­test, as the team won the first two sets 25–20 and 25–22. Northern Michigan took the third set 30–28, but Ferris closed out the Wildcats with a deci­sive 25–17 fourth set vic­tory to win the last home match of the sea­son. Ferris dom­i­nated the hit­ting per­cent­age in the fourth set with a .276 mark, while the Wildcats had only a .077 hit­ting percentage.

Gilchrist and Goodson led the offen­sive attack again as Gilchrist tal­lied a match-high 17 kills, while Goodson posted 14 kills. Lark, a co-captain, also con­tributed nine kills.

The Bulldogs had three play­ers with double-digit digs, with Tobiczyk tal­ly­ing a match-leading 16 digs, junior libero Whitney Rupp adding 14 and Huntey putting in 12. Ferris held a 62–49 advan­tage in digs dur­ing the match.

The Bulldogs fin­ished the reg­u­lar sea­son with a 19–10 over­all record and a 10–6 record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Association (GLIAC).
Ferris now heads into the GLIAC Tournament, where the team is a wild­card fol­low­ing a fourth place tie with Northern Michigan in the GLIAC North Division stand­ings. The team has a great deal of morale head­ing into the tournament.

“Our con­fi­dence level is really high going into the tour­na­ment,” said Goodson. “That final win solid­i­fied the con­fi­dence we have in each other and really showed the trust we have for one another.”

The Bulldogs will face off against the Hillsdale Chargers in the first round. Hillsdale is the num­ber one seed in the tour­na­ment after win­ning the GLIAC South Division with a 12–4 con­fer­ence record and a 20–7 over­all record.

In their only match this sea­son, the Bulldogs defeated the Chargers 3–1 at Hillsdale on Oct. 3. The open­ing round con­test will take place today at Jesse Philips Arena in Hillsdale at 7 p.m.