Taking to the road over the weekend, the Bulldog volleyball team would fall to Northern on Friday but refocus and defeat Michigan Tech on Sunday.
Searching for a win on Sunday during their last GLIAC divisional match, the Bulldogs beat the Huskies 3-1. Ferris beat Michigan Tech in 4 matches 25-15, 25-22, 23-25, and 25-22.
Senior Arielle Goodson had 17 kills, along with two blocking assists while junior Ashley Huntey had 14 kills. Sophomore Aly Brecht had eight kills and fellow sophomore Anne Sutton contributed two solo blocks and six kills for the Bulldogs. Sophomore Samantha Fordyce had an impressive 47 assists and two blocking assists.
The Bulldogs had 56 kills compared to the Huskies’ 48 and a 0.255 hitting percentage to their 0.254 percentage.
“We played with a lot of intensity and served well to take Michigan Tech out of their offense,” said Brecht.
On Friday, the Bulldogs fell to Northern Michigan in a five-set match. After two difficult matches for the Bulldogs, the Wildcats took a 2-0 advantage. After suffering the two-match losses, Ferris would redeem itself in the next two matches, winning them and tying the match up at 2-2, forcing a final set.
The final set would look even at first, then the Wildcats would score two points and continue to lead for the remainder of the set. The Bulldogs had many key players in the match, including Arielle Goodson who had 27 kills, four blocks, and two blocking assists. Anne Sutton had seven kills, and a .545 hitting percentage; Ashley Huntey had 17 digs and tied Aly Brecht with nine kills each. Lisa Tobiczyk had 21 digs, Dana Ruttle with 11, and Samantha Fordyce contributed 52 assists along with nine digs. Even though they put up a good fight they would lose to Northern 2-3.
Despite the loss, the Bulldogs had a .190 hitting percentage compared to the Wildcats’ .150.
“It was a disappointing loss after a come back being down two games,” said senior Dana Ruttle. “Our team fought hard but came up short. The lessons learned from that game helped in our win against Michigan Tech.”
The Bulldogs are now 8-6 in the conference and 12-9 overall as they will return home to host Tiffin on Saturday at 2 p.m. and faceoff against Ohio Dominican on Halloween at 2 p.m. n