Bulldogs barren

Ferris soccer fails to pick up a goal in its GLIAC weekend stint

The Bulldog women’s soccer team was shut out in their weekend matchups with a scoreless tie against the Davenport Panthers and a 2-0 loss to the Grand Valley State Lakers.

Ferris (6-4-4, 5-3-2 in GLIAC) faced off against the Davenport Panthers (6-3-6, 4-2-5 in GLIAC) in Grand Rapids on Friday, Oct. 25 and ended up tying the match with the Panthers, the final score being 0-0.

Freshman midfielder Natalia Leavens runs for control of the ball. Photo by: Ciara Brooks | Torch Photographer

The Bulldogs struggled to get shots on goal against the Panthers, only attempting two. Both were towards the beginning of the second half, the first from senior midfielder Brinley Bell and the second from sophomore forward Katherine Welch. The Panthers also totaled two shots on goal of their own.

Freshman goalkeeper Morgan Fillion played all 90 minutes of the match and saved both shots on goal from the Panthers helping preserve the tie for Ferris.

The Bulldogs looked to get a win against the Grand Valley State Lakers (10-1-3, 7-1-2 in the GLIAC) on Sunday, Oct. 27 who are in second place in the GLIAC behind the Northern Michigan Wildcats.

Despite the loss and built-in rivalry, Welch gave her flowers to Grand Valley’s squad.

“Grand Valley is a great team, and it is obviously always a great game whenever we play them and I thought that today Grand Valley put up a good fight and we put up a great fight as well,” Welch said. “Grand Valley finished those chances that they got in the box, but I think our squad played just as well.”

The Bulldogs struggled again to get shots on goal against the Lakers squad, again totaling two shots on goal. The first came from Welch and the other came from junior defender Bella Vallone.

The Lakers struck first early in the first half with a goal, but the Bulldogs played tough against the Lakers the whole match holding them to one until the Lakers struck again, scoring late in the second half to put the game out of reach.

Welch remained positive about the team’s outcome heading into the homestretch of the season.

“I honestly think my team did a great job of going out there with so much grit and playing as a team today,” Welch said. “Obviously we didn’t get the result that we wanted, but I definitely think we left it all on the field as a team, and played to the best of our ability, just unfortunately we couldn’t get a shot in the net today, but we’re going to come back from this and have a great attitude for the upcoming matches.”

With only four matches left in the season, the Bulldogs need 12 points to get into the playoffs for the first time since their excellent run to the NCAA DII Final Four back in 2022.

Head coach Greg Henson stressed the impact of the remaining four matchups for the team’s playoff hopes.

“We have four games left on the season, you know points are crucial for us right now to finish with where we want to finish top four in the standings, so every game matters,” Henson said. “So we have a tough one on our last road game of the season at Saginaw Valley, then a three game homestand, so we’re looking to pick up 12 points, and you can’t pick up 12 unless you pick up three first.”

With upcoming matches against a tough squad in the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals and the Purdue Northwest Pride the Bulldogs have their work cut out for them, but can take advantage of matches against the winless Roosevelt Lakers and the Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers.

The Bulldogs will travel to Saginaw to face off against the Cardinals on Friday, Nov. 1 then come back home for the first game of a final three game homestand to face off against the Roosevelt Lakers on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 1 p.m. This will be the squad’s first time taking on Roosevelt.