For the first time in school history, the No. 1 ranked Bulldogs volleyball team finished their historic regular season undefeated at 28-0.
With back-to-back 3-0 sweeps over the Purdue Northwest Pride and the Wisconsin Parkside Rangers, Ferris secured the GLIAC championship outright.
Senior outside hitter Olivia Henneman-Dallape said it is an amazing feeling to be 28-0.
“Our record is great, and we are winning, which is an amazing feeling. To be honest, it doesn’t feel like we’ve played 28 games,” Henneman-Dallape said. “We’re a team who takes it one game at a time. It’s amazing that we have had this historic season as a team. We really put our focus on who our next opponent is and what to do to be better.”
The Bulldogs (28-0, 17-0 in GLIAC) took down the Purdue Northwest Pride (9-17, 5-11 in GLIAC) by a score of 3-0 on Friday, Nov. 15. Then Ferris defeated the Wisconsin Parkside Rangers (11-16, 7-9 in GLIAC) on Saturday, Nov. 16 by a score of 3-0.
Ferris has only lost one set in its last eight matches, with that one loss coming against Wayne State on Nov. 1. Also, the Bulldogs have never lost to the Pride since their first match in 2017 while only losing a total of four sets to the Pride in that time.
Ferris dominantly took down the Pride on Friday, winning the first set 25-13, the second set 25-14 and finally finishing off the Pride in a closer third set by a score of 25-21. With the victory over Purdue Northwest, the Bulldogs secured the GLIAC championship for the 15th time in school history and their first since 2022.
The Bulldogs were led in this match by senior outside hitter Claire Nowicki, who had 10 kills on 18 total attempts and 12 total points. Henneman-Dallape had nine kills on 15 attempts with 11 total points, and senior setter Kaylee Maat led the team in assists with 25.
Then the Bulldogs traveled to Kenosha, Wisc. to face off against the Rangers for the final game of the regular season. Ferris secured a governing victory over the Rangers, winning the first set by a score of 25-16, the second set 25-15, and took down the Rangers 25-20 in their final set of the regular season.
Nowicki had a match-leading 14 kills on 34 attempts with 16 total points. Senior middle hitter Chelsie Freeman had eight kills on 13 total attempts with nine total points, and Maat led the Bulldogs in assists with 26. Maat finished the season with a career total of 5,517 assists.
Senior middle hitter Chelsie Freeman credited working together since the summer and having clear goals for the year for this season.
“We have been working together since this summer and have had clear goals on where we wanted to go this season since last January,” Freeman said. “I think one of the leading factors for this team is that we all know where we want to go and how we want to get there.”
Coming off a 22-7 record last year, the Bulldogs aimed to get back on top of the conference this season and did just that.
Senior libero Leah Bylut knows the team has to focus on every upcoming matchup heading into the playoffs no matter the opponent.
“Now that we are entering the postseason, we really have to hone in on each individual game because anything can happen at this point,” Bylut said. “We will be spending a lot of time on strategy and preparing for each opponent and just enjoying each day we get to keep competing.”
This week, the Bulldogs will partake in the GLIAC tournament at home, with the quarterfinal matchup against the Pride on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 7 p.m. The semifinal will happen on Saturday, Nov. 23 followed by the tournament championship on Sunday, Nov. 24.