With the regular season closing on Saturday, the Ferris State women’s soccer team looks ahead to the GLIAC tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
The Bulldogs (8-4-6, 8-3-3 in GLIAC) are coming into the tournament ranked 4th in the GLIAC behind Grand Valley State, Parkside and Saginaw Valley State. The Bulldogs won all three of their games in November to end the season, beating Saginaw Valley, Parkside and Roosevelt.
Head coach Greg Henson liked how his team played at the end of the season, leading up to the GLIAC Tournament.
“It’s the goal for us all season to be playing the best soccer on Nov. 11 at the start of the conference tournament,” Henson said. “I think we’re well on our way to that. We’ve had a really good stretch, we’re 4-0-1 in our last five, and hopefully be ready to go come tournament time.”
Junior forward Katherine Welch has started all 17 games she’s played in, while leading the team in 13 points with 47 shots, 24 of them being on goal. Welch has five goals and three assists on the year.
Right behind Welch is senior forward Haley Buckman, who’s started seven of the 17 games she’s played in. Buckman has five goals and one assist on the year on 14 shots, eight of them being on goal. Buckman is the only player to have attempted and scored on a penalty kick which she did for her first of two goals in the 2-1 win over Parkside.
Buckman believes the end of the season is a good way to end before the tournament on Tuesday.
“I feel really strong about it [the GLIAC tournament],” Buckman said. “We’ve done what we can do in these last six games of our regular season to kind of clinch that fourth spot and get a home advantage. I think we’ve done all that we can in our regular season, and we’ll be ready to go.”
Defensively, sophomore goalkeeper Korinne Ihrke has started all 17 games for the Bulldogs, playing over 1,500 minutes in net with a 6-4-6 record and has five shutouts on the season. Ihrke has let in 15 goals for a .89 goals against average and has 72 saves for a save percentage of .828.
Ihrke believes in her team ahead of the GLIAC tournament.
“I feel really confident,” Ihrke said. “I feel really strong with this team, and I believe in us.”
The GLIAC tournament is finalized with the last games ending on Saturday, Nov. 8. As the No. 1 seed, Grand Valley will host No. 8 Roosevelt. No. 2 Parkside will host No. 7 Purdue Northwest. No. 3 Saginaw Valley will host No. 6 Davenport and the No. 4 Ferris State Bulldogs will host the No. 5 Northern Michigan Wildcats. That leaves Michigan Tech out of the conference tournament.
The Wildcats’ leader in points is senior forward/defender Hannah Kastamo with 14 points on 42 shots. Kastamo has started all 18 games she’s played in and recorded five goals and four assists, including two game-winning goals. Right behind her is senior midfielder Kenna Alexander, who has also started all 18 games that she’s appeared in. Alexander is second with 12 points on 17 shots, recording five goals and two assists with two game-winning goals.
Northern Michigan has played two goalkeepers this season, redshirt junior Jillian Thompson and redshirt freshman Carly Sides. Thompson has started all 12 games she’s played in for 1,080 minutes and has a 4-4-4 record. She has 45 saves on the year for a save percentage of .750, while also having four shutouts. Sides started all six games she’s played in for 540 minutes on the field with a 2-3-1 record. Sides has 35 saves for a .761 save percentage and one shutout.
The GLIAC Tournament starts on Tuesday, Nov. 11, with the higher seed in the matchups having a home-field advantage.