The No. 5 ranked Ferris State volleyball team faced off against divisional opponents in the Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers and the Purdue Northwest Pride for their home opener weekend.
The Bulldogs (14-0, 6-0 in the GLIAC) kept their unbeaten streak alive this weekend with a victory against Wisconsin-Parkside (7-7, 3-3 in the GLIAC) by a score of 3-0 on Friday, Oct. 4, as well as a Bulldog victory over Purdue Northwest (3-10, 1-5 in the GLIAC) by a score of 3-0 on Saturday, Oct. 5.
With their weekend sweep, the Bulldogs’ 14-0 start marks the best record in program history through 14 games, beating out their 12-0 start in 2015.
Ferris dominated the first two sets against the Rangers, winning the first set by a score of 25-20 and winning the second set 25-18. The third set saw the Rangers lead for most of the set before the Bulldogs took the lead midway through to win the third set 25-23.
Head coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm praised the Rangers for giving the Bulldogs trouble in their close third set.
“Wisconsin-Parkside really turned up their game and they really turned on their offense, they had a great third set by changing their strategy up,” Brandel-Wilhelm said. “They are a very well-coached team, I don’t think we adapted quite fast enough to that, but I thought we picked it up towards the end.”
Senior outside hitter Olivia Henneman-Dallape led the Bulldogs this match with 16 kills and 17 points, senior setter Kaylee Maat led with 35 assists and 11 digs and senior middle hitter Chelsie Freeman had six kills and 10 points.
Freeman credits her teammates to helping her succeed in her role.
“I think this past weekend I was able to rock my role and execute on the court in a way that helped the team be successful,” Freeman said. “My teammates allow me to be successful on the court by them doing an amazing job on executing what we had planned for the game and us playing as one is what allows everyone to be successful on this team.”
The Bulldogs vehemently beat the Pride, winning the first set 25-13 and then winning the second set 25-16. Ferris ultimately won the third set 25-20 despite the Pride giving them trouble.
Henneman-Dallape led this match as well in kills with 11 and in points with 13, senior outside hitter Claire Nowicki had eight kills and 8.5 points, while senior middle hitter Syann Fairfield had seven kills and eight points in the match.
Maat spoke about how they were able to dominate the Pride on offense.
“Coming in, we wanted to spread it out and see how many hitters we could get involved and how many people we could get off the bench to see some action,” Maat said.
The Bulldogs will look to improve on their historic winning streak with more GLIAC conference play this week. Ferris will have traveled to Grand Rapids to face off against Davenport on Tuesday, Oct. 8 then come back home for matches against Saginaw Valley State on Friday, Oct. 11 at 6 p.m. and then on Saturday, Oct. 12 at 3 p.m. against Lake Superior State.