Ferris State Volleyball Celebrates Championship Season As Title Rings Are Presented

Big Rapids, Mich. - The Ferris State University volleyball program recently celebrated its 2014 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) title season as championship rings were presented to the members of the Bulldog program.

The event helped officially close the door on the 2014 championship season as the Bulldogs begin pointing toward the 2015 season and repeating as conference champions.

In 2014, the Bulldogs posted a 24-6 overall record and claimed both the GLIAC Regular-Season Championship along with the GLIAC Tournament title. FSU also earned a fourth-straight berth to the NCAA Tournament. 

This past fall represented the first time in school history in which FSU won both the league's regular-season and tournament championships as the Bulldogs claimed only their second-ever GLIAC Tournament title by beating rival Grand Valley State in the tourney title match.

"It was exciting to win both the regular-season and the tournament championship, which Ferris State had never done before," said FSU head coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm. "It really reflected on our consistency throughout the year. We have an outstanding tradition in our program and the hallmark has always been the fact we have great student-athletes who are driven to be successful in so many areas on and off the court."

The 2014 season marked the 13th time in 19 seasons under Brandel-Wilhelm in which FSU had claimed at least 20 victories in a campaign. The Bulldogs have also reached the NCAA-II Tournament 19 times overall and made 17 consecutive GLIAC Tournament appearances to date.

Ferris State lost only a pair of seniors from last fall's squad. The Bulldogs will return 11 letterwinners for the 2015 campaign, including four All-GLIAC honorees in outside hitters Megan Vander Meer and Alexis Huntey along with middle hitter Caroline Heitzman and setter Stephanie Sikorski.

Vander Meer was chosen as an American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) All-American in 2014 and FSU also returns libero Danielle Dowd, who was named to the Capital One Academic All-America squad.

The Bulldogs are slated to open fall camp in August with the 2015 season scheduled to begin in early September.

The volleyball squad was one of four Ferris State programs to capture GLIAC Championships in the 2014-15 season as they were joined by the FSU football, men's tennis and men's basketball squads which won either a regular-season or tournament title this past year.