Ferris State Women's Golf Earns First GLIAC Championship Since 2007!

Big Rapids, Mich. - For the first time in 16 years, the Ferris State University women's golf team captured the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Championship as the Bulldogs defeated Saginaw Valley State in the medal match play title contest on Sunday (April 23) in Augusta, Mich.

Ferris State won three of the five head-to-head matchups against the Cardinals to claim the program's first league title since back-to-back crowns in 2006 and 2007. FSU, which is guided by head coach Sam Stark, earned the 3-2 over SVSU after previously beating rival Grand Valley State 4-1 in the semifinals on Saturday.

The league championships were held at Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort, which has become one of the largest golf resorts in the World, featuring six championship courses in one amazing destination. Play took place on Stonehedge Golf Club's North Course where the par 72 layout measured 5,829 total yards.

FSU's Lizzie Anderson was a one-stroke winner for the Bulldogs on Sunday while Dani Staskowski and Alayna Eldred closed out the victory, winning by four holes and two holes, respectively. The Bulldogs' Kamryn Shannon narrowly fell by a single stroke with Abby Grevel finishing four back in her head-to-head match.

As part of the medal match format, each match was scored by the cumulative number of strokes won rather than by the number of holes won. The player up by the most strokes after 18 holes won each respective match. The format is the same utilized during NCAA Championship action.

The league championship was the Bulldogs' fifth in program history as FSU also captured the crown in both 2001 and 2002 before the consecutive titles in 2006 and 2007. Prior to this year, GVSU had won each of the last four league women's golf titles and 13 of the last 14 overall. Ferris State and GVSU are the only current conference members to have won a league championship since the conference began sponsoring the competition in 2001 and have combined for 21 of the 22 titles overall.

Prior to the semifinals, the Bulldogs had finished second overall behind Wayne State in the 36-hole stroke play portion of the league championships on Friday. The 2023 GLIAC Championships continued the format established three years ago with each league school competing in 36 holes of stroke play. The low four of five scores counted towards the respective team score for each squad.

Following round two, the top four teams then advanced to head-to-head medal play on Saturday with a bracket format similar to the current format utilized at the NCAA Championships. The two winning teams following semifinal-round play, FSU and SVSU, advanced to the finals where the GLIAC Champion was crowned.

The official NCAA Tournament selections will be announced later this week.