Ferris State Volleyball Holds Onto First Place In GLIAC With Victory

Big Rapids, Mich. - The nationally-ranked Ferris State University women's volleyball team held onto a share of first place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) North Division standings with a 3-1 victory over Michigan Tech on Friday (Nov. 1) night in Houghton, Mich.

The Bulldogs opened a weekend trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula with the 25-18, 25-22, 25-27 and 25-18 triumph at MTU's Student Development Complex Gymnasium.

With the win, Ferris State ran its conference-leading mark to 11-1 and the Bulldogs are now 18-5 overall this season. The Huskies fell to 9-15 overall and 5-7 in the GLIAC.

Ferris State hit an impressive .412 in the opening set while setting the tone for the night with the decisive game one victory.  FSU followed it up with a .290 percentage in winning the second frame and the Bulldogs closed it out in the fourth set with a .359 figure.

Meanwhile, Michigan Tech was held to totals of .162 and .146 in dropping the first and fourth frames by identical 25-18 scores.

Junior hitter Courtney Rehm paced three FSU players in double-digit kills with 16 on the night. She added 15 digs in a double-double showing.  Both sophomore Alexis Huntey and middle hitter Caroline Heitzman added 15 kills each while Huntey also chipped in 13 digs and Heitzman totaled three blocks.

Along with the those three, Ferris State also received a season-high 56 assists from freshman setter Stephanie Sikorski.  Senior libero Brandie Merren tallied 23 digs for the Bulldogs in the win with sophomore Megan Vander Meer netting seven kills and senior Angi Kent recording six for the match.

Overall, Ferris State registered 72 digs, 61 kills, five aces and six service errors.  FSU hit .308 overall for the night with only 16 attack errors on 146 total attempts.

Four Michigan Tech players totaled 10 kills or more as both Shelby Jones and Kendall Ward notched 14 each.  Kienna Sharp added 13 kills and Madeline Haben had 10.  

MTU was led in the back row by Jacqueline Aird's 20 digs along with 19 from Rachle Pohlod.  Haben added 42 assists in directing the attack.

Michigan Tech had only a .196 attack showing for the match on 59 kills and 26 errors in 168 total attacks.  The Huskies totaled 65 digs and four aces with eight service errors.  Ferris State had eight team blocks to MTU's five for the match.

With the win, the Bulldogs remained tied with rival Grand Valley State atop the GLIAC North Division standings as both teams have an 11-1 league mark to date. Ferris State has presently won 14 of its last 16 outings overall this year.

The Bulldogs will wrap up their two-match weekend road swing by facing Northern Michigan on Saturday (Nov. 2) in Marquette. Match time is set for 4 p.m. (ET).