After falling to Michigan Tech 3-2 last Wednesday, the Northern Michigan volleyball team bounced back and defeated Lake Superior State 3-0 in the last regular season game of the year.
The victory secured NMU’s second-place finish in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletics Conference (GLIAC) North Division on Saturday.
“We came out really fired up,” sophomore hitter Amy Andersen-Goldsworthy said. “We wanted to prove to everyone that we could come back and take care of business after losing last week.”
The ‘Cats (19-11 overall, 13-5 GLIAC) finished the regular season just below No. 7 Grand Valley State (27-3, 17-1).
Northern Michigan ended their regular season with pride, said Andersen-Goldsworthy.
When the regular season has come to an end, the ‘Cats prepared for the GLIAC tournament, which opened on Wednesday night in the Vandament Arena, with NMU squaring off against Ferris State (20-9, 12-6).
“We’ve worked all season long to achieve this opportunity to host the quarterfinals,” head coach Dominic Yoder said. “We’re going to continue to work hard, as always.”
In addition to marking the last regular season match for the Wildcats, Saturday’s match was also the last regular season home game that seniors Brittany McGowan and Megan Elliott would ever play at NMU.
A pre-game ceremony honored the seniors and their athletic contributions.
“I saw a few of the girls start to tear up,” McGowan said. “It’s just been a great four years and I can’t believe how quickly it’s gone by.”
Both senior spikers expressed their sentiments over how important their last match at home was.
“It was sad because I didn’t expect this day to come so quickly,” Elliott said. “But it was exciting.”
The match had a lot of significance for the younger players, as well, Andersen-Goldsworthy said.
“Brittany and Megan have been good leaders and I’ve really enjoyed playing with them these last two years,” Andersen-Goldsworthy said. “But we have at least four freshmen coming in next year, and I’m coming back as a junior next year, so I’m really looking forward to having more of a leadership role.”
Andersen-Goldsworthy, along with two-time GLIAC player of the week and National Player of the week Caryn VanBeckum, libero Cassie Osiecki, outside hitter Breanne Zaremba, Kat Garvick and an injured Mandie Meyer will have big shoes to fill if they intend to become strong leaders for the team next season, Meyer said.
“I’m sad that I probably won’t be able to play in the tournament at all because my ankle is still pretty twisted,” Meyer said. “But it’s a small price to pay to be able to come back with full force next season.”
A few of the younger players were able to get some playing time in against LSSU last weekend because head coach Dominic Yoder wanted to reward the girls for all of their hard work in front of their parents, he said.
Yoder’s good karma turned out to be beneficial to the Wildcats as sophomore Becky Jarosh killed the match-winning point against the Lakers, Amy Mohr contributed 2 service aces and seven digs, and freshman Katie Twardzik added three assists, two kills, and one dig for the Wildcats.
“This year has gone well in every way it should have,” McGowan said. “We’re a big close family and because of that I wouldn’t have changed anything.”
Complementing senior, No. 10, Elliott, agreed that even if she could have changed anything this past season, she would have left things exactly as they were.
“I don’t think I would have done anything differently either,” Elliott said. “We had our ups and downs but in the end it only made us a stronger team.”
The ‘Cats (19-11 overall, 13-5 GLIAC) ended the season and finished just below No. 7 Grand Valley State (27-3, 17-1). The team ended their regular season with pride, said Andersen-Goldsworthy.
“Our biggest challenge leading to the GLIAC is getting used to the feeling that we’re going to play past the end of our regular conference,” Yoder said.
Despite the fact that the regular season schedule has come to an end, though, ‘Cats must now prepare for the GLIAC tournament, which opens on Wednesday night in the Vandament Arena, when NMU squares off against Ferris State (20-9, 12-6).
“We’ve worked all season long to achieve this opportunity to host the quarterfinals,” head coach Dominic Yoder said. “We’re going to continue to work hard, as always.”
In other GLIAC quarterfinals action, Michigan Tech (9-16, 7-11) takes on Grand Valley State, Hillsdale (24-6, 15-2) plays host to Saginaw Valley State (20-11, 9-9), and Findlay (19-13, 8-9) competes at Ashland (25-4, 14-3).
Both the North and South Division teams will be re-seeded after the results of the quarterfinals are calculated, and will then be plugged into Saturday’s semifinals. The GLIAC semifinal matches will be hosted at the sites of the highest remaining teams.
