Following last season’s success,
the Northern Michigan University Women’s Volleyball team
looks poised to make another run
towards the GLIAC Conference
Championship.
The Wildcats finished second
place in the regular season, finishing behind conference and tournament champions Ferris State
University. NMU finished with
a 12-4 record and made it to the
conference semifinals before falling to the Michigan Tech University Huskies in four sets.
There are holes to fill up front
as the Wildcats lose their top two
point-getters in senior right-side
hitter Madison Whitehead and
senior middle blocker Kayla Chosa to graduation.
Offensively for the Wildcats
players are going to need to step-up if they can expect to close
out games and put points on the
scoreboard. Whitehead and Chosa both scored over 380 points
each last season with the next
closest Wildcat being freshman
outside hitter Leticia Antunes,
who finished the season with 328
points. Antunes returns as a sophomore and will look to anchor
the scoring for the Wildcats along
with junior middle blocker Sarah
Kuehn.
Kuehn finished the season tied
with four other Wildcats with 108
blocks on the season. Senior outside hitter Autumn Monsma will
join Kuehn up front, who finished
last season with 286 points and
108 blocks.
Defensively for NMU, senior defensive specialist Rachel
Braunschweig returns to fill her
role in the middle of the court.
Braunschweig’s 460 digs last season were far and away the most
on the season, followed next by
Antunes with 359.
Senior setter Lynzi Svoboda
takes over for departing senior
setter Jami Hobeboom. Svoboda
played in eight games out of 25
last season while setting up 19
assists compared to Hobeboom’s
1,192 assists. If the Wildcats are
to able to find success, expect
Svoboda to be in the middle of
every play.
The Wildcats are coached by
Mike Lozier who is entering his
second full season at NMU. Lozier is known for his ability to lead
his programs to success, having
previously been the head coaches
at Wayne State University (WSU)
and Grand Valley State University (GVSU). In 2016 while coaching WSU, Lozier led the team to
its first winning season since 2012
before being hired to the same
position at GVSU.
While with the Grand Valley
State University Lakers, Lozier
finished the 2013 campaign first
in the GLIAC conference regular season and then to a GLIAC
Conference Championship title.
Lozier took over a season ago
from a NMU team that finished
17-14 in the regular season and
transformed them into a potential
championship team that nearly
played for a championship last
season.
Expectations are high for the
Wildcats this season with six seniors on the roster. The Wildcats
open their 2018 season with a
matchup against McKendree Friday, August 24 at 12 p.m.
