Women will be look­ing to shock and awe in NCAA tour­na­ment to close out season

The Ferris State women’s vol­ley­ball team will com­pete in the Division II NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006.

Ferris was one of the 64 teams selected to take part in the tour­na­ment. Ferris is the sev­enth seed in the Midwest Region and will take on second-seeded Lewis University (27−4). Lewis (Ill.) is cur­rently ranked 11^th nation­ally. The Bulldogs fin­ished the reg­u­lar sea­son with a 19–11 over­all record.

The team will be look­ing to per­form at a high level in order to pull the upset and avenge their 3–0 defeat to Lewis ear­lier this sea­son in the GLVC Crossover tour­na­ment. Coach Tia Brandel-Wilhelm believes that this team’s hard work and tena­cious­ness will ben­e­fit them.

“As always we are just going to have to take care of play on our side of the court,” said Brandel-Wilhelm.

Freshman out­side hit­ter Aly Brecht will be look­ing to make a strong con­tri­bu­tion off the bench.

“We just need to go out there with a win­ning mind­set,” said Brecht.

This will be the team’s 15^th appear­ance in the NCAA tour­na­ment. The women will be look­ing to improve on their 7–15 record in the NCAA play­offs. The Bulldogs have not won a NCAA Tournament con­test this decade.

“This team com­petes well every time they take the court,” said Brandel-Wilhelm.

Ferris will be hop­ing to rebound after their dis­ap­point­ing first round loss to even­tual cham­pion Hillsdale in the GLIAC tour­na­ment. Ferris fought hard through­out but fell in four sets, 25–22, 15–25, 15–25, and 15–25. Senior Kristy Gilchrist and junior Arielle Goodson led the way for the Bulldogs as they recorded 13 and 12 kills respectively.

“I have been very pleased with the per­for­mance of the team thus far this sea­son,” said Brandel-Wilhelm.