Ferris has hopes of steal­ing a GLIAC cham­pi­onship away from seven-time defend­ing cham­pion Northwood University after a strong fin­ish to the reg­u­lar season.

The Bulldogs wrapped up reg­u­lar sea­son play on Saturday against Lake Erie University with a mer­ci­less 9–0 vic­tory that squashed the league new­com­ers. After the win the Bulldogs fin­ished the sea­son 9–2 in the GLIAC stand­ings while drop­ping Lake Erie to 0–10 in the con­fer­ence. The vic­tory at home was the third straight for Ferris. The Bulldogs did not drop a sin­gle set at any posi­tion in their win against Lake Erie.

“The com­pe­ti­tion has been tough in nearly every match,” said senior Amy Ingle. “Even in the matches where the score has looked fairly easy, we had to fight to win every point, every game, and every match.”

Ferris faced Ohio Dominican Oct. 8 and bat­tled for an 8–1 vic­tory. Senior Tiffany Rheynard said the team’s strength lies in the effec­tive­ness of its line up.

“We have every­one where they belong all the way down the line so it helps when we know that we can match up evenly at every posi­tion,” said Rheynard.

The team’s clos­est win came from a 5–4 vic­tory over vis­it­ing Ashland on Oct. 7. The win was the start of the Bulldogs’ three-game win­ning streak and was also what moti­vated the women as they fin­ished the season.

“Ashland has always been a team to look out for — we have lost to them in dual sea­son matches in the past, so it was very impor­tant for us to go out fir­ing on all cylin­ders,” said Rheynard.

Senior Alina Stanila ends the sea­son lead­ing the league with a 9–0 record in the No. 1 flight of sin­gles play, while the tan­dem of Flowers and Stanila lead the con­fer­ence with an 8–1 record in dou­bles play. Simpson has a 5–1 record at the No. 5 spot and junior Natalie Diorio at the No. 6 flight has a 6–0 record, which leads the league. Rheynard is 6–3 in sin­gles play at the No. 3 spot, which ranks sec­ond in the league.

Ferris will next be com­pet­ing in the GLIAC cham­pi­onship on Oct. 22–24. The Bulldogs have not won since the 2002 sea­son, when they shared the cham­pi­onship with Northern Michigan University. Since the 2003 sea­son, Northwood University has won the GLIAC cham­pi­onship seven times in a row. Ingle said she feels the Bulldogs are ready to put every­thing they have into the tour­na­ment and are ready to prove to them­selves and to other teams that they are the team to beat in the GLIAC tournament.

“Our team goal as of right now is to go into the GLIAC tour­na­ment fired up and ready to win the whole tour­na­ment,” said Ingle. n