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Hello and welcome to Ferris Sports Update.
I'm your host Rob Bentley, and thanks for tuning in.
On today's show, we'll recap another exciting season for Ferris State Football in volleyball,
and we'll check in with the Bulldog hockey team off our weekend sweep.
But we'll start first with Bulldog Football, joined by Coach Tony and East.
Coach, first of all, welcome out of the show.
Thanks, Rob.
I know a heartbreaking finish for your team this past week in the national quarterfinals,
but certainly have to be proud of what your team's achieved here another season.
Yeah, absolutely.
It's hard to get into that final, you know, final eight.
You know, so a lead eight, you know, only 18s left in last year in the final four.
So we're getting closer.
We know right there, you know, the frustration exists in that, you know, we're so close.
And this year, I think the bracket would have set up really favorable toss.
I think we would have been playing home again in the semifinal game if we would have won.
And, you know, I don't see that national power.
There's good teams, obviously, but there's not a Northwest Missouri State
who, you know, was so much better than everyone last year.
They dominated the national championship game and beat us in the semis.
So that's a little frustrating, but really close, and we'll keep on grinding.
Obviously, you have to be proud of your senior class 45 and 7 over the past four years
and four straight trips to the Division II playoffs.
Yeah, it's hard to be in the playoffs, you know, as, you know,
everybody fights for that as one of their goals.
And so for us to do it four years in a row, not to say we're taking it for granted,
but it feels good to do, but we want to make more noise.
Obviously, we want to, you know, win this whole thing.
And so a little frustrated that we are out of it,
but give Harding a lot of credit.
They were a really good team.
Let's go with some of the highlights from this game.
Obviously, you knew coming in, Harding with an option-based attack and was going to be tough to stop.
We knew it was going to be tough, you know.
The hard part is the three to four yards on every play, you know.
They don't have many negative plays.
And so, you know, the first period here, they knock out 10 minutes.
So we knew we had limited possessions.
We knew it was going to be a grind.
At first, just to settle in to defend them.
And, you know, they're just so good at what they do and give them a lot of credit for that.
When we start back, we thought we could throw quick on them.
And we were successful with them for the most part,
but we had too many penalties and too many negative plays, a couple sacks that cost our offense,
you know, to not be as efficient as we need to be.
Their Jahan takes along with, so, you know, four plays in and we're ahead seven to three.
And then we stop them.
And then we, you know, we knew we couldn't make critical mistakes in this game.
And once we stop them here, they punt to us.
You know, we got to make something happen.
And we threw the pick here, give them a short field.
You can't give them, you know, 95 yards is short for them, you know.
And so then they end up scoring.
We only had, you know, five plays in the whole first quarter.
And they end up scoring here to go ahead.
Obviously, your defense after that opening drive played pretty well here against a team that liked to move the ball on the ground.
Yes, we knew there was going to be a settling in process with how unique and, you know, not facing that offense.
And so we knew that would be a challenge.
But after a while, our defense settled in and, you know, hung in there and just got worn down at the end.
We needed to make some plays where we had a possession where Reggie went out on first down and Travis came in.
And that was a key drive.
We needed to kind of get our defense rested and allow the offense down the field for at least, you know,
a drive where it could slow them down and rest our defense until we failed to do that.
Here to Vance Harrington in his second touchdown run of the game late in the third quarter.
Gives you a 14-13 lead.
Yeah, it was, you know, obviously a scary situation in that we only had 14-13.
But, you know, to be ahead after not playing all that well, you know, it felt good.
There it was a third down long play and we just fell short and had to punt the ball to them.
And then our defense stepped up here, they missed the field goal.
And this is when we needed to have that possession where we moved the ball.
But we failed to do so when they kicked it right here.
Terrell Porter got a little piece of the ball there.
So we were probably another inch or two inches short of black in that and went in the game.
Obviously a heartbreaking finish up for your guys, but especially for your seniors and a group that's meant a lot to Ferris State football.
Yeah, you know, they've been incredible.
You know, you look back at it and you just think of all the success we've had, you know, right now you're just in misery
because you want to continue the season and you obviously don't want to lose that way.
We weren't at our best and particularly offensively, we needed to help the defense and we were not able to do that.
And so there's a little frustration, obviously, but looking back and after you pull yourself away a couple weeks,
you know, it's just an unbelievable four years for everybody who's been a part of this,
but our seniors especially, they've been outstanding and they've been unbelievable representatives of, you know, what you want them to represent.
As a college student athlete, you know, they've been involved in community service, they've been involved in representing the things you want represented,
and so I'm really proud of them.
As you look back over the year, talk about the adversity your team faced in terms of injuries, obviously the weather at times and how they responded.
That's a rough year.
I'll be honest with you, it was, you know, it took some gas out of you for sure.
And people would say, Jesus, it was rough, you know, you were 11 and 2,
but it was one of those years where we just had to fight and grind for everything that we got,
proud that we were able to do what we did under the conditions, the challenges that were confronted.
And so, you know, it was incredible for sure and, you know, a lot of guys stepped up.
We had to play a lot of guys, so hopefully that bodes well for our future,
but we feel good moving forward, but we're going to sadly miss those seniors.
As you move forward now, obviously into the recruiting phase and then getting geared up for spring ball,
I'll just talk about what transpires here between now and the spring.
Yeah, a lot of work to do, you know, it's a funny thing,
but being in the playoffs almost, you know, works against you sometimes recruiting,
you know, those guys that we're recruiting against are out there selling kids on,
they commit to us now, and so I'll tell the young people, you know, we were, you know,
we were the team that went the furthest in the GLIAC the last two years now,
and so, you know, I mean, we're the team that a lot of people should want to take a hard look at,
so they shouldn't be jumping to conclusions and getting pressured by those who have had time
to pressure young people because that's all they have to do,
and so we're here to tell them, you know, see what Ferris State has to offer
because obviously we've been highly successful and our kids,
and our coaching staff has created an unbelievable culture.
Obviously, here over the next month, what happens during that recruiting phase
is you get ready for signing day?
You know, it's the worst part of being a coach.
I'll be honest with you that from now until signing day, it's the hardest part,
and so we're just going to have to go out there and beat the bushes.
We have a pretty good idea who we have a strong interest in,
and so just, you know, go out there and sell our programs, not difficult to sell,
sell our university, not difficult to sell, unbelievable academic programs, unbelievable culture,
not only within the football program, but the athletic department and within the university,
and so everyone feels great about being a Ferris State Bulldog,
and so, you know, that's the thing we've got to make people understand.
Well, Coach, congratulations again on another great season, and thanks for being with us every week.
Thanks, Rob. Thanks for all you do to make Ferris State Football special to so many viewers out there.
We'll be back with more Ferris Sports Update right after this.
For more information, go to ferris.edu.
Wow, you can get a 14-inch pizza with one topping for only $5.99 at Mancino's?
Action!
Hi, I'm Tony Presomoli from Tony's Basement Pizzeria, and our pizza is not that terrible.
We may not have a 14-inch for $5.99, or great daily specials like a grinder combo for $6.99
with chips and a drink, or a small calzone combo.
I also can't compete with the 10% discount that Ferris students have.
You know what? I quit. If you want quality food, call Mancino's.
Welcome back to Ferris Sports Update. Time to talk Bulldog Hockey with us, head coach Bob Daniels.
Coach, welcome back to the show.
Good to be here, Rob.
Got to be pleased this past weekend at home, taking on Alaska Anchorage.
Any time you can come out of the weekend with six points, you certainly have to be pleased with the results.
I was, and it was really more than the results.
I was just happy about our approach to the games both nights.
I thought Friday night we really carried the play.
Virgole Manta was unbelievable that night. He had a great game.
I didn't think their team played that well.
I think they would admit that.
They just made me a long travel, but we played really well.
Then Saturday was really a good contest, Rob.
That thing was hard fought. I give our guys a lot of credit because it's hard to win two on a weekend.
Given the fact that I thought Anchorage really, they were on top of their game that night.
He played hard and it was a tough fought win.
As we go to the highlights of Friday's game, the opening game of the series,
obviously you're guys coming in with a short week after the long travel back from Alabama and Huntsville.
Yeah, and that's kind of been the story of our second half here.
We went on the road quite a bit, but we didn't take us long to get going here.
A little concerned after the last Saturday night, the third period that we didn't play as well as we had hoped.
But boy, we came out strong here.
At the end of the first period on Friday night, we had still see on these highlights
so many really good quality scoring chances from in close.
We just couldn't solve it open at the other end of the ring.
48 shots on the night, certainly you like to see that production in terms of total shots.
Yeah, and in terms of where the game was played, we played it the majority of the time in there under the ring.
This is a very difficult game though for our goaltender to play in
because you're seeing some opportunities they have, but it was really few and far between.
So at one end you're watching the guy have to really make save after save
and then you're in all of a sudden you'll get a shot.
And it's really a mental focused thing.
Here's a goal, great shot by Trevor Reckon of all this.
For us to go up two, that was a huge goal.
We needed to have a little bit of breathing room.
Two to nothing at the end of the second period.
You were able to hold on down the stretch.
And the third period is Justin Kappelmaster and that had a nice night for you and gets his first shutout.
Yeah, where he earns a shutout through two periods.
Like I say, they had very few chances.
But the third period in particular in the last 10 minutes, they put on quite a push.
And as I said, you know, for Justin to go from really hardly any shots to some pretty good opportunities here
as they make their push in the third, I thought he really earned the shutout.
Have you pleased with the penalty kill on the weekend? 8 for 8 on the weekend?
I was, especially teams overall was very good.
We scored two par play goals on Saturday night.
We held them 0-4 on the weekend.
Very happy with that.
I thought one of the players that had really a strong weekend was Craig Peffley.
I thought, you know, it was nice to see him get rewarded on Saturday night with a couple goals.
But he really had what I consider one of his better weekends of the year.
After two to nothing win, you come back Saturday night and part of a busy day on the Ferris State campus.
Your team with a little later start than normal.
Yeah, it was. And glad you brought that up.
I'd like to congratulate, you know, football and volleyball and really what great years they had.
And certainly they made us all proud.
And then as well, you know, our men and women's basketball teams are really doing well.
So it's great to be part of Ferris Athletics right now.
And it did cause us to move that game to 730.
But for good reason, we were happy to do it.
We go to the highlights of the contest.
You mentioned Craig Peffley had a big night for you, a 4-point night here in the contest.
Yeah, he did. And he earned it the whole way through.
And we started Cappemaster again coming off the big performance on Friday with the shutout.
And he played really well.
It's, you know, we're facing one of the best goal tenders in the league.
And a nice duel between the two of them and Cappi came up a victor.
You can see that was a great save.
I think we're going to get a slow-mo shot of it.
You can see a good move by the Seawolf and just a great save by Justin.
First goal was from Riker Killens.
Gives you a one-to-nothing lead going to the second period.
Talk about going into the second period.
And obviously you were able to get the second goal here early in the second period.
Again, it was a great goal by Peffley hanging around the front of the net.
And you can see it's about the third shot that we finally score on it.
That's the type of goal tender this guy is.
We talked about going into the game that we were going to have to be on our game here.
You can see Trevor Wreckam all trying to score a similar goal.
Almost the same spot as he had the night before.
But we did talk extensively in the locker room about how we've got to get rebound opportunities on this goal.
Because it's hard to beat them directly with a straight shot.
You mentioned Alaska Anchorage played better on Saturday night.
They'll get a couple goals to tie it up here in the second period.
It was a very determined effort by that player to score there.
I thought Jason Tackett had them well wrapped up.
But he was very determined and scored a goal.
Two-to-two going into the third period.
Some keys here in the third period as you get the victory.
Yeah, again, it was a nice power play goal.
It was great by Peffley here. Good spot.
And then here was what I considered the big goal.
Four minutes left in the game.
This gives us a two-goal cushion again.
And it makes life a little easier.
They're still pushing, but two goals with less than four.
Generally, we're going to win that game.
Get the empty netter.
With a five-two score, it seems like we had it in hand, but we didn't.
That game was up for grabs right till the end of the game.
At least the last five minutes.
Four straight WCHA wins here on home ice.
And I certainly have to protect your home ice.
And you've been able to do that.
You know, we started off the year 03 and 1.
We're five and one in conference since then.
So we're on the positive side, above 500.
Now, you know, our first goal every year is to make the playoffs.
Eight of the 10 teams do.
It's not a huge goal, but it reminds everybody that the number one thing is make the playoffs.
But then once we're in a position where it looks like we should make it,
then the next goal is, hey, can we get home ice?
And obviously, if you're in that position, you start looking for a league title.
But we try to take them one goal at a time.
If it ended today, we'd be in the top five in the conference.
And so we're not at the halfway mark yet, but we're happy that we dug ourselves out of the hole,
that we dug early at 03 and 1.
This week, obviously on the road, you got a couple of big road series coming up in the Upper Peninsula
before the Christmas holiday at Michigan Tech this week,
followed by a trip to Northern Michigan next week.
These will be tough.
Both teams are ahead of us in the standings.
This will be the first time we have faced Michigan Tech this year.
Very good team.
And then we turn around and face Northern, who swept us early in the year at home.
So, you know, it's the last four before the break.
And obviously, we want to come away with some points here.
We need to, if we want to keep our, you know, the second goal that I mentioned,
we want to keep that in grasp, and that's to be top four at home ice.
And Coach, congratulations again on the sweep this past weekend.
Best of luck. Here's your Travel Michigan Tech this week.
Thanks, Rob.
We'll be back with more Ferris Sports Update right after this.
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Welcome back to Ferris Sports Update.
Time to talk full dog volleyball with us.
Head coach, Tia Brando Wilhelm.
Coach, first of all, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having us back.
Congratulations again on another great season.
I know kind of like football didn't end the way you wanted it to,
but certainly a tremendous season that you have a lot to be proud of for your team.
Yeah, I think a couple days removed, we can look back at the growth that we had this season
and the improvements as individuals and as a team and be happy.
Certainly be happy for that and celebrate that.
It definitely would feel a lot better if we were still playing today, though.
24 and 8 overall and seventh straight trip to the NCAA tournament.
22nd program history, obviously a proud tradition here for Ferris State volleyball.
Yeah, it's nice to have that.
I guess I didn't even really realize that until you bring that up,
but we're not usually counting those kind of things,
but it is nice that we were able to be a part of the NCAA tournament
and that we were able to do well in the tournament.
It's nice that that's somewhat of an expectation.
Our players feel like that's something that they want to work toward every single year.
We had some of the highlights, so you started off the NCAA tournament against McHenry.
The first time you faced them this season on Thursday.
Just talk about that opponent in round number one at the NCAA tournament.
Gosh, McHenry is pretty tough.
They have two players that are just fantastic.
They'll both be all-American.
Their right side and their outside hitter are just fantastic.
You see, there's one of the girls right there.
We really had to focus our defense a lot on trying to stop these two players
and to slow them down. I don't think they're really the kind of players you can ever really stop.
You got a 25-16 win here in this opening set,
but they'll come back and take the second set 25-22 to square the match up.
Yeah, I thought that in the second set,
we kind of got away from our game plan a little bit
and we stopped fulfilling our assignments out there
and we weren't really running the offense the way that we wanted to,
so I think we just got a little bit ahead of ourselves
and maybe lost our focus a little bit.
And then when it wasn't going well,
we definitely didn't keep our confidence going the way that we needed to.
Alison Gappel leading here in this match, 18 kills,
had a nice tournament named to the All-Tournament team.
Yeah, she really did have a nice tournament.
I think overall, we were able to get her the ball in some pretty good situations
and she's the kind of athlete and volleyball player that will work to create hard for a team too.
So she had a nice offensive tournament, but also defensively, she had quite a few digs.
You won the third set after they had tied the match 25-20,
but then the fourth set, you were able to pull away for a 25-12 victory.
Yeah, I think at that point it was just, you know,
McHundry didn't quite bring their A game at that point.
We were still, you know, definitely more on point with the game plan that we wanted to execute,
so I think those two things together just gave us a little bit of a run.
What are the challenges playing an opponent here in the NCAA tournament
that you haven't seen this season?
There's good and bad in everything, you know, so there's the good of it.
They don't know us very well. We don't know them very well.
We were able to get a couple matches on from their season
and, you know, have a little bit of an idea of what they wanted to do.
Three-to-one win over McHundry in the opening round,
and then you come back on Friday, one night later,
taking on the number one seed, the host, Lewis, just talk about that match.
Yeah, Lewis is just, you know, a very tough team, a very good team.
You know, they have three All-Americans on their team, very good players,
and then a couple others that are fairly strong as well.
We saw them twice this year. We knew them pretty well,
and I would say have, you know, played them a couple of times the last couple years.
So it's, and they're, you know, legitimately one of the top three, four teams in the country.
You know, a very good team, so we knew it would be a match,
and, you know, we had to be very focused.
It's a really fast turnaround for the team when you're, you know,
work a few days to get ready for McHundry game plan,
and then you get into Lewis and have to switch your game plan around a little bit.
Close first set here. They'll end up winning it 25-21,
but it's certainly very much right in it here in this opening set.
Yeah, and Lewis is known for their fast starts,
and they come out really strong out of the gate.
So I thought the fact that we handled that,
and we got into a little bit more of a rhythm with our game plan,
you know, I thought that really helped us as we went into the second and third sets.
Talk about those second and third sets.
Obviously, you got two big wins there to go ahead in the match two-to-one.
Yeah, it was great.
Obviously, it wasn't quite enough.
You know, I thought we were just really, in that period, playing really steady.
Just doing our game plan, we weren't really worried about what was behind us or ahead of us.
We were just really staying in the moment.
Definitely in the fourth set, you know, Lewis came out really strong.
You got to give them just a ton of credit.
They came out really strong and just were firing in the fourth set
and got a really quick lead, and were able to sustain that throughout that whole set.
Obviously, the fifth set, a challenge it always is, and a lot of pressure on that.
Fifth set, when you're trying to keep your season alive.
Yeah, I think, you know, and again, I don't know that we necessarily were feeling that kind of pressure
other than, you know, it's just, that's where you are.
You know, we've been playing postseason volleyball for well over a month now.
You know, feeling like every match we played was a must-win kind of thing to achieve our goals.
So, you know, that fifth set wasn't any different than, you know,
the other matches that we've been playing, we just weren't able to, you know,
to execute quite the things that had been working for us earlier in the match,
and Lewis was able to stop a couple of those things, and we came up a little short.
Obviously, you have five seniors here playing their final match against Lewis,
and a group that's achieved a great deal, four straight Gleac titles,
four straight Gleac tournament titles, the first time that's ever happened in conference history.
Yeah, and it's fantastic. I couldn't be prouder for them.
I'm so happy for them. It's such a great group.
You know, a year ago we really challenged them to work to step up
and to be strong leaders for this team, and all five of them were out there leading,
and all five of them, you know, from last December on,
every week they worked to get better in their leadership,
and they spent a lot of time and energy improving themselves as individuals,
improving their leadership, improving their volleyball,
and I just, we wouldn't have achieved what we did this year without that growth that those five had.
Obviously, missing those five, moving forward into next year.
Talk about what transpires here between now, and to get ready for next fall.
Well, I guess the good thing about athletics is you're really sad and down,
but there's also a lot of new exciting things happening.
You know, we have not only the 2018 season already getting underway,
and people thinking about that, but for our seniors,
they're getting to transition into this next phase of their lives,
and getting real jobs, and graduate school, and being able to move on to some other things.
So there's a lot of new and exciting things happening.
So I think right now we just, you know, focus on those things,
and we celebrate the things that we did accomplish through the season.
As you look back on all those accomplishments this year,
what will be some highlights for you?
Oh, for sure the growth of the seniors.
I mean, I just am astounded at the work that they did,
and the dedication to this team, and this program, and the culture of who we are.
I think they're the kind of kids that I'll tell stories about for five, ten years.
You know, they'll come back to a game, and I'll say,
yeah, that's the one, remember I told you that story,
and yeah, I think that's definitely the thing that stands out the most.
I know you had a lot of young players that will be coming back,
and certainly a lot of work that they'll have to do to try to fill those shoes.
For sure, and I think we'll really look up to those kids,
and work hard to try to be, you know, to do what they've done,
but even take it a step further, for sure.
Well, certainly, we congratulate you on a great season.
It's been a great run here, and you have to be proud of what Ferris State volleyball continues to accomplish.
Yeah, I'm really happy for the girls. They've done some great work.
That's going to do it for Ferris Sports Update.
A reminder, you can follow all the action online at ferrisstateboldogs.com.
We'll be back next semester, so stay with us right here on Ferris Sports Update.
