The Wildcat Wrap: This Weekend's Action Revisited

MARQUETTE—This week saw a bunch of action across the Northern Michigan University Sports Spectrum.

For the football and women’s soccer programs, play has ended for the 2009 season. Women’s cross country wrapped up it’s competition while the women’s volleyball program finished up it’s regular season and now looks forward to post-season play.

On the ice, the Wildcats competed in their second conference matchup this weekend in Columbus, Ohio against Ohio State and got their first win in CCHA play.

It’s time to take a closer look at what happened throughout NMU sports this week on the Weekend Wrap:

Let’s start with women’s soccer.

After a tough quarterfinal win over Findlay University, the Wildcats moved in the GLIAC Tournament to take on the No. 3 seed, Grand Valley State Lakers.

The Wildcats were outscored 6-1 in the first period and could not rebound from the powerful Laker offensive attack. Grand Valley added three goals in the second period to make it 9-1 in Allendale.

Emily Lockery added the lone goal for the 'Cats during a penalty kick. The Cats were outshot 20-6 in the game and finish the season at 10-9-1. Before the game, three members of the NMU squad were named to the 2009 All-GLIAC second team.

Forward Dana Stephens, goalkeeper Kara Music, and defender Becky Schmidt all played major parts in the 2009 season. Stephens led the team in goals, Music put together solid performance after solid performance and Schmidt was a catalyst for the Cats on defense. Congratulations to the Lady Cats for their solid showing this season.

The NMU women’s cross country team wrapped up its season at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional Championships on Saturday.

The Wildcat runners finished in 13th place, putting together 343 points. Olivia Juntila was the first NMU runner to cross the finish line at a time of 23:52 to finish in 36th place. Jenny Wiedmeyer finished 62nd for NMU with a time of 24:23.

In the pool, The NMU swimming and diving team headed to University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh this weekend and just fell short of winning a very close meet.

The Wildcats fell in the meet by a total of three points. The final score was 120-117. NMU placed the top-two athletes on the diving board. Kelli Vander Baan and Alison Black scored 225.45 and 223.35 points on the one-meter. Then on the three-meter, the duo scored 235.25 and 215.00 respectively.

Gena Haas finished first in the 100-meter butterfly. Kelsey Sipple finished first in the 100-meter freestyle. The meet came down to the final event, and the Wildcats were just edged in the 200-meter freestyle relay. Wisconsin-Oshkosh finished with a time of 1:48.80. NMU’s relay squad touched the wall right behind that with a time of 1:48.98.

The NMU swimmers and divers will be out of the pool for a few weeks and will not see competition until December 3 at the Calvin College Invite.

The women’s volleyball team wrapped up its season on the road this weekend against Grand Valley State and Ferris State University.

On Friday, the Wildcats were victorious, winning three sets to one. Mandie Meyer led the team with 17 kills, Sami Vierk added 13 and Katt Garvick’s 11 gave the ‘Cats the extra boost needed for the win. The Wildcats stormed to take the first two sets, dropped the third, but then came back to shut the door in the fourth set of the match.

Katt Garvick had four service-aces in the match. After Saturday’s success the Wildcats headed to Big Rapids to take on the Ferris State Bulldogs for at least a share of the GLIAC North title.

Off the bat the Wildcats struggled, dropping the first and second sets of the match. Mandie Meyer had 14 kills and 10 digs, and the Wildcats squeaked out the 3rd set 30-28.

The Wildcats would drop the fourth set and the match to wrap the season. The volleyball team finished 18-10 on the year with an 11-5 conference record; good enough for a second place tie in the GLIAC North division. The Wildcats will take on Grand Valley State at the GVSU Fieldhouse in round one of the GLIAC Tournament. The Game will take place on Wednesday at 7:00 P.M. EST.

On the ice, the Wildcats traveled to Columbus, Ohio to take on the OSU Buckeyes this weekend.

Looking for their first conference win on Friday, head coach Walt Kyle placed goaltender Reid Ellingson in the net, hoping he could keep the offense in the game. Ellingson did more than that, posting his first collegiate shutout.

Last week’s CCHA Offensive Player of the Week, Mark Olver, scored the lone goal just 22 seconds into the game. Phil Fox posted his first point of the year on his assist to Olver as the Wildcats rolled 1-0 to pick up their first conference win.

On Saturday, The Wildcats stormed out to a 2-0 lead in the first period when Tyler Gron got his first goal of the season and Mark Olver scored his sixth of the year on the power play.

The Buckeyes tied it up in the second on even-strength goals from John Albert and Peter Boyd. In the third period it became a shootout between the two clubs as five goals were added to the tally.

Billy Smith added his second of the year for the Cats, 1:25 into the third period. Cory Schneider added one for the Buckeyes to even the score. Then in the middle of the third, Andrew Cherniwchan got on the board to give the Wildcats the lead. The Buckeyes would respond with two more goals in the third to win it 5-4. Reid Ellingson started his second straight game but gave up five goals in 29 shots faced.

The Wildcats will head on the road to take on Notre Dame next weekend.

On the Gridiron, it was senior day this Saturday and the final game of the year for the ‘Cats.

After battling through three straight losses, the Wildcats dominated play to end the season on the strong note, beating the University of Indianapolis Greyhounds 41-14.

The Seniors came out strong in their final game. Zach Nichols went over 100 yards receiving with two touchdowns, and senior runner Mark Bossuah added two of his own touchdowns.

Jon Laue played a huge role for the ‘Cats in his final game. The kicker faked the Greyhound return team into thinking he was booting it deep, but then placed a perfectly-kicked onside kick near the end of the first half to give his team the ball back with just enough time to score. The Wildcats were able to play all seniors and finish over .500 for the first time since 2002.

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