“That was a tough loss,” said head coach Mike Axford. “St. Cloud is ranked third in our region, we lost, but we lost to a team that should beat us.”

St. Cloud jumped out quickly to take an early lead in the match as Kristie Eull and Tanya Halloran defeated junior Danielle Stoll and freshman Caitlin Hartley, 8-1, at number three doubles. The duo dropped to 4-7 on the season for the Huskies.

Senior Silvia Oliveros and sophomore Nathalia Rondelli evened the match with a win at number one doubles of Jacquelyn Doll and Kelly Freese, 8-5. The Huskies’ pair is now 14-9 on the campaign.

The Huskies then took their first lead of the match with a hard-fought win at number two doubles, 9-8, as senior Samantha Jang-Stewart and sophomore Asel Otunchieva defeated Dawn Olsen and Kayla Lenz. The pair is 6-2 on the season.

St. Cloud evened the match as Samantha Boushek won in straight sets at number six singles over Hartley, 6-2, 6-3. Hartley is now 4-9 on the season.

Rondelli scored her second point of the match after making adjustments in her first set, winning 7-5, 6-3 over Olsen at number two singles. Rondelli now has 17 wins on the season, the most of any Huskies’ singles player.

St. Cloud’s Freese defeated Jang-Stewart at number three singles, 7-5, 6-1 to get them within striking distance of the match win. Jang-Stewart fell to 8-11 with the loss.

The Huskies dropped all three matches, which needed a third set to lose the match.

“We couldn’t adjust [to] St. Cloud when they stopped hitting with us,” said Axford.

The Huskies must now wait until next week to see if they will be invited to the NCAA Tournament.

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Looking to build off of a strong showing the weekend before in Ohio, the men’s tennis Huskies fought hard for a 6-3 win over the Lake Superior State Lakers to finish the GLIAC season with their third consecutive win.

“It’s good that we won, but we’re not translating our good doubles play into good singles play,” said head coach Mike Axford. “It’s good that we won, but we have to take our singles game up one more level.”

The Huskies (7-8 overall, 3-4 GLIAC) got things going quickly as senior Brandon Ellefson, who was named GLIAC Player of the Week last week, and freshman Anders Sandholm cruised to an 8-2 win over Brandon Clayton and Robert Nelson at number two doubles. The Huskies’ duo is now 8-6 on the season.

Sophomore Chris Verhulst and junior Tim Viola extended the Huskies’ lead to 2-0 as they earned an 8-3 win at number three doubles over Craid Baas and Jack Miller. The pair is now 10-5 on the season with the win. The Huskies completed the sweep of the doubles matches as senior Brett Girard and freshman Douglas Yossida defeated Razvan Mag and Pawel Wegrzyn, 8-5, at number one doubles. With the win, the duo is now 9-6 on the season.

In the singles matches, the Huskies won at numbers four, five and six singles, but dropped the matches at numbers one, two and three.

Ellefson made short work of Nelson at number four singles, 6-3, 6-3. Ellefson is now 4-9 on the season after the win.

Verhulst needed three sets to get past Baas, falling 1-6 in the first set before battling to wins of 6-4 and 6-3 in number five singles. Verhulst leads the Huskies with 12 wins in singles play.
“Chris has played really solid (this year),” said Axford. “He learned a lot last year and he’s translated that into playing a lot better this year.”

Senior Alan Parenteau took his first set 6-1, dropped his second in a tiebreaker, 6-7 (2-7), and then won 6-3 over Miller at number six singles. With the victory, Parenteau is now 7-1.
Yossida was the other Huskies singles player to end up in a third set, but he couldn’t come away with the tiebreaker in the deciding set, falling to Clayton, 6-2, 5-7, 6-7 (6-8).

With the win, the Huskies secured fifth place in the GLIAC heading into the GLIAC Tournament on April 18-19. The first round opponent for the Huskies will likely be the Wayne State Warriors, who squeezed out a 5-4 win in the Gate Tennis Center over the Huskies on March 20.

The top six singles players for the Warriors (5-9 overall, 4-2 GLIAC) are Bertrand Moulin, Johan Maubacq, Kevin Turnbull, Eric Szydlowski, Roberto Gomez and Michael Savalle, respectively.
The Huskies only won two of those matchups in March.

Should the Huskies knock off the Warriors, it’s expected that the Huskies would then face the No. 12 Northwood Timberwolves. The Timberwolves (12-1 overall, 5-0 GLIAC) are well on their way towards winning the GLIAC Title for the 15th straight season.

“Saturday is for the players,” said Kearly. “We’ve had a great spring and we’ve accomplished everything we’ve wanted to accomplish, but the game is for the players.” The coaching staff will be divided up and several of the seniors will pick the teams for the Black and White squads. Kearly spoke of the strong group of seniors coming back after a season in which just seven seniors graduated.

The goal of the game is to have fun, above all. “We just hope that nobody gets hurt,” said Kearly. The team has faced several injuries this spring, but none to this point that will affect the team when the fall season comes around. Quarterback Steve Short has sat out of spring practices as a precautionary measure, but Kearly assured that he would be ready for the fall. QB Brent Heim has done a great job leading the No. 1 offense in his stead.

In addition to Heim, several players have impressed the coaching staff this spring.
“Phil Milbrath has had a great spring this year,” said Kearly. “He has always had quick feet, but this spring he has gotten a lot faster and has improved his breakaway speed.” Defensive end Todd Storm, linebacker Justin Armstrong and senior safety David Carmody have also had a standout spring.

Even though it has been a long winter, the new turf was plowed off so that the team was able to hold all their spring practices outdoors, greatly increasing the effectiveness of the spring season, which in past years has been forced indoors due to lingering snow.
The game will feature four 15-minute quarters with running time, except possibly during the last couple minutes of each quarter for practice in clutch situations. All fans are encouraged to check out the reloaded Huskies football team this Saturday. Coming off an 8-3 season, Tech should be ready to be a heavy contender in the GLIAC this fall.

The Terriers (35-6-4 overall) took an early lead as Chris Connolly netted the game’s only goal of the first period at 15:15.

The Redhawks (23-13-5 overall) netted the game’s next three goals and appeared to have the game well in hand.

Gary Steffes evened the game just 2:01 into the second period. The game remained deadlocked at 1-1 until Tommy Wingels, one of the Redhawks’ outstanding sophomore class, notched his 11th of the season at 12:31 of the third.

Trent Vogelhuber notched what appeared to be the icing on the cake at 15:52 and the Redhawks appeared to be home free.

Crafty veteran coach Jack Parker pulled goaltender Kieran Millan with 3:32 remaining, and the move paid off not once, but twice, as Zach Cohen and Nick Bonino scored 42 seconds apart in the final minute of regulation.

Just under 12 minutes into overtime, Colby Cohen, who was later named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, fired a shot that deflected off a Redhawks defender and past Kevin Roeder, the Redhawks netminder, sealing the fifth national title in Terriers’ history.

The Terriers also needed to comeback against the Vermont University Catamounts on Thursday to advance to the title game with a 5-4 win.

Colin Wilson and Jason Lawrence scored 5:08 minutes apart in the first period, and the Terriers appeared ready to cruise to the finals.

The Catamounts (22-12-5 overall) answered with four goals in the second and third periods to take the 4-3 lead. Wahsontiio Stacey scored first for the Catamounts before Justin Milo and Josh Burrows scored 45 seconds apart.

Vinny Saponari evened the game with his power play marker 18:39 of the second, setting up an epic third period.

Drew MacKenzie gave the Catamounts the lead again as he notched a power play goal at 9:40.

The Terriers needed to dig deep and they did just that, scoring twice in 1:13 as Chris Higgins evened the game and Wilson netted his second goal of the game for the win.

The Redhawks advanced to their first-ever championship game as they got three goals in the second period en route to a 4-1 win over the Bemidji State University Beavers, the first team to make it to the Frozen Four as the 16th overall seed in the tournament.

Wingels scored the first of his two goals on the power play, 3:56 into the second period. Alden Hirschfeld extended the Redhawks’ lead with his goal at 8:35.

Matt Read got the Beavers (20-16-1 overall) back into the game with his power play marker at 9:46.

The Redhawks regained their two-goal lead a minute later as Bill Loupee scored.

Beavers’ head coach Tom Serratore pulled Matt Dalton in an attempt to even the game, but the move backfired as Wingels buried an empty netter at 17:52.

“It was a good opportunity to learn more about who we are,” said head coach Krista Mikesch. “We were down some people health wise, [but] I think one of the biggest things is the experience. We’ve established a solid foundation for next fall. It’s a great opportunity for our leaders to step up in that leadership position.” Mikesch referred to the hard working efforts of seniors like Kaari Nevanen who are stepping up to fill these roles.

As far as how the team sees themselves in the GLIAC, Mikesch said, “It’s hard to say. We’ve got a taste of what it’s like to be at the top.” She can see success “if [the women] can be the team that makes less mistakes and plays as a team.”

Their recruits for next year will help to more clearly define Michigan Tech’s new identity. The Huskies welcome three newcomers at this point. Lindsey Sathre will join the team as a middle blocker from the Minneapolis-based volleyball club Minnesota Select. “We look for her to make an immediate impact,” said Mikesch.

Of Maddie Haben of Northern Lights, another volleyball club based in the Twin Cities area, who joins the team as a setter, Mikesch believes that she “brings a great amount of leadership. Her on court presence is great.”

And as the team continues to make more of a focus on defense in preparation for next year, Mikesch expects Rachel Glisch, a product of Wisconsin Juniors – a Kenosha, Wis. based club – to “aid in helping [the Huskies] to be a more defensive ball team.”

With high hopes and a greater sense of where they stand, Michigan Tech volleyball is ready to pass, set and spike into fall 2009.

Against the Bulldogs, the Huskies (4-8 overall, 0-4 GLIAC) held the lead after doubles with wins at numbers two and one, respectively.

Senior Brandon Ellefson and freshman Anders Sandholm got the Huskies on the board with an 8-3 win over Kyle Revall and Brian Anderson. The duo improved to 5-6 this weekend.

Senior Brett Girard and freshman Douglas Yossida earned an 8-4 win over Lewis DeGeneault and Ahmet Demir. With the win, the pair is now 6-6 on the season.

Only junior Tim Viola was able to get his match turned in his favor, needing a super tiebreaker to defeat Anderson, 3-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-4).

On Sunday, the Huskies dropped all three doubles matches en route to the loss, but all three could have gone either way.

Ellefson and Sandholm fell to Matt Globerson and Alex Switzer, 8-5.
Sophomore Chris Verhulst and Viola dropped their match against Michael Coupek and Pat Snyder, 6-8.
In singles, all six matches went only two sets, but the Huskies fought hard despite not earning points.
Yossida forced a tiebreaker in his first set before falling to Philipp Claus, 7-6 (7-3), 6-, at number three singles.

Ellefson battled back to force a tiebreaker in the second set before Brock Plangger was able to pull out a 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) win at number four singles.

The Huskies head down to Ohio this weekend to face a pair of GLIAC opponents. On Friday, the Huskies will take on the Tiffin Dragons, and on Saturday the Huskies will match up with the Findlay Oilers.
The Dragons (1-15 overall, 0-4 GLIAC) are struggling in their first full season in the GLIAC. They have yet to earn a point in four matches thus far.

Youth reigns supreme in the Dragons’ lineup, as juniors Harry Smith and Ryan Toporowsky are the only upperclassmen and are slotted in the numbers one and three spots, respectively. Sophomores Preston Torbert and Bryan Heisler slide into the numbers four and six spots. Freshmen Andreas Torres and Matthew Weiss round out the Dragons’ top six.

The Oilers (5-6 overall, 0-3 GLIAC) are also struggling in GLIAC play thus far.
The Oilers’ lineup features four seniors in Travis Whipple, Jitrat Jaidee, Steven Fox and Nick Eby. Freshmen Kyle Collette and David Brooks fill the numbers one and five spots in the lineup.

Haggenmiller had skied for Northern’s Sten Fjelheim in 1988-91. Fjeldheim was named 2008-09 CCSA women’s coach of the year. Although Northern has long dominated CCSA skiing, Tech’s victory over the Wildcats in the men’s freestyle at the Central Regional as well as finishing only three points behind NMU in the men’s overall points there show that Tech is making up ground.

Haggenmiller said that it was “an honor that my colleagues have recognized what our team’s [been] doing this year… on the men’s side of things.” He said that it had been a fun season and that he appreciated this “accolade.”

I’ve been an Inge fan since he came on the scene. He is one of the best defensive third basemen in the game, despite this being the era of incredible third basemen (Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, David Write, Chipper Jones, Ryan Braun, Troy Glaus, etc.). His offensive production may lag behind many of these elite hot-corner players, but his numbers are respectable enough to warrant playing time (career .237 average, 96 HR and 410 RBI).

When the Tigers made the ill-advised Cabrera-Willis trade, they put themselves in a precarious position. They already had Inge as an established and solid third baseman, they had an overpaid Gary Sheffield in the DH slot, newly acquired Edgar Renteria at shortstop and an aging Carlos Guillen making the switch to first base. There was no room at the inn for the Tigers’ new savior.

Inge did get a chance at catcher, where he had excelled in college and even some when he first emerged in the majors, but he simply did not produce behind the plate.

The results of the season illustrate the challenges the team faced in the confusion. The Tigers finished dead last in the AL Central (74-88 record), even behind the lowly Kansas City Royals.

Inge saw limited playing time (only 113 games in the ’08 season), and his numbers suffered for it, as he hit only 11 HR, 51 RBI and a .205 average (his lowest since the ’03 season). However, with 51 games played at third, he committed only one error. Despite Cabrera’s career totals in home runs (37) and runs batted in (127), his five errors in only 14 games at third were costly. Guillen added another 14 errors in his 89 games at the hot corner.

I’m just glad to see that the Tigers have not forgotten what got them to the World Series a few short years ago, and that Coach Jim Leyland and General Manager David Dombrowski seem to be getting things back to normal in the Motor City. Now if only they could dump Dontrelle Willis (anxiety disorder my a**) and send the decrepit Gary Sheffield packing, the team could get back in business and bring the AL pennant back home!

Head Coach Krista Mikesch elaborated on the importance of opportunities to play in the spring season. “It allows the kids who didn’t get an opportunity in the fall some game experience.” Graduating seniors have exhausted their eligibility by the time the spring rolls around, and red-shirts are free to join in regular team play.

“Our identity has completely changed from last year,” said Mikesch. “We led the nation in blocks, and we had a bigger team. We need to become a ball control team that doesn’t have a lot of errors.” Team tournament play allows the women to work towards this goal and the solidification of their new identity. Michigan Tech has lost six tall players in the transition from fall to spring in Kelly Jorgenson, Christa Jung, Jen Jung, Ashley Nyenhuis, Ellen Sherry and Kelsey Skoog.

The loss of the school record blocking Jung sisters and the absence of Jorgenson as middle will spur the transition of a more focused digging and covering team. Skoog’s absence at setter and her ability to fill any of the various roles leaves opportunity for freshman Skylar Paffenroth and junior Allison Greene to step up.

The women’s volleyball team will continue gaining this almost pre-season experience for Fall 2009 as they head to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay for the last tournament of the current school year. The Huskies will certainly look to exact some revenge through strong play and improved skill when they rematch with GLIAC rival Northern Michigan against, who they struggled with in the NMU-hosted March 21 tournament.

On March 9, the Huskies earned a 9-0 over Christopher Newport.
The number three doubles squad of freshman Caitlin Hartley and junior Danielle Stoll earned an 8-2 win over Kassi Avent and Megan Brooks. The duo is now 3-5 on the season.

Co-captain Samantha Jang-Stewart and Asel Otunchieva earned an 8-3 win at number two doubles over Kayla Connor and Alannah Suchomel. The pair has improved to 5-2 on the season.

Co-captain Silvia Oliveros and Rondelli cruised to an 8-5 victory at number one doubles over Reagan Travis and Lauren Kelly. The duo is now 11-9 on the season. Oliveros is 15-8 on the season in singles matches.

All six singles matches were won by the Huskies in straight sets.

In their second match of the day, the Huskies earned a 5-4 win over Minnesota State-Mankato on the strength of a 2-1 lead after doubles.

Oliveros and Rondelli cruised to an 8-0 win over Marina Bugaenco and Sara Madigan.
Jang-Stewart and Otunchieva earned a win over Ami Nishida and Casandra Anderson, 8-3.
In singles play, the Huskies got straight set victories from both Rondelli and Jang-Stewart.
Rondelli won 6-2, 6-2, at number two singles over Nishida. She is now 14-6 on the season.
Jang-Stewart made short work of Madigan, 6-2, 6-3, at number three singles. She has improved to 8-10 on the season.

Otchunchieva earned the decisive fifth point for the Huskies with her three-set win over Paige Burke, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, at number four singles. Otunchieva is now 13-6 on the season.

On March 10, the Huskies cruised to a 7-2 win over Aquinas after taking a 2-1 lead in the doubles matches.

Oliveros and Rondelli earned an 8-2 victory over Kelly McGee and Cecelia Vaughn.
Jang-Stewart and Otunchieva earned a timely conquest of Emily Decker and Katie Siegel, 8-3.

In singles action, Oliveros, Rondelli, Jang-Stewart, Otunchieva and Stoll all earned straight set wins with only Otunchieva needing a tiebreaker in her first set. With the win, Stoll is now 6-13 on the season.
In their final match on March 11, the Huskies eased to a 9-0 win over Lincoln.

Five out of the six singles matches were won by the Huskies in straight sets. Only Rondelli’s was different, as her opponent retired.

Hartley’s win at number six singles helped her improve to 4-6 on the season.
The Huskies completed the road trip without the services of freshman phenom Victoria Zhilkina.
The Huskies are now off until March 28 when they will travel to Duluth, Minn., to face the Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs and the St. Scholastica Saints.