After dropping five straight GLIAC matches, the men’s tennis Huskies head into the GLIAC Tournament riding high after sweeping this past weekend’s matches against Tiffin and Ferris State to finish their regular season 8-8 overall and 2-5 in the GLIAC, good for the sixth-seed this weekend.
With their sixth-seed placement, the Huskies will likely face either Wayne State or Ferris State in their opening match. Both the Warriors and the Bulldogs are 5-1 at this point in GLIAC play with one match to go. The Huskies lost 5-4 to the Warriors on Mar. 26, and 8-1 to Ferris State on Mar. 21.
The Warriors (13-6 overall) are paced by sophomore Bertrand Moulin (19-3 overall) who has posted a 14-2 record in dual matches this season in the number one spot. Senior Britton Steele (5-13 overall) has a 4-12 record in the number two slot. Freshman Thomas Ducret (13-5 overall) has posted a 13-2 record in the number three spot.
The fourth singles player, freshman Oscar Gamarra (9-8 overall) has an 8-7 record in dual matches. Senior Roberto Gomez (9-4 overall) has been the most effective fifth slot player with a record of 5-2 in dual matches. Freshman Jon Groszek (10-3 overall) has a 9-1 record at the number six spot.
For the Bulldogs (9-6 overall), Kyle Revall, a senior, leads the way, having posted a 6-7 record at number singles thus far this season. Classmate Ahmet Demir (7-7 overall) has a 6-6 record at number two singles. Sophomore Jack Swan (9-6 overall) at number three singles is 8-5 in dual matches.
Junior Steven Roberts (11-3 overall) has a 4-2 record at number four singles and a 6-1 record at number five singles. Sophomore Justin Hermes (6-8 overall) is 4-1 at number five singles but is 2-6 in the number four slot. Freshman Tyler Marengo (9-3 overall) is 8-2 in dual matches at number six singles.
Of course, should the Huskies survive their opening match with a win they will likely face No. 15 Northwood in the second round of the tournament. The Timberwolves (8-4 overall, 5-0 GLIAC) are limping a little bit after falling over the weekend to No. 20 Drury, 5-4.
For the Huskies, sophomore Luka Stupar (10-9 overall) continues to play strong tennis, going 8-8 in dual matches at number one singles. Sophomore Anders Sandholm (9-7 overall) is 9-6 at number two singles. Junior David Heuer continues to earn victories at number three singles as he is now 9-4 on the season.
Sophomore Douglas Yossida (9-8 overall) is now 6-6 in dual matches at number four singles. Junior Chris Verhulst (8-8 overall) is 3-0 at number four singles and 5-7 at number five singles. Senior Tim Viola (7-8 overall) has posted a 5-6 record in dual matches this season at number six singles.
The Huskies will be keeping an eye on the final four GLIAC matches over the next few days in order to find out who their first opponent will be. Wayne State faces Northwood on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Ferris State travels to Grand Valley State and Findlay faces Tiffin. Finally, Findlay faces Northwood on Thursday to finish the GLIAC Regular Season Schedule.

Going to a new country to learn is a satisfying, enriching experience. But for many international students at Tech, the language and cultural barrier presents many unique challenges that leave students frustrated and feeling helpless. With the help of Laurence Jose and Sylvia Matthews, students in the Humanities department have been addressing this problem, and helping ease the transition for many international students.
Laurenc`e Jose is a PhD. Candidate in Rhetoric and Technical Communication. She has a particular interest in how different cultures communicate technically. When she teaches HU3120, Technical and Scientific Communication, she shares this interest with her students. Laurence challenges her class to create documents that help international students navigate the many obstacles that living in a foreign country will present. Her students make instruction manuals that teach international students how to do things like get a driver’s license, go to the grocery store, order food at a fast food restaurant, live with a roommate, make a friend, and choose appropriate winter clothing (to name a few).
With the help of Sylvia Matthews and the International Graduate Student Assistant Assistance Program, IGTAAP, these documents are made available to international graduate students. Students make a weekly appointment to sit with a native speaker of English, and together they review the resource materials that were created in HU3120.
IGTAAP offers these students the opportunity to learn and practice colloquial English. The documents are not written like traditional technical instructions; instead they are written in a casual tone that uses slang and regional dialects, so students may familiarize themselves with real world English speaking. They can practice this with their helper, and give feedback and suggestions for future documents.
Laurence and Sylvia both agree that these resources have been a huge success. Up to 60 international graduate students a year will participate in IGTAAP, and new documents are created regularly. The documents not only teach students how to get around Houghton and speak colloquial English, but they also make living here less intimidating, and give them power to comfortably teach/participate in class.

On Mar. 27, the Michigan Tech Huskies began their season down in Ripon, Wis. at the Sherman-Lukoski Invite. The Huskies had a decent day with the men’s team taking third place out of five and the women’s team taking fourth out of five. The Huskies rivals and fellow GLIAC competitors the Northern Michigan Wildcats were also in attendance at this meet, they finished first in the women’s competition and fourth in the men’s results. On the men’s side of things the Huskies barely missed second place as they were only seven points behind St. Norbet College.
The husky men had a strong day with many people picking up points for the team. The huskies had first place finishes from the 4×100 relay team, Quinn Parnell in the 100 meter dash, Ken Gilkerson in the 800 meter dash, Brian Stetter in the 5,000 meter run and Jason Julien scoring the lone field event points for the huskies with his discus performance. Picking up second place for the huskies were Jon Graves in the 3000 meter steeplechase, Quinn Parnell in the 200 meter dash, Jonathon Folse in the 100 meter dash and Nathan Saliga in the 400 meter dash. The final team scores were as follows: Ripon- 217, St. Norbert College- 182, Michigan Tech- 175, Northern Michigan Track Club- 50 and UW-Stevens Point- 18.
The women did not have to bad of a day for themselves either. They had some great performances all day long and had some key finishes to earn them some points. Finishing first for the huskies were Sydney Bruestle in the 1,500 meter run and Alison Springer-Wilson in the 5,000 meter run. Ending the day in second for the Huskies were Melanie Hoffman in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, Nicholle Pierce in the 400 meter dash and Jill Smith in the 5,000 meter run. Scoring the most points for the huskies during the meet was Molly Wiltzius who finished second place in the discus, shot put and hammer throw. The final team scoring for the Women’s meet was Northern Michigan- 266, St. Norbert College- 162, Ripon- 136, Michigan Tech- 103 and UW-Stevens Point- 23.
With the first meet of the year behind them the Huskies look ahead to the upcoming season. With the first meet jitters out of the way the Huskies can now focus on the challenges that face them ahead. They will be in action again on Apr. 2 as they travel to Oshkosh, Wis. for the UW-Oshkosh Invitational. As always stay tuned to mtulode.com for all of your track and field season needs.

The Michigan Tech Huskies Men and Women’s Track and field teams are heading to UW-Oshkosh looking to improve from last year as the Men’s took fourth place and the Women took eighth. The Huskies started the season last weekend with the Men’s team taking third place at Ripon and the Women’s team taking fourth.
The husky men’s team returns one first place winner from last year. Ken Gilkerson looks to repeat as champion in the 800 meter run. One year ago Gilkerson took the gold medal in this event with a time of 1:54.74. Other huskies that have tasted competition at this meet look to increase their performances from last year. Last week the husky men fell to Ripon at their home meet and Ripon will be at this meet as well. The huskies will need to step things up big this week in order to surpass this Ripon team. It is still very early in the season and the Huskies need to prove a ton of things in order to get them noticed in time for the GLIAC meet which takes place in May.
The women’s team has their work cut out for them in this week’s meet. Last year the Huskies took eighth place out of nine teams. The only team that the ladies were able to beat last year was this Ripon team. Last year the Huskies were only able to outlast this Ripon team by one point. In last week’s competition, Ripon beat Michigan Tech by 33 points. If the Huskies would like to redeem themselves, they are going to need a big performance from Molly Wiltzius who last week finished second in all three of her throwing events that she entered in.
Check out www.mtulode.com for complete results from this meet as well as the most comprehensive Track and Field coverage this season.

On Saturday, February 20, The Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra performed their third concert of the season, titled “A Night at the Opera.” In addition to the KSO, the performance also featured Lara Neves as mezzo-soprano.
The performance began with the overture from Franz von Suppé’s Poet and Peasant. Although von Suppé wrote several works in the course of his career, only this and one other piece–the overture from Light Cavalry–are still commonly performed. Poet and Peasant Overture is notable for the contrast created by its sudden shifts in style and tone.
After introducing himself, KSO conductor Joel Neves then moved on the next piece, Otello, Act IV by Giuseppe Verdi, with Ms. Neves singing the aria, and supertitles in the back of the stage as well as notes in the program providing an English translation for the lyrics. Dr. Neves remarked on the irony of conducting his wife in this work: based on William Shakespeare’s Othello, Act IV concerns Othello’s wife Desdemona, who knows that her husband (incorrectly) suspects her of infidelity and plans to kill her. Otello is notable because, while most great works are written before the composer turn 53, Verdi wrote Otello at the age of 74, an age which it was considered impressive simply to live to at the time. It is now often considered Verdi’s greatest masterpiece.
After a short intermission, the KSO returned to play Georges Bizet’s Carmen Suite No. 1 and 2. The suites contain the most popular pieces from the opera of the same name, including the very well known Les Toréadors and Habañera. The suites are often considered to be a sort of “greatest hits” collection for Bizet. Since most sets of composers’ greatest works are drawn from several different greater works, that all of Bizet’s greatest masterpieces are from the same opera shows the greatness of that opera. Indeed, Carmen has long been one of the most performed operas. Ms. Neves again sang the original French arias for two of the works: Habañera and Gypsy Song, again with program notes and supertitles providing English translations.
The KSO will return for one more performance this season. The Bernstein Beat, featuring the works of Leonard Bernstein, and will feature his daughter Jamie as narrator. It will also feature some of the most technically difficult music the KSO has worked on all season, and as such it has already begun preparing for the concert. It will be performed on April 17.

The Michigan Wolverines notched three power play goals and added an empty net goal en route to a 5-3 win over the hockey Huskies in the Consolation Game of the Great Lakes Invitational Wednesday afternoon.

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It didn’t take long for the No. 13 Michigan State Spartans to grab a lead against the hockey Huskies. The Huskies evened the game, but couldn’t keep it that way, surrendering nine unanswered goals en route to a 10-1 loss in the Great Lakes Invitational Semi-Final match Tuesday afternoon.

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Dear Sassy,
I’m indecisive lately about my course of study at college. My major is turning out to be not quite what I expected, however I am set to graduate in a year and a half. Should I follow my true passion, or graduate with the degree I am pursuing and save time and money?
Sincerely,
Major Predicament

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The Michigan Tech volleyball team (14-14) was one of 64 teams selected to the NCAA Tournament, despite falling 3-1 in the first round of the GLIAC Conference Tournament match against Saginaw Valley State University last Wednesday, Nov. 10.
Michigan Tech was led by two double-double performances from Kristine Sexton (15 kills and 10 digs) and Madeline Haben (33 assists and 16 digs) in their away match with the Cardinals. Senior Kaari Nevanen matched Haben’s 16 digs, and together the two women combined for half of the team’s passes. Digging efforts alone were not enough to overcome poor hitting accuracy. The Huskies hit 21 percent in game one to take the set 25-22, before their tenacity cooled.
Game two proved close with the teams tied at 24, but Saginaw Valley was able to close it out, thanks to a kill from their Kait Harris, and a stray Husky kill. While Michigan Tech continued to struggle in games three and four, the Cardinals hit their stride, defeating the Huskies 25-14 in each game to take the set 3-1.
“We went into [Saginaw], and we executed well early. And I think we were surprised at how easy it was,” said head coach Orlando Gonzalez. “We lost our focus and didn’t really have the killer instinct to put the team away. I think we’ve got to finally believe that we belong to play at this level.”
The Huskies earned the last spot in the Midwest Regional of the NCAA Tournament. Seeded eighth, Michigan Tech will play No. 1-seeded University of Indianapolis.
“We’ve just got to play more consistently,” said Gonzalez. “We’ve got to play better defense. They’re a very tough defensive team. We’ve got to be able to match their team.”
Coming off of a Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships (GLVC), the 35-1 Greyhounds will be hosting their first ever Regional Tournament. Ranked ninth in the nation, they are led by freshman Kristina Kerrigan and junior Lyndsay Callahan who average 2.97 and 2.68 kills per game. Sophomore Kristina Hefferan is also over two with 2.28 kills per game. Four other greyhounds are above a 1.5 kill per game average each. Junior Cheneta Morrison takes care of setting responsibilities with 10.57 per set, while lone senior Kyleigh Turner (4.8), Callahan (3.02) and Morrison (2.5) split digging duties.
As a team, they average 14.1 kills, 13.1 sets and 16.2 digs per set. Jody Butera leads the Greyhounds in her thirteenth year as head coach with a winning reputation and a 65 percent success rate.
Overall, there are eight regionals for a total of 64 teams. Gonzalez hopes the team can win at least two games to advance to the Sweet Sixteen and the Regional Championship.
“I think we’ve got a blocking advantage, so we’ve got to utilize that,” said Gonzalez. “Most importantly, we need to side out evenly with them. Some of the advantages we have in size and athleticism will help us.”
Michigan Tech and the University of Indianapolis will serve it up in Indianapolis, Ind., at 7:30 p.m. this Thursday, Nov. 19.

While it wasn’t quite the finish they were looking for, the men’s tennis Huskies managed to finish fifth at the GLIAC Championships over the weekend.

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