Bulldog Weekly Report April 4, 2017

By Jacob Knabel on Apr. 4, 2017 in Athletic Announcements

Bulldog Athletic Association Athletes of the Week

Female: Annie Horn, Tennis

Horn, who hails from Denver, Colo., has won seven-straight singles matches while playing at the No. 2 spot. In recent action, Horn defeated opponents from Nebraska Wesleyan and College of Saint Mary. At 9-4 overall, Horn leads the Bulldogs in singles wins. She is 5-7 in doubles matches.

Male: Casey Berg, Baseball

Berg, a native of Manning, Iowa, collected GPAC player of the week honors after a 13-for-30 (.433) eight-game stretch at the plate. Included in that run were two home runs, two doubles, 13 runs scored and seven RBIs. Berg is batting .366 with a career best six home runs this season.

Winter seasons in review: For detailed season recaps for men’s and women’s basketball and wrestling, click the links below. These pieces include commentary from each sport’s head coach on the 2016-17 seasons that recently went final.
-Men’s Basketball
-Women’s Basketball
-Wrestling

The catalyst for Concordia baseball’s prolific offense: Manning, Iowa, native Casey Berg has been tearing it up as a senior. Says head coach Ryan Dupic of Berg, “Casey’s personality and attitude are infectious, and what he does rubs off on others.” On Tuesday (April 4), the GPAC named Berg its player of the week. For more on the standout Bulldog third baseman, click HERE.

Find Bulldog gear at BulldogFanShop.com: BulldogFanShop.com is the official marketplace for Concordia Bulldogs athletic gear. For sale are many types of clothing apparel as well as drinkware, decals, collectibles and other accessories.

How to purchase Cultivating Men of Faith and Character: The book, Cultivating Men of Faith and Character: The History of Concordia Nebraska Football, remains available for purchase online HERE. For more than 90 years, the Concordia football program has cultivated men of faith and character. This journey through the program’s entire history takes a narrative, coach-by-coach approach in bringing back to life the memorable plays, players and moments in Bulldog football history. Win or lose, Christian character has guided a storied football tradition in Seward, home to the “college in the cornfield.”

Bulldog Coaches Show airs every Thursday at 6 p.m. CT: The Bulldog Coaches Show is in its second year of existence. The show airs live for a half hour every Thursday beginning at 6 p.m. CT on KTMX-FM 104.9 Max Country. The weekly feature can also be heard live via 104.9 Max Country’s website or by downloading the TuneIn Radio app and searching “Max Country.” Throughout the 2016-17 season, Bulldog football, men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball contests will be aired live on Max Country.

Concordia Sports Network: Live webcasts for most home varsity contests can be accessed by visiting http://www.cune.edu/csn at game time. Check team schedules/results pages for webcast dates. Scrimmages, exhibitions and junior varsity events are not broadcasted.

Tennis

  • After a layoff of more than three weeks, both Concordia tennis squads returned to action last week. In action at Nebraska Wesleyan on March 29, the women defeated the Prairie Wolves, 5-4. The following day, the Bulldog men dropped a 5-4 decision. The women then opened up conference play on Monday and lost a narrow 5-4 contest at College of Saint Mary. Third-year head coach Joel Reckewey’s squads now stand at 5-8 on the men’s side and 5-9 (0-1 GPAC) on the women’s side. For more on the Concordia tennis programs: MEN | WOMEN.
  • The Bulldog women saw their four-match win streak come to an end in Omaha on Monday. The run of success included wins over Hesston College (Kan.), Friends University (Kan.), Bethany College (Kan.) and Nebraska Wesleyan. College of Saint Mary (7-1) has dropped just one match so far this season. The Flames just barely held off Concordia by winning both singles matches that went to third-set tiebreakers.
  • The roll continues for Annie Horn, who has won seven-straight singles matches. On Monday, she defeated Katie Golka, 6-3, 6-0. Horn last lost a singles match on Feb. 24, 2017 against her counterpart from Ottawa University. At 9-4, Horn tops the Bulldogs in singles victories. The biggest threat to her win streak came last week at Nebraska Wesleyan when Horn squeaked out a victory in a third-set tiebreaker.
  • The loss at Nebraska Wesleyan for the Concordia men was about as closely contested as possible. Three of the six singles matches went to third-set tiebreakers with the Bulldogs winning two of them (No. 2 and No. 5). The Bulldog No. 2 doubles combination of Javier Moreno and Gabe Poling also took an 8-7 (7-5) loss. Concordia’s wins came from Moreno (No. 2 singles), Poling (No. 4 singles), Lucas Zoller (No. 5 singles) and No. 1 doubles (Thomas Greeff and Zoller).
  • Poling has made himself comfortable in the back half of the Bulldog singles lineup. He’s 7-2 at the No. 4 spot and is now 10-2 overall in singles matches this season. In two seasons of collegiate tennis, the native of Chillicothe, Mo., has a career singles record of 22-9. Poling was named an all-conference selection last season at No. 5 singles.
  • Collectively, the men have produced a singles record of 38-40 and a doubles mark of 15-24. After Poling’s team high 10 singles wins, the likes of Zoller (7-6), Moreno (6-3), Greeff (6-7) and Josh Miller (4-5) come in next. Meanwhile, the women have gone 38-46 in singles and 16-26 in doubles. After Horn’s nine wins, the next winningest singles players for the Concordia women are Kayla Smock (5-6), Kirsten Wagner (5-6) and Katie Hertz (5-8).
  • Both programs will host a pair of conference matches this week. On Wednesday, the women welcome Doane (2-9, 1-0 GPAC) to Seward for a 4 p.m. CT first serve. The same two schools will meet on the men’s side at 4 p.m. on Thursday (Doane men are 5-6, 1-0 GPAC). Then on Saturday, men’s and women’s matches will take place at the Bulldog tennis courts at 12 p.m. Morningside will serve as the opponent.

Golf

  • The spring golf season is now in full swing for head coach Brett Muller’s squad. As of Tuesday afternoon (April 4), the men’s team was still in competition on the final day of the Midland Spring Invitational. Meanwhile, the women completed their two-day event at the Bent Tree Showcase on Monday, finishing ninth out of 11 teams. After 36 holes of action at the Midland Invite, the men were in fifth place amongst the field of nine squads. For more information on the Concordia golf programs: MEN | WOMEN.
  • The women have turned in rounds of 361 twice this spring. That total represents a season low over 10 total rounds in 2016-17. Concordia’s season average stands at 381.8. The Bulldogs have shown significant improvement this spring, averaging a 363.0 in three rounds. Both Payton DeMers-Sahling (97) and Lauren Sperry (97) have either tied or matched career lows this spring.
  • The constant for the Bulldogs is senior Amy Ahlers, who has now placed inside the top 10 at all six events in 2016-17. At the Bent Tree Showcase, carded a score of 78-81–159 and claimed eighth place amongst the field of more than 70 golfers. This season, Ahlers owns the team’s top six individual rounds with her season low of 78 coming in the first round at Bent Tree Golf Club. Ahlers sports a team season best average of 81.7. Ahlers owns one tournament win this season.
  • The men officially opened up the spring season at Fremont Golf Club on Monday. They turned in scores of 309-301–610 during a marathon 36-hole day. The 301 is the team’s fifth best score out of 11 rounds during the 2016-17 academic year. Concordia’s season best, also a school record, was a 288 carded in the second round at the Blue River Classic back in the fall. The team average after the fall season stood at 303.0.
  • Muller traveled a total of eight competitors to Fremont: Russell Otten (77-70–147), Nolan Zikas (76-77–153), Jared Knoepfel (76-79–155), Tyler Knoepfel (80-78–158), Tylar Samek (80-80–160), Tyler Ehresman (85-75–160), Noah Rohlfing (82-86–168) and Grant Suchanek (83-89–172). Otten entered Tuesday in sixth place out of 45 golfers in the field.
  • Five teammates joined Ahlers at the Bent Tree Showcase: Murphy Sears (90-92–182), Payton DeMers-Sahling (97-101–198), Lauren Sperry (102-97–199), Madison Pitsch (118-113–231) and Paigton Barbre (125-115–240). Barbre made the biggest improvement from the first round to the second, shaving a full 10 strokes off her total. Meanwhile, Sears, a freshman from Crete, Neb., has been the team’s No. 2 golfer behind Ahlers all season.
  • Both golf teams have the rest of the week off. Both squads will be in Sioux City, Iowa, next Wednesday (April 12). The men will be at the Briar Cliff University Invite while the women will be at the Morningside College Invite.

Baseball

  • Since last week’s report, Concordia has won five of six games while recovering from an 0-3 start to the GPAC season. A stretch that has included both the GPAC regular season and postseason champions didn’t stop the Bulldogs from rattling off five wins in a row. Concordia split a doubleheader at Midland on March 28 and then swept road twin bills from Mount Marty on March 31 and Morningside on April 2. Third-year head coach Ryan Dupic’s squad now stands at 16-12 overall and at 5-3 in league play. For more information on the Bulldog baseball program, click HERE.
  • After finishing with an 11-9 conference mark in 2016, Concordia is aiming to put together back-to-back above .500 GPAC records for the first time since 2004-05. Currently, the Bulldogs’ active five-game GPAC win streak is the longest conference win streak for the program since 2005. The ’05 squad ended up with a 15-9 league record. Dupic has now moved to .500 (24-24) in conference games since he arrived prior to the 2015 season.
  • The catalyst behind Concordia’s offensive success continues to tear it up at the top of the lineup. Senior third baseman Casey Berg put together three-straight games with three hits last week. In the doubleheader sweep at Mount Marty, the Manning, Iowa, native went 6-for-10 with three runs, four RBIs and two home runs. In sum, Berg went 13-for-30 with 13 runs scored, two doubles, two home runs, seven RBIs and two steals over last week’s eight games. On the season, Berg is hitting .366 with six home runs and 20 RBIs. He sports an on-base percentage of .458 and is slugging .594. Berg ranks third in the conference in hits per game (1.37).
  • Freshman left-hander Wade Council covered the first 23 innings of his collegiate pitching career without surrendering an earned run. The impressive streak finally ended in the second game of Sunday’s doubleheader sweep at Morningside. Earlier in the week, Council fired a seven-inning, four-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts at Midland. Even after his roughest outing of the season, Council is 4-0 with a 2.81 ERA and 24 strikeouts in 25.2 innings. He has tossed two shutouts.
  • Council is one of two freshmen lefties that regulars in Dupic’s starting rotation. The other is Jason Munsch, who befuddled Morningside hitters in Sunday’s one-hit shutout. In that outing, Munsch scattered five walks and struck out six hitters. The native of Campbell, Calif., is 3-1 with a 3.30 ERA. His 34 strikeouts are most on the team. Opposing batters are hitting only .160 against Munsch.
  • Over the five-game win streak, Concordia has averaged 8.8 runs per game. The Bulldogs continue to rank as one of the most prolific offenses in the GPAC. Among conference teams, Concordia ranks first in runs per game (7.5), second in hits per game (9.5), second in batting average (.306), second in slugging percentage (.469) and second in stolen bases per game (1.4). The Bulldogs have already scored 210 runs, putting them on pace to break the school record for runs scored in a season for the third year in a row. The 2016 team owns the standard with 395 runs scored.
  • Since last week’s report, the Bulldog bullpen has been nearly flawless. Over 10.1 innings, Concordia relievers surrendered a total of just one run on eight hits and three walks to go along with 10 strikeouts. Three different relievers were used for three or more innings at time: Nic Seaman (3.1), Jake Fosgett (3) and Desmond Pineda (3.1) in wins last week. Seaman earned a win and Fosgett and Pineda both picked up saves. As a staff, Bulldog pitchers own an ERA of 4.78.
  • Concordia hitters have already piled up 60 doubles. The team leader in that category is Christian Montero, who has collected 14 two-baggers. Not far behind is Kaleb Geiger, who has 10. Geiger (.556 slugging percentage) trails only Berg (.594) for a team best in slugging percentage. A junior from Sedalia, Colo., Geiger has at least one hit in 10 of his last 11 games and has driven in a team high 28 runs.
  • This week’s schedule will be lighter for the Bulldogs, who are at York College (20-16) today (4:30 p.m. CT) for a single nine-inning game. Concordia will return to conference play this weekend with a significant four-game series with Doane (15-14, 6-2 GPAC), currently in first place in the league standings. On Saturday, the Bulldogs will host Doane for a 1 p.m. twin bill. They will then be in Crete on Sunday for another 1 p.m. doubleheader.

Softball

  • Due to inclement weather, the Bulldogs have had only two doubleheaders over the past eight days. In recent action, they have split doubleheaders at Hastings (March 31) and at York College (April 3). A game 1 loss at Hastings snapped a six-game win streak for Concordia, which received votes in the most recent national poll. Fourth-year head coach Todd LaVelle’s squad sports records of 21-9 overall and 5-3 in conference play (tied for third in the GPAC). For more information on the Bulldog softball program, click HERE.
  • Center fielder Megan Ruppert has taken flight in her second year as a Bulldog. The transfer from McCook Community College extended her hitting streak to eight games during Monday’s doubleheader at York. She now leads Concordia with a .407 batting average while starring near the top of the lineup. Over her active hitting streak, Ruppert is batting .516 (16-for-31) with 11 runs scored, six RBIs, two doubles, a home run, three walks and four stolen bases. In 73 career games at Concordia, Ruppert has batted .357.
  • Junior Michaela Woodward effectively bounced back after allowing 10 earned runs in last week’s loss at Hastings. On Monday, she limited York to just two runs (one earned) on four hits and four walks in a complete game performance in the circle. With 93 innings of work this season, Woodward has covered nearly half of the team’s innings. She’s now 9-6 with a 2.78 ERA and 73 strikeouts. She owns a career record of 40-25 to go along with a 4.33 ERA.
  • Concordia’s current winning percentage of .700 would be the best under LaVelle should it hold up. In LaVelle’s previous three seasons, the Bulldogs have produced records of 32-16 (.667), 29-23 (.558) and 30-18 (.625). The 32 wins recorded by the 2014 team stand as the fourth-highest single-season total in program history. In terms of winningest seasons for Bulldog softball, the 2005 squad (36-19, .654) owns the school record for most overall wins while the 1998 team (33-10, .767) holds the standard for highest winning percentage.
  • Junior Autumn Owens is hot on the trail of the program’s single-season home run record. She equaled the record last season when she hit nine home runs, tying Clarissa Eloge, who produced the same home run total in both 2009 and 2010. Owens’ six home runs this season are tied with many others for the eighth largest single-season total in program annals. Owens has been a consistent power threat since arriving in Seward via Henderson, Nev., in 2015. She has 19 career home runs in 320 at bats.
  • A freshman from Riverside, Calif., Ronee Watson muscled up for her first career home run last week at Hastings. Both a first and third baseman, Watson has transitioned nicely to the college game. She’s second behind only Ruppert for the team batting lead. She is hitting .391 with a home run and 19 RBI. She owns a .455 on-base percentage and .493 slugging percentage.
  • Despite going 7-1 in between official conference ratings, Concordia fell from second to fourth in the GPAC poll that was released on Monday (April 3). The top three in the rankings are Morningside (21-6, 3-1), Dordt (12-11, 6-2) and Northwestern (15-14, 4-2). Under LaVelle, the highest conference finish was a tie for third in 2014. LaVelle has also led the program to a 2015 GPAC tournament title and 2014 GPAC tournament runner-up finish.
  • Among conference teams, the Bulldogs rank second in batting average (.324), second in runs per game (6.1), second in hits per game (9.2), second in ERA (3.21), second in lowest opponent batting average (.278), third in slugging percentage (.461) and third in fielding percentage (.948).
  • Two league doubleheaders make up this week’s remaining slate. In a rescheduled twin bill, the Bulldogs will host No. 10 Morningside at 3 p.m. CT on Thursday. Two days later, Concordia will be at Dakota Wesleyan (11-22, 1-3 GPAC) for a 1 p.m. first pitch. The Mustangs’ lone loss in conference play came by a 3-2 decision in 10 innings versus Hastings on March 26.

Track & Field

  • Most Bulldog athletes had the week off from competition due to the cancelation of the Hastings Bronco Open that had been scheduled for April 1. Head coach Matt Beisel made a quick adjustment and entered a group of 12 athletes into the Reiver Open at Iowa Western College in a meet that took place Friday and Saturday (March 31, April 1). From the event, six event titles emerged for Concordia. For more information on Bulldog track and field, click HERE.
  • It was a fruitful weekend for Concordia throwers, who totaled four event championships and five fresh automatic national qualifying marks at the Reiver Open. Kali Robb won both the hammer throw (180’ 2”) and the shot put (46’ 7 ¼”) at Iowa Western. On the men’s side, Zach Lurz took first in the same two events, producing marks of 57’ 6 ½” in the shot put and 192’ 2” in the hammer throw. Also in the hammer, Philip Kreutzer qualified for nationals with his toss of 177’ 9.”
  • Bulldog throwers are maintaining their standard of excellence this outdoor season. Collectively, they own five marks that lead the nation. Those No. 1 throws are held by Cody Boellstorff in the hammer (205’ 7”), Lurz in the shot put, Robb in the hammer and the shot put and Tricia Svoboda in the discus (152’ 1”). Concordia throwers possess 11 total national qualifying marks.
  • Of the 12 Bulldogs that went to Iowa Western, nine competed in running events. Concordia won the men’s (CJ Muller) and women’s (Marti Vlasin) 800 meter races. In the women’s 800, sophomore Quinn Wragge placed runner up. It was her first track meet of the 2017 season. She has rejoined the track team after helping lead the Bulldog women’s basketball team to the national semifinals.
  • Concordia’s national qualifying list includes five ‘B’ standard qualifying marks in addition to the 13 automatic marks achieved in 2017. Robb leads the field with three national marks. Lurz has two automatic throws and a ‘B’ mark.
    • Cody Boellstorff – hammer throw (A, 205’ 7”)
    • Allie Brooks – pole vault (A, 12’ 8 ¾”)
    • Jacob Cornelio – hammer throw (B, 169’ 1”)
    • McKenzie Gravo – pole vault (B, 11’ 5 ¾”)
    • Taylor Grove – half marathon (A, 1:29:28)
    • Philip Kreutzer – hammer throw (A, 177’ 9”)
    • Samantha Liermann – shot put (A, 44’ 5 ¼”)
    • Zach Lurz – shot put (A, 57’ 6 ½”); hammer throw (A, 192’ 2”); discus (B, 157’ 5”)
    • Sydney Meyer – hammer throw (A, 172’ 9”)
    • Amy Migl – discus (B, 139’ 4”)
    • Kali Robb – shot put (A, 46’ 7 ¼”); discus (A, 143’ 8”); hammer throw (A, 180’ 2”)
    • Adrianna Shaw – shot put (A, 44’ 8 ¼”)
    • Carley Skorepa – discus (B, 139’ 7”)
    • Tricia Svoboda – discus (A, 152’ 1”)
  • The Bulldogs have positioned themselves nicely in the conference to this point. On the GPAC lists, Concordia has No. 1 athletes in the form of Boellstorff (hammer throw), Allie Brooks (pole vault), Lurz (shot put), Muller (800 meters), Robb (hammer throw, shot put) and Svoboda (discus). Concordia has especially saturated the throwing lists. On the GPAC leaderboard, the Bulldogs make up the top three spots in the women’s shot put, six of the top eight in the women’s discus, four of the top six in the men’s hammer, three of the top four in the women’s hammer and three of the top seven in the women’s javelin.
  • This weekend will provide Concordia the opportunity to host its first home meet of the 2017 outdoor season. The Bulldogs will stage the annual Concordia Outdoor Invitational in and around Bulldog Stadium on Friday and Saturday. Friday’s action will feature the hammer throw and the javelin exclusively. Then on Saturday, field and running events are set to get started at 12 p.m. CT. View the complete meet schedule HERE.