Saints, Ranked 23rd, Head into WHAC Championship Meet November 5th
Multiple Siena Heights Sports Teams will take to the field, court or course on Saturday with their seasons on the line.
The Saints' Women's Soccer Team won their opening round of the WHAC Tournament with a 2-0 win over Concordia at home on Wednesday. As the #2 seed, the Saints will play host to Davenport University, the #3 seed, on Saturday afternoon at O'Laughlin Stadium. Davenport defeated Madonna University on Wednesday, needing overtime to secure a 3-2 win. In the regular season, the Saints defeated Davenport by a score of 1-0 with Alessia Vagnini scoring the games only goal in the 76th minute. Amanda Martino and Crystal Wilcoxen shared the shutout in the goal for the Saints. The Saints are 5-0 at O'Laughlin Stadium and are looking to secure their fourth straight berth in the WHAC Championship Game. The winner of this game will face the winner of #1 seed Aquinas vs #4 seed Indiana Tech. The game will be played at the highest remaining seed on Friday, November 11th. The Saints' game time on Saturday will be 1:00 pm.
The Saints' Men's Soccer Team will open their WHAC Tournament as the #6 seed and travel to the #3 seeded Davenport Panthers. The Saints head into the game with a better record than Davenport, 5-9-3 for the Saints and 4-9-5 for Davenport, however, Davenport finished with a 3-1-2 conference record to secure 3rd place. In the regular season, the Saints and Panthers battled with the Panthers coming away with a 5-1 win. James Lawson scored the Saints' only goal, just over two minutes into the game. The winner of this game will take on the winner of the #2 seed Aquinas College and the #7 seed Concordia University on Wednesday, November 9th. The Saints' game on Saturday will kick off at 2:30 pm at Grand Rapids Christian High School.
The Saints' Women's Volleyball Team will open their WHAC Tournament on Saturday. A new format is underway in the volleyball tournament with the #1 seed, Indiana Tech, getting a bye to the semi-final round and the other nine schools will each battle in three pools of three. The winners of each of the three pools will move on to Friday, November 11th when the semi-finals take place at Indiana Tech. The Saints finished 7th in the WHAC and sit in a pool with the #2 seed, Cornerstone, and the #8 seed, UM-Dearborn. Cornerstone finished with a 30-4/8-1 record while Siena Heights finished 14-14/3-6 and UM-Dearborn finished 17-21/1-8. The Saints lost in straight sets to Cornerstone on September 14th while they defeated UM-Dearborn in four sets on October 19th. The winner of this pool will take on the winner of the #4, #5, #10 pool comprised of Madonna University, Aquinas College, and Concordia University. That semi-final would take place on Friday, November 11th at 8 pm in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The Saints' Men's and Women's Cross Country Teams will also run in the WHAC Championship Meet on Saturday. Both teams will travel to Grand Rapids and run on the same course that they last ran, at the Great Lakes Invitational on Saturday, October 22nd. The men finished in 5th place out of the 35 teams competing with David Weeks finishing in 8th place overall. Currently, the men's cross country team is ranked 23rd in the NAIA, sitting behind Aquinas who is ranked 9th in the NAIA and just in front of Cornerstone, who is ranked 26th in the NAIA. The women are led by Lyndsay Payne who finished 15th at the Great Lakes Invitational, the top female finisher in the WHAC.
For the most up to date information on all Siena Heights Athletics, including this WHAC Playoff Weekend, please visit our website at www.shusaints.com