FHSU Athletics

JOPLIN, Mo. – Fort Hays State women’s cross country finished sixth at the NCAA Central Regional Cross Country Championship on Saturday. The Tigers came up just one place shy of qualifying for the NCAA Championships, finishing with 166 points.

Shea Bonine led the Tigers individually for the second straight race, finishing 25th. She ran a time of 21:59 on the 6K course. Micki Krzewski, Chelsea Jackson and Sophie Dalmasso packed together to finish 27th, 28th, and 30threspectively. Krzesinski ran a time of 22:05, Jackson ran 22:08, and Dalmasso ran 22:10. Keanu Bradley rounded out the scorers for FHSU in 57^th with a time of 22:49.

The Tigers were the second-best MIAA team in the field on Saturday. After finishing third at the MIAA Championships, the Tigers bested Missouri Southern on its home course. Southwest Baptist won the regional with 79 points, Minnesota-Duluth was second with 99 points, and Augustana was third with 115. University of Mary had 123 points and Harding had 132.

MANHATTAN, Kan – Fort Hays State opened the second half on a 10-2 run to pull within five points of Kansas State, but the Wildcats responded with a 10-2 run to push the lead back to 13 and beat the Tigers 70-52 in an exhibition game Friday night at Bramlage Coliseum.

Mark Johnson Postgame Interview

Craig Nicholson Postgame Interview

Game Highlights

K-State hit their first three 3-pointers to grab a 9-0 lead to start the game but the Tigers regrouped to pull within nine late in the first half. KSU scored the final four points to close out the first half and led 37-24 at halftime.

FHSU was held to 34-percent shooting and were just 5-for-25 from 3-point range. Kansas State hit 42-percent and was 6-for-22 from beyond the arc. FHSU was only outrebounded by the bigger Wildcats by three.

Craig Nicholson and Dom Samac both scored nine points to lead FHSU in scoring. Hadley Gillum added seven. Wesley Iwundo led the Wildcats with 17 points, Justin Edwards added 14 and Stephen Hurt 13.

FHSU Athletics

HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State squandered a golden opportunity to knock off Missouri Western on Friday evening. Up 2-1 in the match, FHSU had a four-point fourth set lead vanish as MWSU evened the match and then took the final set 15-11 to escape Hays with a win. Hitting and serving errors were a sore thumb for the Tigers in a match where they dominated almost every major stat category.

Looking at the final box score, one would think FHSU ran away with the match. FHSU had 69 kills compared to 44 for MWSU. The Tigers outhit the Griffons .179 to .104. FHSU had 111 digs to 96 for MWSU. FHSU tallied 82 points in the match to just 64 for MWSU. But it still was not enough as mental mistakes and errors proved too costly.

Missouri Western (20-6, 11-3 MIAA) recorded 14 blocks in the match, but 18 of Fort Hays State’s hitting errors were unforced. The Tigers had eight blocks in the match as 16 of Missouri Western’s attacking errors were unforced. There were just too many errors of other varieties for FHSU, including eight servce errors, six reception errors, five blocking errors, and eight ball-handling errors.

The match was a defensive battle with massive amounts of digs racked up by both teams. Ari Jacobsen tied the third-most digs recorded in a match during the rally scoring era at FHSU with 39, just six shy of the school record. Crystal Whitten finished with 25 and Mallory Flagor had 17 for the Tigers. On the Missouri Western side, five players reached double figures in digs with Kayla Ruff’s 24 leading the way.

After Missouri Western took the opening set 25-21, FHSU dominated the second and third sets by scores of 25-15 and 25-18. The Tigers outhit the Griffons .227 to .059 in the second set and .225 to .000 in the third set. It felt as though the Tigers were going to run away with the match in four sets, but the momentum shifted back to the Griffons midway through the fourth. The Tigers even took a 5-1 lead in the fifth set and looked to be running away again, but the Griffons stormed back once more. Unfortunately, the Tigers committed three consecutive errors for the final three points of the match.

Rebekah Spainhour had a great match offensively with 17 kills and just two errors to hit .441. Whitten and Flagor each had 16 kills to record double-doubles with their dig counts. Sydney Dixon had 11 kills. Hannah Wagy had 61 assists, but struggled with control at times recording seven ball-handling errors.

Shellby Taylor led the Griffons with 12 kills, while Blair Russell added 10. Jordon Chohon had a double-double of 36 assists and 21 digs.

The Tigers, now 18-12 overall and 7-8 in the MIAA, look to bounce back on Saturday (Nov. 7) when they host Northwest Missouri State at 2 pm.

HAYS, Kan. – The Fort Hays State men’s soccer team saw their MIAA Championship hopes disappear on Friday night. The 25th-ranked Tigers needed two wins in their last two regular season games to clinch the title for the first time in school history, but came up short suffering a 1-0 loss to 20th-ranked Upper Iowa.

The first half was a defensive battle with only two shots in the half, both from the Peacocks. The Tigers had a couple good looks, but the Peacock defense was able to thwart the opportunities before the Tigers could get a shot off.

In the second half the Tigers were able to get off eight shots, including three on goal, but Upper Iowa goalkeeper Connor Rortvedt was up to the task of saving everything sent his way.

Fort Hays State goalkeeper Michael Yantz was equally impressive on the night with three saves, including one impressive diving stop early in the first half to keep the game all square. At the 78:46 mark, the Peacocks were able to find a way to get the ball past Yantz. After a Tiger foul down the left side of the 18 yard box the Peacocks were awarded a free kick. The ball was crossed into the box by Rhys Williams and Yantz was able to get a piece of it but not enough as the ball bounced to Johnny McBeth and he was able to tap it in for his third goal of the season. That was all Upper Iowa needed to claim the 2015 MIAA Men’s Soccer Championship.

Fort Hays State has one remaining regular season game that takes place on Sunday against Lindenwood. Fort Hays State entered the week ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Central Region Rankings.

FHSU Athletics

WARRENSBURG, Mo. – Fort Hays State rallied to force overtime against No. 9 Central Missouri in the MIAA Tournament Semifinals on Friday, however, the rally came up short as the Jennies scored at 99:01 to end the match and the Tigers’ season by a score of 3-2. Fort Hays State finished the year with a record of 11-8-1.

The Jennies took the early lead when Hailey Womack was able to get her head on a free kick from Callie Henshaw into the back of the net in the 33rd minute.

Shortly afterwards the Jennies were able to extend their lead to 2-0 when Mikala Modiri took a pass from Emily Franchett and beat FHSU keeper Abbie Flax for her seventh goal of the season with 9:35 remaining in the half.

Before the half ended Kelsey Steffens was able to bring the Tigers back within one when Reagan Lawler launched a ball that found Steffens, and with an aggressive keeper out of position Steffens fired the ball across the line for her fourth goal of the season at the 41:35 mark.

The Tigers were able to tie the game up with just under 14 minutes to play in the second half when Cenayda Guzman leveled the score with her third goal of the season (all in consecutive games). Hannah Jurgens provided the pass as the Tigers had a top-10 ranked Central Missouri squad sweating once again. The Tigers upset the Jennies earlier this year in Hays when UCM was No. 1 in the nation by a score of 2-1.

A rally for a second victory over the Jennies this year came up short when Megan Wooley of UCM ended the game 59 seconds remaining in the first overtime period. She took an assist from Jada Scott for the game winner.

Fort Hays State had a tremendous run down the final stretch of the season, winning four consecutive matches before the loss to UCM. Impressively, the Tigers did it with limited subs due to several injuries. Fort Hays State finished in fourth place in the MIAA regular season standings at 7-4.

FHSU Athletics

HAYS, Kan. – Fort Hays State moved on to the semifinals of the MIAA Tournament by defeating the Bearcats of Southwest Baptist on Wednesday 2-1. The fourth-seeded Tigers pushed their win streak to four matches and move on to face No. 1 seed Central Missouri on its home field in Warrensburg, Mo., on Friday.

Cenayda Guzman got the Tigers on the board first, when she was able to place a header off a corner kick from Vianei Sanchez in the back of the net at 60:00.

After a hard foul just outside the SBU box Jasmine Beaulieu rifled a laser free kick past the Bearcat keeper extending the Tiger lead to 2-0 with just 4:31 remaining in the game.

SBU did not go down without a fight as 2014 MIAA Offensive Player of the Year Karla Jamison had a rebound off FHSU goalkeeper Abbie Flax bounce right to her and she buried it in the back of the net for her 14th goal of the season. It cut the Tiger lead in half, just 15 seconds after Beaulieu’s goal. SBU had a few more opportunities in the final four minutes but were unable to find the equalizer and buzzer sounded with the Tigers on top 2-1.

Flax recorded her fifth win of the season for FHSU in between the pipes, saving seven shots.

Wind played a huge factor in the match, steady out of the south at about 20-30 mph throughout the match. SBU was downwind the first half and recorded 12 shots to Fort Hays State’s three, but the Tigers kept the Bearcats off the board. In the second half, FHSU had 13 shots to SBU’s three.

Fort Hays State takes on Central Missouri at 4 pm on Friday. The Jennies are ranked No. 9 in the latest national poll. FHSU defeated Central Missouri earlier this year in Hays, 2-1, when UCM was ranked No. 1 in the nation.