Photo by Steven Schauer
Photo by Steven Schauer
Posted: Jul 21, 2016

2015-16 Athletics year in review

Website traffic – Members of the Department of Athletic Communications who post content to CUWFalcons.com are always pushing to provide the latest and most up-to-date information for fans as it becomes available, and the 2015-16 athletic year was no different. During the year there was a 1.97 percent increase in viewership after an amazing 24.8 percent jump the previous year. In all, 16,680,311 webpage requests were made to the server between September 1 and May 26. The most viewed month was May with 2,166,745 webpage requests being made.

Most viewed day – May 12, 2016 had the most webpage requests during the 2015-16 athletic year, as 257,895 webpage hits were accumulated. On that day, nearly all of the webpage hits were to follow the opening day of the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Baseball Tournament, which CUW hosted for the fourth-straight year. The second most viewed day was May 4, 2016 with 206,203 webpage requests made and during that day the Baseball program swept No. 11 UW-Whitewater at home, while Men's Lacrosse team also earned a MLC Tournament victory over Benedictine at Fitting Field.

What just happened – Falcon fans always are hungry for information and before they left for work or after they finished up their last class of the day was when they visited CUWFalcons.com the most. The 4 pm hour was the most visited time at CUWFalcons.com during the 2015-16 athletic year, as 1,078,600 webpage hits were requested or 6.47 percent of the total views throughout the year. As well, the 9 pm hour was close behind with 1,046,121 webpage hits and 5 pm was third with 1,042,301 webpage hits.

It gets busy around here – CUW teams competed in 448 events during the 2015-16 athletics season. Those events took place from September 1, 2015 through May 26, 2016. Men's Soccer, Women's Soccer and Volleyball began the athletics calendar, while Nicole Larson from Women's Track & Field competed at the NCAA Division III Championship on May 26, 2016 to close out the year.

Overall record – CUW finished the 2015-16 season with a 226-138-9 record in the 16 sports that measure W-L records in some capacity. The Falcons won 14 more events than in 2014-15 and 11 of the 16 sports posted a record above .500.

Playing at home – Of the 448 events during the 2015-16 athletics year, 158 were played at home. That number is one fewer than in 2014-15 when the Falcons competed in 159 home events. The overall record for CUW on its home playing surface was 105-45-8 or a .690 winning percentage. No programs took advantage of home games better than Women's Lacrosse who was a perfect 10-0 at Fitting Field. Of the 16 sports we used to measure this statistic, 13 finished about .500 in home competition during the past athletic year.

Conference record – The Falcons were once again excellent in conference play, posting a 128-53-4 record in the 14 sports that were a member of a conference this past year. CUW takes part in the NACC, MLC, MWLC and NWA conferences. Women's Soccer, Women's Tennis and Women's Lacrosse all posted undefeated records in league play, while 10 of the 14 had records above .500.

All-Region honorees – The Falcons had many outstanding individuals representing different sports, but 16 stood out more than others by earning all-region honors. The following is a list of the 16 student-athletes who received special recognition for their efforts in competition: Kyle Hilliard (Baseball) – ABCA All-Midwest Region Second Team, Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse) – IMLCA All-West Region Honorable Mention, Diego Campos (Men's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team, Gavin Falotico (Men's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team, Keegan Van Dusseldorp (Men's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Third Team, Gavin Falotico (Men's Outdoor Track & Field) – USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region, Tyler White (Men's Indoor Track & Field) – USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region, Ariel Kinlow (Women's Indoor Track & Field) – USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region, Nicole Larson (Women's Indoor/Outdoor Track & Field) – USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region, Marya Haegler (Women's Cross Country) – USTFCCCA All-Midwest Region, Lexi Holman (Women's Hockey) – D3Hockey.com All-West Region Third Team, Allison Kurek (Women's Lacrosse) – IWLCA All-Great Lakes Region Second Team, Emily Ciesielczyk (Women's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team, Faith Palmreuter (Women's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team, Carley Pfannerstill (Women's Soccer) – NSCAA All-Central Region Second Team, Deidra Weinberger (Softball) – NFCA All-Great Lakes Region Third Team.

Players of the Year – The Falcons had nine student-athletes earn Conference Player of the Year honors during the 2015-16 season. They were Gavin Falotico (Men's Soccer – NACC Co-Defensive Player and Freshman of the Year), Ashley Solberg (Women's Tennis – NACC Freshman of the Year), Faith Palmreuter (Women's Soccer – NACC Defensive Player of the Year), Josie Dombrowski (Women's Soccer – NACC Freshman of the Year), Karli Tatum (Women's Track & Field – NACC Indoor Field Athlete of the Meet), Nora Imperl (Women's Track & Field – NACC Outdoor Track Athlete of the Meet), Allison Kurek (Women's Lacrosse – MWLC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Year), Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse – MLC Defensive Player and Rookie of the Year), Christian Docter (Men's Tennis – NACC Freshman of the Year).

All-Conference accolades – The Falcons had an impressive 87 student-athletes earn all-conference recognition in their respective sports during the 2015-16 season. Any student-athlete who was named to a conference's first, second, honorable mention or all-freshman team was included in the 87 student-athletes.

Advancing to the national stage – Advancing to the national stage is never easy, but a pair of Falcon programs played for a NCAA Division III Championship, in their respective sport, after winning a conference tournament title. The Women's Tennis team breezed through the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference regular season with a 10-0 record and then won the NACC Tournament in thrilling fashion with a 5-4 victory over Edgewood to earn its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. As well, the Women's Lacrosse team was unscathed in the regular season with a 9-0 record and cruised through the Midwest Women's Lacrosse Conference Tournament to advance to the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight year. In addition, five Falcon student-athletes earned a trip to the NCAA Tournament; which include Mason Baumgartner and Pierce Holtfreter from the Wrestling team, along with Nicole Larson, Ariel Kinlow and Tyler White from the Women's and Men's Track & Field teams.

National rankings – Only one student-athlete can be crowed a NCAA Division III statistical champion per year and the Falcons had numerous who were close to winning, however, a top-10 finish will always be respectable. In all, six student-athletes ranked in the top-10 in their respective statistical categories and seven teams. Below is a list of student-athletes and teams who achieved a top-10 ranking nationally in a statistical category:

  • Aaron Nixon (Football) – sixth in completions per game (26.0)
  • Tyler White (Football) – fourth in kickoff return touchdowns (1)
  • Diego Campos (Men's Soccer) – seventh in assists per game (0.78), eighth in total assists (14)
  • Keegan Van Dusseldorp (Men's Soccer) – 10th in shots per game (4.95)
  • Allison Kurek (Women's Lacrosse) – fifth in caused turnovers per game (3.61), sixth in ground balls per game (5.39)
  • Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse) – sixth in save percentage (.610)
  • Baseball – seventh in shutouts (7)
  • Men's Basketball – fourth in defensive 3-point field goal percentage (28.7), sixth in steals per game (11.0), ninth in total steals (286)
  • Men's Lacrosse – fourth in man-down defense (.863)
  • Men's Soccer – third in assists per game (3.0) and shots per game (23.16), fifth in shots on goal per game (10.84) and total assists (57), ninth in points per game (8.68)
  • Women's Hockey – sixth in power play percentage (22.3)
  • Women's Lacrosse – second in caused turnovers per game (16.44) and ground balls per game (27.33)
  • Women's Soccer – ninth in shots per game (24.11)

Social Media – The Department of Athletic Communications strives to connect with its fans via its various social media accounts and this past year strived to provide a better experience with game day graphics. In addition, there were 1,946 tweets posted with 600 new followers being added to bring the total Twitter followers count to 2,527. As well, CUW Falcons Instagram account has 1,007 followers.

Those behind the scenes – Steven Schauer and Brian Schipferling would like to thank all those who helped the Department of Athletic Communications throughout the 2015-16 athletic year, especially the staff of 20 student workers who tirelessly helped the behind the scenes efforts. Those student workers assisted in updating CUWFalcons.com in a variety of capacities, ran scoreboards, took official statistics and did other tasks as needed to run the games the fans watch with ease. As well, our broadcasters deserve credit for their work in calling dozens of Falcon games and on a positive note none of them were ejected from a contest.

Athletic Communications working overtime – Those who work in the Athletic Communications Department had to work a little extra during the 2015-16 athletic year, as they were challenged with the task of hosting the 29 team and 315 participant cross country Ken Weidt Classic, 23rd Annual CUW Wrestling Open, 2016 NACC Men's and Women's Tennis Championships, 2016 MWLC Tournament and the 2016 NACC Baseball Tournament. In addition, CUW was the host for numerous tournament games throughout the year.