2013-14 Athletics year in review

Website traffic – CUW always want information on their Falcon student-athletes and this year saw a 5.14 percent increase in website traffic during the 2013-14 athletic year. In all, 13,107,731 page hits were recorded for CUWFalcons.com between August 30 and May 16. The most viewed month was November with 2,006,679 page hits being registered.

Most viewed day – January 24, 2014 had the most page hits during the 2013-14 athletic year, as 154,058 page hits were accumulated. On that day, nearly all of the page hits were to see watch the 63rd Annual Concordia Invitational Tournament. CUW's Men's Hockey and Women's Hockey programs also competed that day.

What just happened – Falcon fans want to know what happened and subsequently the 9 p.m. hour was the time when the most people visited CUWFalcons.com. In total, 853,628 page hits were accounted for during the 9 p.m., which is generally the hour after the completion of most night contests.

It gets busy around here – CUW teams competed in 440 events during the 2013-14 athletics season. Those events took place from August 30, 2013 through May 16, 2014. Men's Golf, Women's Golf and Women's Soccer opened up the athletics calendar on the 30th of August, while Women's Golf also concluded the schedule at the NCAA Division III Championships in May. The 440 events (all games, matches and meets) was six more than during the 2012-13 season.

Playing at home – Of the 440 events during the 2013-14 athletics season, 172 were played at home. That number is seven more than in 2012-13 when the Falcons competed in 165 home events.

Overall record – CUW finished the 2013-14 season with a 194-165-9 record in the 15 sports that measure W-L records in some capacity. The Falcons won nine more games and matches than in 2012-13 and 10 of the 15 sports posted a record above .500.

Conference record – The Falcons were once again excellent in conference play, posting a 125-67-6 record in the previously mentioned 15 sports. CUW takes part in the NACC, MLC, MWLC, NCHA and the NWA conferences. Football posted a perfect 6-0 record this past season, while 12 of the 15 teams finished about .500.

Home field – CUW also played well on its home ice, courts and fields during the 2013-14 season, posting a 97-58-6 record. No programs took advantage of home games better than Men's and Women's Lacrosse as the two combined to go 17-4 at Fitting Field during the spring. Of the 15 sports we used to measure this statistic, 11 finished about .500 in home competition during the past season.

Number of student-athletes - CUW had 494 student-athletes compete in 2013-14, according to final rosters from each sport at the end of their respective seasons. All-in-all the Falcons had 544 student-athletes on those lists but several played multiple sports, knocking the number down to 494.

Another Wrestling All-American - The Falcons again had an All-American in 2013-14 as sophomore wrestler Sean Ambrocio became the second CUW grappler in the past two seasons to earn All-American honors. Ambrocio finished eighth in the 125-pound weight bracket at the NCAA Division III Championships.

All-Region honorees - The Falcons had six players earn All-Region honors during the 2013-14 season. Three of those athletes earned the honor during the fall season, including senior Jacob Pope of the Men's Soccer program who earned First Team All-Region honors. In addition to Pope, sophomore Carley Pfannerstill earned Third Team honors in Women's Soccer, while junior Nick Smith was a Third Team offensive guard in Football. Katie Luethe earned Second Team All-Region for her strong play in the winter, leading the Women's Basketball team to a 22-5 record. In the spring, junior Sammy Reiter was named Second Team All-Region in Women's Lacrosse, while senior Mariah Giesseman was named to the Third Team in Softball.

Players of the Year - As was highlighted in the CUWFalcons.com No. 1 Story of the Year, the Falcons had seven players earn Conference Player of the Year honors during the 2013-14 season. Those players were Luethe (Women's Basketball), Reiter (Women's Lacrosse), Pope (Men's Soccer), Austin Damaschke (Football), Ambrocio (Wrestling), Nina Puch (Women's Golf) and Martin Hinze (Men's Indoor Track & Field).

All-Conference accolades - The Falcons had an impressive 78 student-athletes earn All-Conference recognition in their respective sports during the 2013-14 athletics season. Any athlete who was named to a conference's first, second, honorable mention, or All-Freshman team was included in the 78 student-athletes. The 78 athletes is up from 66 a season ago. Football had 17 players selected for All-Conference accolades, while Men's Lacrosse had nine student-athletes earn the honors.

Advancing to the national stage – Advancing to the national stage isn't easy, but a pair of Falcon programs played for a NCAA Division III Championship, in their respective sport, after winning a Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament trophy. The Football team cruised to a perfect 6-0 record against conference foes and during those events outscored the opposition by a 283-182 margin (16.8 per game). CUW fell at UW-Platteville 54-20 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Championship. The Women's Golf program won its second-straight league title with an 18-stroke advantage. They shot three of the four lowest rounds at the NACC Tournament. CUW faced stiff competition at Mission Inn Resort and played a pair of rounds before failing to make the cut.

National rankings – Only one student-athlete can be crowed a NCAA Division III statistical champion per statistics and Hayley Peppers inscribed her name on a plaque forever, as she led the country with a 7.35 ground balls per game average. The junior midfielder set the Women's Lacrosse game record on five occasions, owns the single season record and the current career leader in ground balls. In all, four student-athletes ranked in the top-10 in respective statistical categories, while the Women's Basketball and Women's Lacrosse team were among the best in the nation. Below is a list of student-athletes and teams who achieved a top-10 ranking nationally in a statistical category:

• Garrett Wenzelburger – 10th in receiving yards (1,193)
• Garrett Wenzelburger – fifth in receptions per game (9.2)
• Austin Damaschke – fourth in total offense (349.5)
• Sam Wladyka – ninth in shot percentage (.525)
• Women's Basketball – ninth in turnovers per game (13.2)
• Women's Lacrosse – second in ground balls per game (33.29)
• Hayley Peppers – first in ground balls per game (7.35)
• Maxine Blohowiak – sixth in short-handed goals (2)

Twitter - The CUW Athletic Communications Department sent out 2,554 tweets between August 30 and May 16. They tried to keep Falcons fans updated on the latest news by tweeting in-game scores, interesting facts or just interacting with student-athletes. The CUWFalcons twitter handle also became the most followed of all NACC schools and now has 1,388 followers.

Those behind the scenes – The Athletic Communications Department continued to improve the quality and quantity of information (game recaps, news, box scores, social media, photographs, live video, etc.) during the 2013-14 athletic year. With two full-time staff members, Steven Schauer and Brian Schipferling, and a group of over 20 student workers helped make everything behind the scenes run smoothly and efficiently. The top priority for the 2014-15 athletic year is to provide more content for CUWFalcons.com social media platforms.

Athletic Communications working overtime – Those who work in the Athletic Communications Departments had to work a little extra during the 2013-14 athletic year, as they were challenged with the task of hosting six Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference Championships, the 63rd Annual Concordia Invitational Tournament, the 21st Annual CUW Wrestling Open and the 20-plus team cross country Falcon Invitational. In addition, CUW hosted six NACC Championship events during the 2013-14 athletic year.