2014-15 Athletics year in review

Website traffic – Those behind CUWFalcons.com are always striving to provide the content the fans are seeking and the 2014-15 saw a 24.8 percent increase in viewership to CUWFalcons.com. In all, 16,358,581 webpage requests were made to the server between August 29 and May 10. The most viewed month was March with 2,334,132 webpage requests being made.

Most viewed day – May 7, 2015 had the most webpage requests during the 2014-15 athletic year, as 239,937 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 third-straight year.

What just happened – Falcon fans always are hungry for information and after they ate lunch and settled back into work or class was when they visited CUWFalcons.com. The 3 pm hour was when the most peopled visited CUWFalcons.com during the 2014-15 athletic year, as 1,114,704 webpage hits were requested. As well, the 2 pm hour was close behind with 1,109,181 webpage hits and 9 pm (last year's most viewed hour) was third with 1,054,395 webpage hits.

It gets busy around here – CUW teams competed in 441 events during the 2014-15 athletics season. Those events took place from August 29, 2014 through May 10, 2015. Men's Soccer, Women's Tennis and Volleyball began the athletics calendar on the 29th of August, while Women's Lacrosse concluded the schedule at the NCAA Division III Championships against Augustana on May 10.

Playing at home – Of the 441 events during the 2014-15 athletics season, 159 were played at home. That number is 13 fewer than in 2013-14 when the Falcons competed in 172 home events.

Overall record – CUW finished the 2014-15 season with a 212-151-7 record in the 15 sports that measure W-L records in some capacity. The Falcons won 18 more games and matches than in 2013-14 and 11 of the 15 sports posted a record above .500.

Conference record – The Falcons were once again excellent in conference play, posting a 120-64-5 record in the previously mentioned 15 sports. CUW takes part in the NACC, MLC, MWLC, NCHA and the NWA conferences. Women's Lacrosse posted a perfect 7-0 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 2014-15 season, posting a 100-49-4 record. No programs took advantage of home games better than Softball and Women's Lacrosse, as the two only had one loss each at home in the spring. Of the 15 sports we used to measure this statistic, 12 finished about .500 in home competition during the past athletic year.

Number of student-athletes – CUW had 549 student-athletes compete in 2014-15, according to final rosters from each sport at the end of their respective seasons. All-in-all the Falcons had 651 student-athletes on those lists but several played multiple sports and some were on varsity reserve rosters, knocking the number down to 549.

All-Region honorees – The Falcons had four players earn All-Region honors and one player named All-Region Freshman of the Year during the 2014-15 season. In the fall, Carley Pfannerstill, Brittany Klumpp and Ashley Apazeller earned all-regon honors in Women's Soccer. Pfannerstill became the first player in program history to garner National Soccer Coaches Association of America/Continental Tire NCAA Division III All-Central Region First Team honors after receiving All-Central Region Third Team accolades the previous season. As well, Apazeller became the first player in Women's Soccer history to earn All-Central Region honors for the third time. In the spring, Allison Kurek was named All-Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association Great Lakes Region First Team to become the first player in program history to earn such an honor, while Carter Buuck was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association All-Midwest Region Third Team. In addition, Ashley Jehlicka was named the American Volleyball Coaches Association All-Midwest Region Freshman of the Year in the fall.

Players of the Year – The Falcons had six student-athletes earn Conference Player of the Year honors during the 2014-15 season. They were Evan Rabas (Men's Golf), Hannah Redden (Women's Lacrosse), Austin Damaschke (Football), Casey Kenealy (Wrestling), and Nina Puch (Women's Golf).

All-Conference accolades – The Falcons had an impressive 76 student-athletes earn All-Conference recognition in their respective sports during the 2014-15 athletics season. Any student-athlete who was named to a conference's first, second, honorable mention or all-freshman team was included in the 76 student-athletes. Football had 11 players selected All-NACC, while Men's Lacrosse had nine players named All-MLC.

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 Men's Basketball team finished with a 14-6 conference record, but got hot during the NACC Tournament, winning at home and on the road twice (including a 73-71 victory at Aurora to win the NACC Tournament title). CUW fell to the eventual NCAA Division III Champion, UW-Stevens Point, 88-56 in the first round. The Women's Lacrosse program had a perfect 7-0 MWLC conference record and would go on to advance to the MWLC Tournament Championship game where they defeated Aurora, 17-7. The Falcons would then fall to the nation's top scoring team, Augustana, in the NCAA Division III Tournament on the road.

National rankings – Only one student-athlete can be crowed a NCAA Division III statistical champion per statistics and Austin Damaschke and Nathan Thyssen ranked No. 1 in total offense and total triples, respectively. In all, six student-athletes ranked in the top-10 in their respective statistical categories. Below is a list of student-athletes and teams who achieved a top-10 ranking nationally in a statistical category:

• Austin Damaschke – first in total offense (378.3) - football
• Garrett Wenzelburger – sixth in reception yards per game (126.3) - football
• Austin Damaschke – eighth in passing yards per game (315.0) - football
• Men's Basketball – seventh in total steals (297)
• Women's Hockey – seventh in team saves (838)
• Baseball – eighth in base on balls (203)
• Baseball – sixth in shutouts (7)
• Nathan Thyssen – third in triples per game (0.25) - baseball
• Nathan Thyssen – first in triples (11) - baseball
• Carter Buuck – eighth in hits allowed per 9 innings (5.51) - baseball
• Men's Lacrosse – first in man up offense (0.554)
• Men's Lacrosse – second in man down defense (0.898)

Twitter - The CUW Athletic Communications Department sent out 2,072 tweets between August 29 and May 10. They did their best to keep Falcons fans updated on the latest news by tweeting in-game scores, interesting facts or just interacting with fans. The CUWFalcons twitter handle also became the most followed of all NACC schools and now has 1,993 followers.

Instagram – The CUW Athletic Communications Department also created an Instagram account to bring fans a visual perspective on the amazing things our student-athletes are doing. The account quickly grew and has 387 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, infographics, etc.) during the 2014-15 athletic year. With two full-time staff members, Steven Schauer and Brian Schipferling, and a group of over 20 student workers to help make everything behind the scenes run smoothly and efficiently. The top priority for the 2015-16 athletic year is to provide more visual and video content, along with more feature/in-depth stories.

Athletic Communications working overtime – Those who work in the Athletic Communications Department had to work a little extra during the 2014-15 athletic year, as they were challenged with the task of hosting the 22nd Annual CUW Wrestling Open, the 20-plus team cross country Falcon Invitational, the 2015 NACC Baseball Tournament and the 2015 MWLC Championship Tournament. In addition, CUW was the host school for the Men's and Women's NACC Tennis Tournaments.