As the hours, minutes and seconds tick down in 2024, it is the ideal time to celebrate the accomplishments achieved by Saginaw Valley State University athletics teams and student-athletes over the past 12 months.
• Over the last two semesters (winter 2024 and fall 2024), 119 SVSU student-athletes have graduated, including 47 who participated in the December 2024 commencement ceremonies.
• Through the conclusion of the fall 2024 semester, eighteen of our 20 intercollegiate sports have maintained a combined cumulative team grade-point average of 3.0 or higher. The top cumulative team GPAs belong to tennis (3.74), women's basketball (3.59) and volleyball (3.53). The overall composite GPA for all student-athletes is 3.32 – an increase of 0.1 since last spring.
• SVSU won five combined GLIAC Championships in 2024: softball (shared the conference regular-season title – its first since 2009 – and claimed its third-straight tournament championship); baseball (first regular-season championship since 2002); and men's soccer (shared the conference regular-season title and won tournament championship).
• Nine different SVSU teams have qualified for NCAA Division II postseason competition in 2024: men's and women's indoor track and field, men's and women's swimming and diving, softball, men's and women's outdoor track and field, baseball and men's soccer.
• The SVSU baseball team won a school single-season record 41 games and finished inside the Top 20 in the final polls (No. 12 by National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and No. 16 by American Baseball Coaches Association).
• The Cardinal women's track and field team finished 10th in the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, finishing with 25 total points.
• The SVSU men's cross country team made its third consecutive appearance in the 2024 NCAA Division II Championships and placed 17th in the 34-team field, advancing nine spots from the previous season.
• The Cardinal football team posted a winning record for the fourth consecutive season, finishing 7-4 overall in 2024 while playing the nation's 13th-most difficult schedule (opponents' combined record of 61-48 [.560]). It marks SVSU's longest streak of winning seasons since producing five in a row, from 2000-04. SVSU's four losses came by a combined total of 17 points, including a 16-9 loss to No. 2-ranked Grand Valley State and a 27-24 setback at top-ranked Ferris State. The Cards tied for third in the final GLIAC standings at 4-3.
SVSU ranked second in the GLIAC and No. 24 in NCAA Division II attendance in 2024, averaging 4,804 fans per home game. A capacity crowd of 8,586 attended the Cardinals' Oct. 19 Homecoming Game against GVSU. It marked the seventh-largest crowd in Wickes Stadium history.
• The SVSU women's soccer team played well down the stretch, posting a 4-0-2 record over its last six GLIAC matches to vault into third place in the final regular-season standings at 6-3-5.
Jaidyn Veldhouse's header off Stephanie Strong's corner kick 4:29 into extra time gave the Cardinals a 1-0 victory over Purdue Northwest in the GLIAC Tournament quarterfinals. Lainey Garbarz recorded a career-high 14 save as SVSU battled to a 1-1 tie against Grand Valley after 110 minutes, but Strong's game-winning penalty kick sent the Cards (3-2) into the GLIAC Tournament Championship Match. SVSU, which saw its magical late-season surge end in a 3-0 loss to top-seeded Northern Michigan in the title match, finished with an overall record of 9-6-6.
• The Cardinal men's soccer team won eight of its last nine GLIAC matches to share the regular-season crown with Roosevelt with an 8-4 league record. After going 0-2 against Roosevelt during the regular-season, SVSU tied the Lakers in the GLIAC Tournament Championship Match, 1-1, but claimed the postseason title in penalty kicks (4-3) as Francisco Capellan netted the game winner.
After 90 scoreless minutes in an NCAA second-round match against Rogers State, the Cardinals advanced to the Sweet 16 with another victory on penalty kicks (4-2) as Ryan Bovee delivered the game winner.
SVSU got first-half goals from Elliot Nottoli and Capellan and Nick Kay finished with nine saves, including six stops in the second half, as SVSU defeated Tiffin, 2-1, to move on to the Elite Eight.
The Cardinals, who went 9-2-2 in their last 13 matches, dropped a heartbreaker to McKendree, 2-1, in the Super Region 3 Final. SVSU (13-6-2) ranked No. 7 in the United Soccer Coaches Final Poll, marking the Cards' first Top 10 finish since 2012.
• Through the completion of the six fall sports schedules, SVSU ranks second overall in the 2024-25 Presidents' Trophy standings with 38 points, trailing only Grand Valley (46 points). The Cards' top point scorers included men's cross country (9 points), women's cross country (8), men's soccer (6.5), women's soccer (6.5) and football (5). SVSU's men's teams accounted for league-leading 20.5 points during the fall.
• Over the last seven months, SVSU hosted multiple rounds of NCAA Division II postseason tournaments (baseball and men's soccer).
In May, more than 1,600 fans flocked to the SVSU Baseball Complex for the NCAA Midwest Regional and Super Regional.
As the No. 1 seed in Super Region 3, the SVSU men's soccer team played three rounds of the 2024 NCAA Division II Championships at Braddock Field.
• SVSU student-athletes earned their share of national and conference honors, with 12 All-Americans (first- and second-team), 59 All-GLIAC selections (first- and second-team) and 19 major award winners (national and GLIAC).
Cheyenne Nesbitt (women's track and field), Hayden Jatczak (baseball) and Micah Cretsinger (football) became three of the most-decorated SVSU student-athletes in their respective sports.
Nesbitt: USTFCCCA Field Athlete of the Year (second year in a row), NCAA Champion in heptathlon (first woman in NCAA history in any division to win four consecutive heptathlon titles), GLIAC Scholar-Athlete of the Year, GLIAC Commissioner's Award (Spring 2024), GLIAC Women's Field Athlete of the Year, USA Track & Field Indoor Champion in combined pentathlon.
Jatczak: ABCA/Rawlings Division II Position Player of the Year, D2 Baseball Insider National Player of the Year, ABCA All-American First Team, NCBWA All-American First Team, D2 CCA All-American First Team.
Cretsinger: Two-time All-American (2023-24), 2024 GLIAC Defensive Back of the Year.
• Benjamin Wainman, who became the first All-America swimmer in SVSU program history last March by placing eighth in the 1,650-yard freestyle at the NCAA Division II Championships, won the CSCAA College National Open Water Championship on Dec. 15, completing the 5K race with a time of one hour and 41 seconds.
• Three SVSU head coaches were named Coach of the Year in their respective sports: Ryan Schalk (GLIAC Softball), Adam Piotrowicz (GLIAC Baseball; National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Midwest Region) and Louis Barrow (United Soccer Coaches Midwest Region Staff of the Year).
• Under the new leadership of women's tennis coach Kaylee Tucker, our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee completed a few new initiatives, including "Operation Gratitude," writing 117 thank you letters to retired and active military on Veterans Day, "Fleece & Thank You," making 15 tie blankets to help comfort hospitalized children in Michigan and participating in The Salvation Army's "Angel Tree" program, purchasing Christmas gifts for local children in need.
As SVSU Athletics looks ahead to 2025 and beyond, I want to express my appreciation for all Cardinal Booster Club members. Your generosity helps support our mission to provide SVSU student-athletes with a "Championship Experience" as they pursue excellence in the classroom and competition while striving to become difference-makers in our local communities.
Go Cards!
