![Glen Lake soccer](/sites/default/files/2022-05/220520_GlenLake_2H.jpg)
Glen Lake Aims to Transform League Dominance Into Postseason Potential
By
Tom Spencer
Special for MHSAA.com
May 20, 2022
Meeting and exceeding expectations of the Northwest Conference has been little challenge lately for the Glen Lake girls soccer team.
The Lakers haven’t lost a conference match since 2019, also the last time they failed to win the conference championship.
On Monday, the Lakers have a chance to finish a second-straight undefeated league season when they take on Buckley, coming in at 4-5-4. The Lakers already have defeated the Bears this season, and no league opponent has come within six goals of catching them.
Glen Lake has scored 72 goals in league play and allowed just one.
But while the Lakers have fared very well against league competition over the last many years, they are eager to match that success in the MHSAA Tournament.
Fifth-year coach Eric Luthardt and the Lakers hope to get back to the deep postseason runs made under former coaches Andy Smith and Meg Murphy.
“Glen Lake girls have won quite a few conference titles in the years prior to me,” he said. “It is almost expected, kind of like Leland winning the boys.
“People just assume — and there are teams that assume — we’ll win the conference. But the big one that has been missing for a while has been a District championship,” he continued. “So that’s the next step for us.”
As the second seed in their District, the Lakers will open tournament play May 31 against the winner of Charlevoix and Leland. Top-seeded Harbor Springs is on the other side of the bracket, awaiting the winner of Grayling and Suttons Bay.
If the Lakers secure the District title, they will take on the winner of the McBain District. Host McBain Northern Michigan Christian has the number one seed there. The Lakers and the Comets have not met this season, and neither has faced Harbor Springs this spring.
“As far as accomplishments, we definitely want to win Districts, and I think we have a really strong chance at Regionals,” said Luthardt, who also serves as assistant coach on the Lakers boys team. “Harbor Springs will be challenging.
“McBain (NMC) has a really good soccer program – the boys are really good and the girls are really good,” he continued. “Plus, it is playoff time.”
Buckley, which went undefeated in league play last fall and advanced to the boys Regional, is coached by John Vermilya on both the boys and girls sides. He’s been very impressed by the Lakers this spring.
“This year, the Lakers are untouchable for the rest of us in the Northwest Conference,” he said. “They have two or three girls that are good enough to have been starters on our boys championship team.”
Glen Lake has only 14 players on the roster. The Lakers have been forced to play considerable minutes with just 10 on the field due to injuries and illnesses.
They have been led by junior center mid Ruby Hogan and senior forward Jess Robbins. Both have 25 goals; Hogan adds 16 assists and Robbins 11. One of Robbins’ goals was scored on a free kick from the midfield stripe.
The Lakers also have benefited from sophomore Paige Steffke’s 15 goals and 14 assists and junior Gemma Lerchen’s 13 goals and 10 assists.
Sophomore goalkeeper Natalie Bailey has gained tremendous experience and confidence, Luthardt pointed out. She has 37 saves on the season and has allowed only 16 goals – nine of which came during the Lakers’ first three games of the season.
A field player last year, Bailey recently has benefitted from the special coaching of Becca Nowicki, a former Lakers goal standout. Nowicki is back in the area after playing soccer in England last fall for the Macclesfield FC International Academy. Macclesfield bills itself as the United Kingdom’s leading private development academy.
“We want the goals, but the girls really want shutouts,” Luthardt noted.
The Lakers are 12-3 overall headed into the final regular-season game, and Luthardt is confident they have learned from their mistakes this season. Glen Lake’s defeats came to Division 1 Traverse City Central, the Traverse City West junior varsity and Division 3 No. 6 Elk Rapids.
“We had a couple of losses early in the season, which is a reminder of how far we’ve come,” he said. “We played panic ball.
“If we’re doing to go far, we’re going to have to correct that.”
Luthardt is enjoying the moment and taking things one day at a time. He anticipates much stronger conference opponents in the upcoming seasons resulting from developing community youth soccer programs.
Like Nowicki, other former players have shown a great interest in the Lakers’ efforts this year.
“It’s seeing the past Lakers players come to games and seeing how much they miss soccer,” Luthardt said. “Conference titles and these things are of course great, but it is the other stuff too that is really fun to see.”
Time will tell how far the Lakers go this tournament run.
“We want to try to get far as we can,” Luthardt said. “Obviously we have our eyes on the prize, you know, the one little thing, the Finals.”
Tom Spencer is a longtime MHSAA-registered basketball and soccer official, and former softball and baseball official, and he also has coached in the northern Lower Peninsula area. He previously has written for the Saginaw News, Bay County Sports Page and Midland Daily News. He can be reached at [email protected] with story ideas for Manistee, Wexford, Missaukee, Roscommon, Ogemaw, Iosco, Alcona, Oscoda, Crawford, Kalkaska, Grand Traverse, Benzie, Leelanau, Antrim, Otsego, Montmorency, Alpena, Presque Isle, Cheboygan, Charlevoix and Emmet counties.
PHOTOS (Top) Glen Lake’s Gemma Lerchen (10) works to gain possession against Elk Rapids as referee Kevin Avery monitors the action. (Middle) Jess Robbins is tied for the Lakers’ team lead with 25 goals this spring. (Below) Ruby Hogan also has scored 25 goals, with a team-high 16 assists. (Photos by Jennifer Nowicki.)
![](/sites/default/files/imported/Photos/190502_Novi_2H3.jpg)
2018 Champ Novi No Longer Overlooked
By
Tom Markowski
Special for Second Half
May 2, 2019
NOVI – Perhaps it wasn’t such a surprise that Novi won the MHSAA Division 1 girls soccer championship last season.
Sure, Grand Blanc, ranked No. 1 at the time, was the favorite – an overwhelming favorite by some estimations. That opinion alone places added pressure on the team that’s expected to win and, yes, Novi was the recipient of a Bobcats defensive miscue on the game-winning goal late in its 1-0 victory.
What is apparent is that many overlooked the Wildcats. Forget about the five losses they suffered during the season. No program plays a more competitive schedule, and much can be said of a team’s mental toughness after having faced high-level teams week after week. Novi caught fire at the right time and allowed just three goals over its seven tournament games.
Rest assured, no one will overlook Novi this season as the Wildcats are 8-0 and ranked No. 1 entering the month of May.
Todd Pheiffer is in his fifth season as head coach, and the 1992 Novi graduate is used to winning. He spent nine seasons at Ann Arbor Huron and guided the River Rats to the program’s only title (in Division 1) in 2008. He was an assistant coach under Brian O’Leary at Novi when the Wildcats won MHSAA Division 1 titles in 2010 and ’11. Novi has won six MHSAA titles in girls soccer, the most of any program at the Division 1/Class A level.
Pheiffer lives and breathes soccer. He’s coached the boys team at Novi since 2016 and he also coaches a club team. His first boys team at Novi reached the Division 1 Semifinals before losing to East Kentwood. Last season Novi lost in overtime to Detroit Catholic Central, 3-2, in a District Final. His daughter, Abbey, a sophomore, is the starting goal keeper after serving as the back-up. Todd Pheiffer and his wife, Michele, also have a son, Zachary, who plays on a U12 travel team. The Pheiffers are also math teachers – Todd at Novi, Michele at rival Northville.
Todd Pheiffer didn’t begin his professional career in education. After graduating from University of Michigan, he entered the computer software business but found that field unfulfilling. He went back to school and received his teaching degree in 2009 (from Eastern Michigan) before earning a master’s in athletic administration and educational leadership from Wayne State University. He spent a year teaching at St. Clair Shores Lakeview before going to Salem for a half-dozen years and then to Novi in 2015.
“It just kind of worked out,” he said. “I thought I’d go into computers and then be an attorney. I don’t make the money I used to, but I love what I do.”
Novi lost to Brighton in the Districts in Pheiffer’s first season with the girls team, then reached the Division 1 Semifinals the next before losing to Rochester Hills Stoney Creek – which went on to win the MHSAA title. Novi then lost to Plymouth in a Regional Semifinal in 2017 before breaking through last season.
“We had a few players back from the team that lost to Stoney Creek in a shootout, and I told them we could have won it that year,” Pheiffer said. “Last year we lost the last two games of the regular season and my captains got the team together and told them that’s not it, that’s not how we’re going to end our season. They got them back up and motivated. We knew if we won our District that we would host the Regionals and have a good shot at going far.”
The Wildcats received additional incentive from another source. After Novi defeated Troy, 4-1, in the Semifinal and Grand Blanc held on to defeat Midland, 1-0, words were said that provided locker room material.
“The girls were on their phones with each other saying did you see what the Midland coach said,” Pheiffer said.
Jessie Bandyk is a four-year starter as an attacking center-midfield and she clearly recalls what took place between the Semifinals and Final.
“We saw things in the paper, that Grand Blanc was a sure thing (to win)” she said. “Pretty much everybody felt that way. It gave us motivation. Honestly, I think we could have done it either way.”
That’s confidence. And that confidence is back despite Novi losing five senior starters to graduation, including goal keeper Callie Rich, and two defenders. Abbey Pheiffer’s play in goal has provided a significant boost. Abbey started seven games as a freshman, so she does have valuable varsity experience. Over the first eight games this season, she’s stopped 39 of 41 shots with six shutouts.
“I definitely credit our defense,” Abbey said. “Our team chemistry has been really good this season.
“Last year was a lot of fun. Novi always has a big target on (its) back. Now that we’re state champs and doing so well, they want to give us that loss. I remember in scrimmages the other players talking about how they wanted to beat us.”
One of Novi’s best players is junior forward Avery Fenchel. She has a knack for scoring goals, and none was bigger than the one she scored against Grand Blanc in the 2018 Final. Fenchel led Novi in goals and points her first two seasons, and has eight goals and seven assists so far this season.
“She has a great field awareness and is very unselfish when she has the ball,” Coach Pheiffer said. “Although she loves scoring goals, she is always willing to make that extra pass when it’s the best option.”
Not to be overlooked is the play of its defenders, notably returning starters Lauren Calhoun, a senior center back, and sophomore Eva Burns, an outside back.
“Everyone wants to talk about who scored the goals and who had the assists,” Pheiffer said. “Our defense is definitely a strength.
“This season is tougher. There’s added pressure. We’re No. 1 now. Last year nobody looked at us. Our girls are motivated by that. We have a brutal schedule and play in a tough league (Kensington Lakes Activities Association). Plymouth is ranked No. 7 and Hartland is No. 4, and we play them both twice. Northville and Brighton are in the top 20 and Canton, which tied (No. 2-ranked) Grand Blanc isn’t even ranked.”
For Bandyk and the other four seniors who start, this is their final hurrah, their last chance not only to win a title but to play together as teammates.
“There’s a group of us who play travel together, and having chemistry outside of high school helps,” she said. “We set some goals before the season, not only to win a state title but to have more fun and to make the most of this season.”
Tom Markowski is a correspondent for the State Champs! Sports Network and previously directed its web coverage. He also covered primarily high school sports for the The Detroit News from 1984-2014, focusing on the Detroit area and contributing to statewide coverage of football and basketball. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties.
PHOTOS: (Top) Novi’s Jessie Bandyk moves play ahead during last year’s championship game win against Grand Blanc. (Middle) Abbey Pheiffer lines up to send the ball downfield this spring. (Below) Wildcats coach Todd Pheiffer mulls things over during the Final. (Middle photo courtesy of Novi athletic department.)