It was an exceptionally busy week for Oakland’s sports teams. Men’s golf was in Kansas, and volleyball and men’s soccer were in Indiana. Here’s a full breakdown of a week that featured an upset over an in-state foe.
Men’s golf
The men’s golf team was in Kansas last weekend to compete in the Kansas State Invitational. Competing at a Big 12 school like KSU, it would be expected there would be solid competition — maybe even some other Power Five schools at the event, but there wasn’t.
It seems Kansas State invited a long list of smaller schools out to its golf course to get shown what a Power Five golf program looks like.
Luckily for the Wildcats, they took care of business.
For Oakland, the Golden Grizzlies finished tied for ninth place out of 15 teams.
Oakland came out on fire to open the event, and it had all other teams on notice early on. OU’s five-man team of Ellis Kinnaird, Robert Burns, Ben Willis, Luke Kelly and Edward Rowe posted a -9 for the round, which was good for first place after the first round.
The Golden Grizzlies led second-place Kansas City by two strokes entering the second round, but the winds picked up, which caused Oakland to stumble. The Golden Grizzlies shot 25 strokes worse in round two than they did in round one, and they dropped to ninth place.
Then in round three, Oakland shot a 301 to stay put in a tie for ninth place.
Overall, Oakland finished tied with Northern Colorado and ahead of Boise State, South Dakota, Omaha, Houston Christian and Texas A&M-Commerce.
Kansas State, Southern Illinois, Grand Canyon, Kansas City, North Dakota State, Creighton, South Dakota State and Drake.
Next up for Oakland is the Tom Tontimonia Invitational in Westlake, Ohio on Oct. 2-3.
Women’s golf
Things didn’t go as well for the women’s golf team at the Mary Fossum Invitational in East Lansing over the weekend. The Golden Grizzlies competed against nine Power Five schools, including six Big Ten teams.
Oakland came in 15th place out of 15 teams, finishing two strokes behind Grand Valley State.
Bridget Boczar led the way for the Golden Grizzlies with a team-best +16 over the three-round event.
Olivia Hemmila (+19), Grace Boczar (+20), Lily Bargamian (+28) and Savannah Haque (+29) all finished in the top 83 as individuals.
Oakland will now set its sights on the Shirley Spork EMU Invitational in Ypsilanti on Oct. 2-3.
Women’s soccer
It was an odd week for the women’s soccer team, which had two conference matches. First, the Golden Grizzlies battled Purdue Fort Wayne at the Oakland Soccer Field, but the two teams played to a draw in the league opener.
An Oakland error led to an own goal scored in favor of PFW in the 20th minute, giving the Mastodons the early 1-0 advantage. Luckily, in the 76th minute, Macey Wierenga found the back of the net for OU, tying the match at one goal apiece.
Neither team scored after that, and Oakland opened Horizon League play with a draw.
Then, on Thursday, the Golden Grizzlies hosted their second conference match of the week, taking on Northern Kentucky.
Again, Oakland fell behind and scored a goal late — this time in the 88th minute — to come away with a draw.
OU is now 0-0-2 in conference play and will visit Wright State on Saturday, Sept. 30.
Volleyball
With three matches this week, the Oakland volleyball team won seven of the 10 sets it played. The week started in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Golden Grizzlies disposed of the Purdue Fort Wayne Mastodons in straight sets.
Set two was a runaway in Oakland’s favor but sets one and three were close as OU cruised to a league-opening victory.
In the second match of the week, Oakland fell to Youngstown State at the OU Credit Union O’rena. The Golden Grizzlies were only outscored by eight points all night, but critical late-set execution from the Penguins led to a 3-1 win for the visitors.
Then, on Saturday, in the last match of the week, Oakland improved to 2-1 in conference play with a straight-sets win over Robert Morris.
The Colonials were no match for the Golden Grizzlies, which outscored the visitors by 23 points over the three sets.
Oakland is now 8-7 overall and 2-1 in conference play.
Men’s soccer
There is perhaps not a more inconsistent, confusing team than the Oakland soccer team. This week, the Golden Grizzlies had matches against Michigan and IUPUI.
Oakland went 1-1, but not in the way almost everyone would have expected.
The Golden Grizzlies upset U-M at the Oakland soccer field on Tuesday by a score of 2-1. Second-half goals by Malik Sylvester and Donovan Phillip propelled the Golden Grizzlies to a win over the Wolverines.
However, any possible momentum that could have been gained from upsetting a Big Ten team wasn’t harnessed because Oakland dropped its ensuing match to IUPUI, falling to 1-2 in the conference.
An upset over one of the top universities in the state will make for great stories and memories, but if Oakland has hopes of a successful season, it will need to become more consistent from match to match.
