Garrrett White

For the second straight year, the Bulldog football team finished second in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Truman was 6-4 overall and 5-3 in the GLVC.

Of the 10 games played during the 2014 season, six were decided by 10 points or less. The season began with a heartbreaking 13-7 overtime loss at Div. I Drake (Iowa) but the ’Dogs bounced back with four straight wins over Langston (Okla.) 17-12, Missouri S&T 27-16, Lincoln (Mo.) 29-20 and McKendree (Ill.) 30-17.

The team suffered back-to-back home losses to William Jewell (Mo.) 21-17 and league champion Indianapolis (Ind.) 23-20 before pummeling Southwest Baptist (Mo.) 52-7 behind Garrett White’s GLVC record 229 yards rushing. The team finished the season with a home win on Senior Day against Quincy (Ill.) 17-14 and a road loss to Saint Joseph’s (Ind.) 35-9.

Ten Bulldogs were selected all-conference by GLVC coaches. Seniors White and Chico Orlando were unanimous first-team selections and were joined on the first team by Brad Wellman and Jacob Lamp.

The Bulldog defense, which allowed just 17.8 points per game, the fewest by a Truman team since the 1994 season, had five members selected to the second team all-conference. Seniors Nic Abbate and Matthew Bell were joined by junior Nick Reichert, sophomores Austin Zoda and Chris Stanton on the team. Sophomore kick returner Derek Hammann was an honorable mention on the all-conference team.

Brad Hart

The Bulldog men were led by senior Brad Hart who earned all-conference honors with a sixth-place finish at the GLVC Championships in November. Hart was the first Bulldog runner to cross the finish line in all seven races in the fall and was the first overall runner in both the Haskell Indian Nations Invite and the St. Louis Fall Cross Country Classic. He was second in Truman’s home triangular meet with Lindenwood (Mo.) and Missouri S&T and earned all-Midwest region honors, finishing 23rd at the NCAA Regional. Freshman Jordan Wheeler was the second Bulldog runner in all seven events.

Laura Tarantino

The women won three team titles and sophomore Laura Tarantino was the first Truman runner in each fall race with an individual title at the Haskell Indian Invite. The Bulldogs won the season-opening home triangular meet with Lindenwood and Missouri S&T and then finished first at Haskell and the St. Louis Fall Classic. Truman was sixth at the GLVC Championships with Tarantino just missing all-conference honors with a 16th place overall finish. Senior Emma Trenhaile and freshmen Jesse Dinkins, Michaela Hylen and Victoria Soncasie were among the top runners on the team in 2015.

A trio of top-three finishes highlighted a strong fall  season for the Bulldog women’s golf team, as Truman got strong play across the board in four tournaments this September and October.

After opening the season with a sixth-place finish at the William Jewell Fall Tune-Up, the Bulldogs went for third at both Millikin (Ill.) and Nebraska Wesleyan before capping the season with a second-place finish at the Illinois Springfield Salisbury Challenge. Led by a pair of Barmettlers, (Nicolle, freshman; Kim, junior), the Bulldogs recorded 11 total top-15 finishes as Riley Keltner and Courtney Cisler completed a quartet that competed in all seven rounds.

The Bulldogs, under the direction of head coach Clint Fitzpatrick, will pick back up with action this spring, which includes the first Sam Lesseig Invitational–to be held April 19-20 at the Kirksville Country Club.

Alexis Heffernan and Caitlyn Stephan

The Bulldog women’s soccer team captured its 20th straight season of double-figure victories in 2014, making a run to the Great Lakes Valley Conference semifinals and finishing with an overall record of 13-5-2.

Truman was led this season by a trio of all-GLVC performers in junior forward Alexis Heffernan, senior defender Lauren Seawright and junior defender Jessica Hanson. Heffernan was the team leader in goals (10), points (23) and shots (80), raising her career total to 19 goals in 54 matches. Meanwhile, Seawright and Hanson helped anchor a young Bulldog defense behind 11 shutouts in 20 matches this year. The tandem started every match this season and helped Truman’s two freshman goalkeepers face just 175 shots (9.2 per match) and 82 shots on goal (4.3 per match).

Both Heffernan and Seawright also earned NSCAA all-region honors, with each picking up the awards for the second straight season. Heffernan also garnered first-team all-region honors from Daktronics.

The Bulldogs, under the direction of head coach Mike Cannon, will return eight starters for the 2015 season that will begin at home on Sept. 4-6.

Zach Hollstrom

The Bulldog men’s soccer team got out to a fast start in 2014 but came out on the wrong side of a handful of tight contests down the stretch, as Truman went 5-11-1 this fall on the pitch.

Truman jumped out to a 3-0-1 start, posting four shutouts and earning seven quick points in conference play. However, as mid-October hit, the Bulldogs struggled to score and dropped their final six games of the regular season to just miss out on the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament.

Junior Corey Nolte led the Bulldogs out the midfield with four goals, while senior Brandon Visonnavong added two goals on just six shots. Nine other Bulldogs found the scoring column, while senior Drew Garrone posted a 1.51 goals-against average in net with 17 starts.

The Bulldogs, under the guidance of head coach Duke Cochran, will return six starters for the 2015 campaign, which will begin on the road on Sept. 4-6.

Jake Olhausen

The Bulldog men’s tennis team competed in four duals and a pair of tournaments during the fall portion of their schedule. The team was 1-3 in the duals with an 8-1 victory over Westminster (Mo.) College on Sept. 30. Returning all-conference player Jake Ohlhausen and fellow senior Griffin Smith led the team in singles wins during the fall and the duo was 5-2 playing in the top doubles position.

Holly Cantalupo

Sophomore Marisa Thome led the women in their fall season with a 6-2 record in singles matches. In doubles, the Bulldog tandem of junior Holly Cantalupo and freshman Lindsey Schlichting led the squad with a 4-2 record. The team dropped both dual matches in the fall.

The Truman volleyball team capped its strongest season in head coach Ben Briney’s tenure on the sideline, as the Bulldogs finished the 2014 fall season at 29-4 overall, reached the NCAA tournament for the 15th time in school history and captured the program’s first Great Lakes Valley Conference title in just its second season in the league.

The Bulldogs earned a host of accolades at both the team and individual levels with the program winning both the GLVC tournament and regular season titles along with earning the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Div. II Midwest regional. The squad was the only team in the Midwest region to post a perfect 3-0 record at the regional crossover event in mid-October, and the team’s 21-match win streak that spanned from Sept. 10 through Nov. 1 was one of the longest in school history.

On an individual level, senior Allie Brak was named the GLVC’s Player of the Year, while fellow senior Abby Moser earned the league’s Libero of the Year honors. The duo was joined on all-GLVC teams by senior Meghan Zimmerman, junior Ali Patterson and sophomore Kayla Bastian, with Briney picking up the GLVC Coach of the Year award. All five picked up some sort of all-region honors as well between either the American Volleyball Coaches Association or Daktronics.

The Bulldogs will return four starters and nine letter-winners for the 2015 campaign that will begin in August.

Jacob Lamp

Nic Abbate, Jacob Lamp and Garrett White concluded their Bulldog football playing careers with some outstanding accomplishments.

Abbate and the Bulldogs set a new single-season high with 76 tackles for loss this past season and for a career. Abbate topped the career charts with 41 during his four seasons. He finished eighth in career quarterback sacks with 18 and was a two-time all-conference selection.

Lamp set the Truman career punting average record with 40.6 yards per punt that was previously held by Robert Fletcher in 1979. Lamp was second in the GLVC in punting average in 2014 at 40.5 yards per punt in 54 attempts with 17 inside the opponents’ 20. He had 11 punts over 50 yards and had a season-long 70-yard boot against Langston (Okla.) on Sept. 13. Both of his single-season averages as punter rank in the top six in Truman single-season history. Lamp earned his second straight first-team all-conference honor.

Jarrett Anderson (left) with Garrett White (right)

White’s 1,166 rushing yards in 2014 were the most by a Bulldog back since Jarrett Anderson’s school record total of 2,140 set back in 1996. He set a new GLVC record with 229 yards on the ground in a victory against Southwest Baptist on Nov. 1 and led the conference in yards per game at 116.6. For his career, White finished fifth on the all-time rushing charts with 2,829 yards and was fourth all-time in both rushing touchdowns (33) and total touchdowns (38) joining Anderson (1993-96), Dale “Paley” Mills (1957-60) and Chad Guthrie (1989-92).

Ali Patterson

For the second straight season, volleyball student-athletes Allie Brak and Ali Patterson were named all-Americans by the American Volleyball Coaches Association, as Brak catapulted to the Div. II second-team, while Patterson was a repeat selection to the honorable mention squad.

Already down as the 13th and 14th all-Americans in program history, the duo becomes just the seventh and eighth all-time at Truman to merit repeat selections on the national award list. The Truman program continues to be one of the nation’s leaders in all-America recognition, ranking in the top-15 of all Div. II programs behind a combined 22 all-America awards from 14 different student-athletes.

Brak capped her four-year career with 1,549 kills—seventh-most all-time at Truman—and 1,263 digs, becoming just the seventh player all-time to surpass 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs at Truman. She is a combined five-time all-region pick from both Daktronics and the AVCA, having recorded 85 matches with double-figure kills throughout her career.

In addition, the duo joined seniors Abby Moser and Meghan Zimmerman as first-team all-Midwest region earners, also from the AVCA. Both Moser and Zimmerman were recognized as all-region for the first time.

Truman Athletics and the Great Lakes Valley Conference have partnered with Volar Video and Sidearm Sports to create a new, free video portal on TrumanBulldogs.com. Bulldogs All-Access gives fans the opportunity to watch or listen to home and selected road contests live or on-demand on computers, tablets and smartphones.

Visit TrumanBulldogs.com/watch to catch up with your favorite teams and check back for more content in the future.