Northern Michigan University officials flank a trio of Wildcats’ players representing the three teams that will make the newly expanded Vandament Arena their home. Near the center with a big “N” shirt is Sarah Newcomer, representing the women’s basketball team, to her right is Brian Parzych, representing the men’s basketball team, and to Parzych’s right is Meghan Meyer, representing the volleyball team. They helped cut the ribbon on the project on Thursday at the venue on the NMU campus in Marquette. (Journal photo by Antonio Anderson)

MARQUETTE — Northern Michigan University held a rededication ceremony for its Vandament Arena just in time for the first match of the season for the Wildcats’ volleyball team.

The project cost the university $2.8 million and took nearly a year to finish, but has come to fruition as a more modern and larger court for the three teams that will now use it.

The men’s and women’s basketball teams will no longer have to share the hockey-designed Berry Events Center and will now have a court suited more for their games as Vandament will now host all three teams.

That should prove to benefit both basketball teams, and could easily better help recruit players.

“It enhances recruiting, it enhances home-court ‘good-feel,'” NMU athletic director Rick Comley. “Like when we opened Vandement, that was a major improvement and this is even a step up from that.”

Vandament Arena was originally opened specifically for the Northern volleyball in the late 1990s after those Wildcats won back-to-back NCAA Division II national titles.

This expanded venue, which actually pushed out the outside walls of this gymnasium, can provide its “tenants” with the push needed to make it to their respective NCAA tournaments, according to NMU President Brock Tessman.

The move from the Berry Events Center also eliminates the expensive potential of damaging the portable floor that was placed over the ice surface, something that happened early last season and forced the basketball teams to play in the nearby PEIF gym for about a month.

The Vandament Arena was named for the university’s 10th president, Dr. William Vandament, who served from 1991-97. An avid lover of NMU sports until his death at the age of 81 in 2013, Vandament’s family said they are honored by the rededication, according to his widow, Margery Vandament, in a video presentation emceed during the rededication by head volleyball coach Mike Lozier.

The refurbished Vandament can hold about 1,400 fans courtside and in bleachers that surround all four sides of the court. There is also state-of-the-art technology, like a special flat-screen television that Comley said can only be found in large college arenas like at the Big Ten universities.

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.