Nov. 18, 2005

Box Score

Grand Valley State swept Northwood, 3-0 (32-30, 30-23, 30-23) for the fourth time this season and advances to the Great Lakes Regional Championship title match against Rockhurst on Saturday, Nov. 19 at 7:00 p.m. in the GVSU Fieldhouse Arena.

The Lakers trailed 3-1 early in game one, but battled back to eventually go up 17-16 and never look back. The two teams battled back and forth, but the Timberwolves never led again. The match was tied at 30-30 and back-to-back kills by junior outside hitter Megan Helsen and senior middle blocker Tracy Kirk gave GVSU the 32-30 game one win.

Northwood jumped out 3-1 again in game two, but once again the Lakers fought back taking their first lead at 9-8. The Timberwolvbes tied it at 15-15, but GVSU scored the next four points to take a 19-15 lead. The Lakers kept the lead and sealed the 30-23 win on a Northwood service error.

For the third straight time, Northwood scored the first point of the game, but this time the Lakers jumped out to an early 7-3 lead and never looked back. The Lakers led by as many as seven throughout the game and scored the final three points to seal the 30-23 game and the match.

Tracy Kirk led all hitters with 16 kills, two assisted blocks, two digs, and two assists, while hitting .625. Megan Helsen tallied 13 kills, two aces, nine digs, and two assisted blocks, while hitting .524. Junior middle blocker Meghan Moore added 10 kills, a .389 attack percentage, and eight assisted blocks.

Redshirt freshman setter Jamie Ashmore recorded five kills, two aces, nine digs, four assisted blocks and 36 assists and senior outside hitter Tina Tromblay added four kills, eight assists, four digs, and two assisted blocks.

Grand Valley State hit .413 as a team, while Northwood hit just .172. The Lakers tallied 10 team blocks and five service aces.

The Lakers will face #2 seed Rockhurst who defeated #3 seed SIUE in the other semifinal match.