Sept. 22, 2007

Box Score

#11 Grand Valley State continued its winning way with a 3-0 (30-22, 32-30, 30-16) sweep at #24 Northwood on Saturday afternoon. The Lakers have won 10 straight matches, seven of which have been by a 3-0 margin. GVSU improves to 15-2 overall and leads the GLIAC North Division with a perfect 5-0 conference record. Northwood falls to 14-3 overall and 2-3 in GLIAC action. The Lakers will continue their four match road stint at Findlay on Friday, Sept. 28 and at Ashland on Saturday, Sept. 29.

Game one started off as a tight battle between the two teams as one team would take a lead and the other team would come back to tie the game. With the game tied at 9-9, the Lakers went on a 7-2 run to go ahead, 16-11 and never lose their lead again. GVSU went up 23-16 and then the Timberwolves cut the lead to four points, 24-20. GVSU went back up by six, 27-21 and then closed out the game by scoring the next three of four points to seal the 30-22 win.

Game two proved to be close throughout, but the Lakers managed to take a 12-9 lead. Northwood came back, however, and tied the match at 12-12 and the two teams tied the match seven more times until the score was 19-19. The Timberwolves then scored the next three points to go up, 22-19, but the Lakers battled back to tie the game at 26-26. Northwood went up, 30-29, needing just one more point to tie the match at a game apiece, but the Lakers tied the game at 30-30 on a kill by junior Danielle Alexander. Two straight attack errors by Northwood gave the Lakers the 32-30 game two win.

GVSU jumped out to an early 10-5 lead and never looked back in game three. The Lakers went on a 13-4 run to take a dominating 23-9 lead. Northwood cut the lead back down to 10 points, 26-16, but it wasn't enough as GVSU scored the final four points to win, 30-16.

Grand Valley State was led by senior middle blocker Erica Vandekopple who tallied 12 kills, two assists, three digs, one solo and two assisted blocks, while hitting .435 in the match. Junior outside hitter Lauren Reber also recorded 12 kills and eight digs, while sophomore outside hitter Kaity Gormley added nine kills, three digs, and two assisted blocks.

Freshman middle blocker Rebeccah Rapin posted seven kills and a season-high seven assisted blocks and junior middle blocker Danielle Alexander had five kills and also added seven assisted blocks.

Grand Valley State hit .306 as a team in the match, while Northwood hit just .081. Both teams tallied just two service aces, but the Lakers recorded 14 total team blocks, while the Timberwolves had just five. Grand Valley State will travel to Findlay on Friday, Sept. 28 and Ashland on Saturday, Sept. 29.