Nov. 1, 2008

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Allendale, Mich. - The #4 Grand Valley State Lakers tied a pair of school records on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 1) in their 3-0 (25-16, 25-19, 25-14) victory over visiting Lake Superior State. With the win, GVSU pushed its consecutive win streak to 22 matches, tying the 2001 program record. The Lakers also extended their home winning streak to 30 matches, which ties the school record from 2000-01.

GVSU improves to 25-2 overall and own a perfect 14-0 GLIAC mark, while Lake Superior State falls to 6-17 overall, 2-13 in league play. The Lakers have not lost a match since a 3-2 defeat to Augustana on Sept. 5 and have not dropped a home contest since a 3-0 loss to Hillsdale on Oct. 7, 2006.

Saturday's match was Senior Day, as the four Laker seniors were honored prior to the match. All four players had a hand in the final regular season home victory of their careers.

The two teams started out fairly even in the opening set. With the score tied at 4-4, GVSU went on an 11-5 run to open up a 15-9 lead. Lake Superior State cut the advantage to 16-12 before Grand Valley State closed the set with a 9-4 run. GVSU dominated the opening set with a 14-kill, one-error performance for a .464 hitting percentage. The Lakers held LSSU to a -.120 attack mark.

In the second set, Lake Superior State owned a handful of leads and were on top, 18-17, before GVSU made its' run. Grand Valley State scored seven straight points behind the strong serving of senior Lauren Reber to open a 24-18 advantage and closed the set two points later.

Grand Valley State pushed out to a quick 4-0 lead in the third set, extending the lead to 12-4. LSSU battled back to within four points at 14-10 before GVSU scored 11 of the next 15 points and close the match with a 25-14 win.

The 3-0 win was the Lakers' 15th sweep of the season and fourth in their last five matches. GVSU has now won 25 matches for the 10th straight season.

Leading the way offensively for Grand Valley State was senior Danielle Alexander. The middle blocker tallied 15 kills and just one attack error for a .500 hitting percentage. Alexander moved into 10th place all-time in Laker history with 1,038 kills. With her two block assists, she moves into a tie for second place in GVSU history with 345 block assists in her career.

Fellow seniors Reber, Jamie Ashmore, and Megan Walling also played well on Senior Day. Reber totaled nine digs and five kills, while Walling added nine digs and four assists. Ashmore recorded 30 assists, five digs, and three kills.

Sophomore Rebeccah Rapin tallied nine kills and a pair of block assists, while totaling a .438 hitting percentage. Junior Kaity Gormley added eight kills and six digs. Junior Meredith Young had a match-high 18 digs.

The Lakers look to set the program record for consecutive wins next Friday (Nov. 7) in a 7 p.m. match at Michigan Tech. Earlier in the season at Fieldhouse Arena, GVSU held on for a wild 3-2 victory over the Huskies.