Oct. 15, 2010

Box Score

Aurora, Ill. - #25 Grand Valley State opened the GLVC-GLIAC Crossover Tournament in Aurora, Ill. on Friday morning (Oct. 15) with a 3-0 sweep (25-22, 25-20, 25-13) over Missouri S&T. The Lakers have won their last six contests with all six matches being 3-0 sweeps for GVSU. Against the Miners on Friday, Grand Valley State hit .261 with 11 blocks to tally its 10th 3-0 win of the season.

The victory puts GVSU at 12-5 on the year, while Missouri S&T is 10-9 this season. Grand Valley State entered the Crossover Tournament as the conference's #3 seed, while the Miners were the #8 seed from the GLVC. The Lakers are now 5-2 in the three years that the Crossover Tournament has been held, including a perfect 3-0 in the tournament's inaugural year of 2008.

On Friday against the Miners, GVSU was very strong on offense and just as good defensively. The Lakers hit .261 with 37 kills, while recording a terrific .414 hitting percentage in the third set of the match. Defensively, Grand Valley State forced 24 Missouri S&T attack errors and the Lakers notched 18 blocks assists, a pair of solo rejections, and 29 digs.

GVSU ran out to a quick 4-0 lead in the first set behind the serving of senior Meghan Scanlon, as she recorded an ace and junior Nicole Whiddon tallied a kill during the run. Leading 7-3, freshman libero Sacha Gill notched back-to-back service aces to up the lead to 9-3. Another ace, this time from freshman Stacey Catalano, made the score 15-5, giving the Lakers the biggest advantage of the set. The Miners battled back to within 17-14 and actually closed the gap to 22-21 before a combined block from senior Leslie Curtis and sophomore Eno Umoh made the score, 23-21. A kill from Curtis ended the first frame at 25-22.

The Lakers again led early in the second set, moving ahead 6-2 and then 14-5 after six consecutive errors by Missouri S&T. GVSU led 19-9 before the Miners scored four straight points to cut the lead to 19-13. The Miners rallied back to within 24-20 before a kill from Catalano ended the second set at 25-20.

An even third set at the beginning turned out to be the most lopsided set of the match. GVSU led 8-7, but received a kill from Umoh, a service ace from Scanlon, and a kill from senior Rebeccah Rapin to eventually lead 12-7. Rapin tallied three kills in five points and the Lakers led 14-11 before beginning to pull away. Grand Valley State scored six straight points on the serving of sophomore Olivia Kohler, aided by kills from Umoh and senior Krysta Kornack. At this point, the Lakers led 20-11 and would finish off the Miners with a Kornack service ace to end the set with a 25-13 score.

Rapin was outstanding in the opening match, as she tallied 12 kills and just one attack error for a .500 hitting percentage. She also added three block assists. Curtis supplied a team-high 10 digs, six kills, a .417 attack clip, and four block assists, while Kornack added six kills, a block assist, and an ace.

Rejecting a match-high six blocks (five assists, one solo) was Umoh, who also put down five kills. Catalano totaled five kills, five digs, three block assists, and an ace. Scanlon (18 assists, two aces) and Kohler (15 assists, seven digs) controlled the Laker offensive attack, which totaled seven service aces.

GVSU closes the opening day by meeting up with Northern Kentucky on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. (ET).