Sept. 18, 2010

Box Score

Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. - After enduring a five-set marathon victory on Friday night (Sept. 17), Grand Valley State made things easy for itself on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 18) against Lake Superior State, cruising to a 3-0 win (25-15, 25-8, 25-15). GVSU hit .369 in the match with 10 total blocks and six service aces to clinch its third GLIAC victory in four days.

With the win, Grand Valley State is above .500 for the first time all season with a 5-4 overall record and a 4-1 mark in the GLIAC. LSSU falls to 3-5 on the year with a 1-3 mark in league play. After a four-set victory over Ferris State on Wednesday night in Allendale, GVSU then came from behind to knock off Northwood on Friday night before sweeping the other Lakers on Saturday. Grand Valley State is now 2-0 on its current seven-match road trip.

In the first frame, GVSU led 4-3 before scoring six straight points behind the serving of senior Krysta Kornack. She recorded a service ace and a kill, while sophomore Eno Umoh had a hand in two combined blocks and also tallied a kill. After a Lake Superior State kill made the score 10-4, Grand Valley State put together another 6-0 run, featuring a pair of kills from freshman Stacey Catalano off dishes from senior Meghan Scanlon. Continuing to cruise through the set, GVSU scored four of the last five points, including two kills from senior Rebeccah Rapin to close the set at 25-15. Grand Valley State hit .333 in the opening frame, while LSSU connected at an .074 mark.

Lake Superior State would stay even with GVSU at 4-4 in the second set before Grand Valley State used two separate 5-0 runs and an 8-0 run to completely dominate the hometown Lakers. GVSU led 9-5 and closed the set with a 16-3 stretch, as the visiting Lakers hit .478 for the set, including 13 kills and only two attack errors. Lake Superior State was held to a -.069 percentage with six kills and eight errors. Eight different GVSU players had a kill in the set, including senior Leslie Curtis who had three kills in four attempts and added four digs and two block assists.

To close out the match, Grand Valley State hit .321 in the third set, but only led 10-9 before using an 11-1 run to blow open the frame. Rapin totaled a pair of kills and was part of three combined blocks, while Catalano added two kills and two block assists during the 11-1 stretch. GVSU's defense was solid throughout the match, picking up another three blocks in the third set and forcing LSSU into a -.036 hitting percentage. Lake Superior State committed eight attack errors in all three sets.

Rapin hit very well on Saturday, producing nine kills and a .412 hitting percentage, to go along with six total blocks (one solo). She was closely followed by Catalano, who notched eight kills, a .389 attack clip, six digs and a pair of block assists. Kornack recorded seven kills, three digs, a pair of service aces, and one block.

Curtis and Umoh each tallied five kills, while Curtis added six digs and three block assists, as Umoh hit .833 (five kills in six attempts) and rejected four LSSU shots. Scanlon passed for a match-high 22 assists, while sophomore Olivia Kohler notched 15 helpers. Freshman Andrea Hyames also served up two of GVSU's six service aces. Grand Valley State hit a terrific .369 for the match with 42 kills compared to LSSU's 23 kills and -.012 attack percentage. Completely dominant at the net, GVSU recorded 18 block assists and 10 total blocks to Lake Superior State's four total blocks.

Grand Valley State stays on the road for its next five matches, including three consecutive matches next weekend. The three-match swing starts on Friday night (Sept. 24) at Findlay with a 7:30 p.m. contest, followed by trips to Hillsdale and Wayne State.