Oct. 26, 2013
Box Score
Aurora, Ill. - The #17 Grand Valley State volleyball team put together a terrific weekend at the sixth annual GLIAC-GLVC Crossover in Aurora, Ill., as the Lakers capped the weekend with a 3-0 win over Southern Indiana. After defeating Missouri-St. Louis 3-1 earlier on Saturday (Oct. 26), GVSU took down the Screaming Eagles in straight sets (25-23, 25-16, 25-18).
Coming into the tournament, Grand Valley State was the GLIAC's #3 seed, but the Lakers dispatched #15 Truman State (the GLVC's #2 seed) and Missouri-St. Louis (the #8 seed) both in four sets before sweeping fourth-seeded Southern Indiana. With the victory, GVSU is 19-3 on the season, while Southern Indiana falls to 17-6.. The Lakers have won a season-high nine straight matches and captured victories in 17 of their last 18 contests.
Since the inception of the GLIAC-GLVC Crossover Tournament in 2008, GVSU has compiled a 13-5 overall record. That includes perfect 3-0 trips in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2013. The 32-team tournament is believed to be the biggest collegiate volleyball tournament in the country.
Grand Valley State was able to take down USI, but it was not always easy, as was evidenced in the first set. The Screaming Eagles held a 13-9 advantage before GVSU tied the score at 14-14 after a Betsy Ronda kill. With the score knotted up at 17-17, junior Abby Aiken and sophomore Kaleigh Lound combined for a block, USI committed a hitting error, and Ronda delivered again for a 20-17 advantage. It was 23-22 before Lound and senior Megan Schroeder put away kills to give the Lakers a first set win.
In set two, GVSU used an early 8-2 run to push ahead 12-6. Aiken had three kills and Ronda served up back-to-back aces during the stretch. Southern Indiana pulled with three points at 18-15 before the Lakers used consecutive kills from Aiken and Lound, followed by an Ally Simmons ace, to lead 21-15. Aiken - who totaled a career-high 27 kills earlier in the day against UMSL - notched two straight kills to end the second set, 25-16. The Lakers hit .400 (14 kills, two errors) in the stanza.
Leading 11-10 in the third set, GVSU scored four straight points on two kills and a solo block from Lound, followed by a Schroeder kill. Southern Indiana recovered from that 15-10 deficit to make the score 19-18 before Grand Valley State finished things off. The Lakers scored six straight points in quite a sequence: an Aiken kill, a Simmons ace, an Aiken kill, two more aces from Simmons, and a combined block from Lound and junior setter Kaitlyn Wolters.
Grand Valley State owned the lead in all statistical categories: The Lakers topped Southern Indiana in kills (45-34), hitting percentage (.265 to .114), assists (41-33), aces (6-0), digs (59-43), and team blocks (8-3).
Aiken was the lone player with double-digit kills, supplying 10 kills and five digs. Ronda (seven digs, two aces), Schroeder (.471 attack clip, two blocks), and Lound (.615 hitting percentage, one error, six blocks) all notched nine kills apiece.
Wolters was the beneficiary of that strong offense, dishing out 37 assists, 11 digs, four kills, and two blocks. She had four kills in six attempts, giving her 14 kills without an error in the three matches this weekend. Junior Christina Canepa's 17 digs tied her for match-high honors, while Simmons served up four aces in the match, giving her seven aces on the weekend without a service error.
After the tournament, Aiken and Wolters were both named to the 12-member All-Tournament Team, as six players from both the GLIAC and GLVC were selected to the squad.
GVSU will head to the Upper Peninsula for a pair of conference matches next weekend (Nov. 1-2), as the Lakers face Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech.
