Nov. 16, 2013

Box Score

Hillsdale, Mich. - After clinching the outright GLIAC regular season championship on Friday night with a 3-1 win over Northwood, #15 Grand Valley State used a similar script to take down Hillsdale on Saturday (Nov. 16). The Lakers dropped the opening set of the match before bouncing back to win the final three sets and earn the 3-1 victory (23-25, 25-16, 25-18, 25-19).

GVSU closed out the regular season with its 16th consecutive victory and 24th win in its last 25 matches. The Lakers are now 26-3 overall and 17-1 in GLIAC play. Grand Valley State has not went 17-1 in conference action in a season since 2007, although the 2008 team did finish 15-1 in league matches. Both the 2007 and 2008 squads advanced to the NCAA Elite Eight, with the 2008 unit earning a spot in the Final Four.

During the 16-match win streak, the Lakers have won 11 matches by 3-0 scores and the other five victories came in 3-1 wins. GVSU has won 48 of its last 53 sets since Oct. 1. Hillsdale (15-14 overall, 10-8 GLIAC) was able to steal the first set, but the Lakers took control from that point.

There were 11 tie scores in the first set, including a 19-19 deadlock before Hillsdale scored five of the next six points to open a 24-20 advantage. The Lakers fought back to within 24-23, but a Charger block put the home team ahead in the match, 1-0. HC's .167 hitting percentage in the first set was the team's highest of the contest.

Grand Valley State was in command in set two, scoring the first four points and leading 12-4 after strong serving from junior Kaitlyn Wolters and freshman Nicayla Joyce. The Lakers hit .467 in the second stanza, notching 17 kills and just three errors. Junior Abby Aiken, who delivered six kills in the set, put away a late kill and senior Megan Schroeder followed with a kill to end the frame in GVSU's favor, 25-16.

The third set was tied 4-4 before sophomore Betsy Ronda served up back-to-back-to-back aces. Hillsdale rallied back and the score was tied for the eighth time at 15-15. From there, the Chargers committed a hitting error and Ronda delivered two more service aces in a 6-0 run that put GVSU in charge, 21-16. The Lakers closed out the set at 25-18, forcing Hillsdale into a .000 attack mark (10 kills, 10 errors).

Set four was tight early, with the Chargers actually opening up a 15-11 lead on a 5-1 run. Grand Valley State began to chip away and tied the score at 19-19 on a kill from Aiken and took a 20-19 advantage on an Ally Simmons kill. Ronda followed with her sixth ace of the match and Simmons and Aiken teamed up for a combined block to make the score 22-19. Another Aiken kill and two more HC errors ended the set and match, as the Lakers closed things out with an 8-0 run.

Aiken (12 kills, nine digs, four blocks, two aces) and Schroeder (11 kills, .304, five blocks) both reached double-figures in kills and had strong matches defensively. In addition to her six service aces, Ronda tallied nine digs, five kills, three assists, and a pair of blocks.

Junior libero Christina Canepa recorded a match-best 25 digs (GVSU led 66-57 in total digs), giving her 1,080 digs in her career, the eighth-highest total in Laker history. She moved from 10th place to eighth place in Saturday's match. Wolters handed out 39 assists, while adding six kills, five digs, and a pair of block assists. Simmons tallied seven kills and three blocks, while Joyce picked up 12 digs.

The Lakers led in hitting percentage (.159 to .064), kills (48-43), assists (44-39), and aces (8-3), while Hillsdale held a slim 13-12 edge in blocks.

GVSU will host a GLIAC Tournament quarterfinal match on Wednesday night in Allendale. More information will be available on gvsulakers.com, as the tournament field will be released in the next few days.