Nov. 8, 2013

Box Score

Allendale, Mich. - The #16 Grand Valley State volleyball team took just 67 minutes to earn its 14th sweep of the season, taking down Saginaw Valley State in three sets on Friday (Nov. 8), 25-12, 25-13, and 25-20. It was the Lakers' 13th consecutive win and the team's 21st victory in its last 22 matches.

GVSU has now won five consecutive matches by 3-0 scores and improves to 23-3 on the season and 14-1 in GLIAC play. Saginaw Valley State drops to 16-10 overall and 8-7 in conference action. Grand Valley State continues to play well at home, moving to 10-2 in Fieldhouse Arena on the season and winners of eight in a row.

On Friday night, the Lakers came out focused and made quick work of SVSU. While Grand Valley State hit well offensively (.294, 41 kills), the Laker defense forced Saginaw Valley State into a .055 attack mark (25 kills, 19 errors). GVSU tallied more assists (40-23), digs (53-44), blocks (7-4) and a large lead in aces (10-1). The 10 aces for the Lakers are a season-high.

While the first set was tied at 4-4, Grand Valley State ran off four straight points, including an Ally Simmons kill and an ace from freshman Nicayla Joyce. The lead was 16-10 before junior Abby Aiken and sophomore Kaleigh Lound combined for a block to up the advantage to 17-10. From there, Aiken served five straight points, with two kills being delivered by senior Megan Schroeder. The Lakers would win the set at 25-12 on a bad SVSU set.

Set two was dominated by Grand Valley State, who opened an 8-2 cushion on consecutive kills from Schroeder and Simmons. The lead swelled to 14-4 after sophomore Betsy Ronda put down back-to-back kills. Ronda added three more kills and junior Kaitlyn Wolters served up a pair of aces to make the score 19-6. Later in the set, sophomore Jessica Majerle notched two kills and redshirt freshman Josie Werner finished the frame with a kill on her first swing of the match. GVSU hit .424 (17 kills, three errors) in the second set.

The Lakers jumped out to a 7-3 lead in set three on, of all things, a kill from junior libero Christina Canepa. It was just her fourth kill of the season and the ninth of her career. Ronda served up two aces midway through the frame to push the advantage to 12-5. SVSU would get as close as five points on a few occasions, but the Lakers closed things out on another Ronda kill, her match-high 14th of the night.

Ronda's 14 kills were supplied by a .324 hitting percentage and she added three of GVSU's 10 service aces. Schroeder delivered 10 kills in 17 attempts for a .588 attack mark, not committing a hitting error. Aiken also did not tally a hitting error, racking up 11 digs, five kills, and three blocks.

Wolters handed out 36 assists, recorded 14 digs, and served up a career-high four aces. Along with her one kill, Canepa picked up a match-best 16 digs and moved into the GVSU career top-10 with a dig in the first set. Canepa now has 1,034 career digs, good for 10th place all-time in Laker history.

The Lakers will take on Lake Superior State on Saturday afternoon (Nov. 9) at 4:00 p.m. in their final regular season home match of the year. Prior to the contest, Schroeder and libero Alisha Laing will be honored on Senior Day.