In a gritty, defensive match between #22 Grand Valley State and visiting Ohio Dominican on Friday night (Oct. 2), the Lakers prevailed with a 3-1 victory (25-14, 25-19, 18-25, 25-19) over the Panthers. GVSU recorded 59 kills, but also added a season-high 102 digs in the win, the team's fifth in the last six outings.

Grand Valley State improves to 9-5 overall and 5-1 in league play, while the Lakers are now 6-1 inside the Fieldhouse Arena. Ohio Dominican drops to 7-8 overall and 2-4 in conference action. The Lakers are back on the floor on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 3) against Tiffin at 4:00 p.m.

While the GVSU offense was impressive - 59 kills and hitting percentages above .300 in both the first two sets - the Laker defense was outstanding. Dating back to the 2005 National Championship season, only twice has a GVSU team tallied more digs in a four-set match than the 102 pickups the Lakers recorded on Friday night. The last time Grand Valley State had over 100 digs in a four-setter was on Sept. 6, 2014, when the Lakers picked up 119 digs in four sets against Augustana; the other such occurrence was back in 2007.

To put it in further context, Grand Valley State has only tallied 100 digs in a match of any length 12 times (including Friday) since the 2005 season. The leaders in that category were a pair of seniors - outside hitter Betsy Ronda led all players with 29 digs, while libero Taylor Shomin added 26. Freshman Brooke Smith supplied 15 pickups, while sophomore setter Katie Olson notched 14 digs.

With Ronda's 29 digs - four shy of her career-high of 33 in that aforementioned Augustana contest last year - she moved past Cindy Corstange (1995, 98-99) into seventh place on GVSU's career digs list. Ronda now has 1,232 digs, passing Corstange's total of 1,221. Next up for Ronda to pass on the all-time list is Megan Helsen, who collected 1,297 digs from 2003-06. 

Smith and Ronda were also impressive on the offensive side of things, as Smith led all players with 13 kills and Ronda added 11 putaways. Freshman Staci Brower added 11 kills and four blocks, including two solo rejections. 

The Lakers scored the first four points of the match and led 9-3 after kills from Brower, redshirt freshman Shannon Winicki, and Smith. ODU kept it close at 15-10, but Grand Valley State scored the next three points, including back-to-back points by Brower on a solo block and a kill. She added another kill two points later, making the lead 19-11. Winicki teamed with freshman Jillian Butsavich for a late rejection and the set ended at 25-14 on a solo block from redshirt freshman Danielle McCormick. GVSU hit .333 in the first set, totaling 16 kills and just one attack error.

In set two, Grand Valley State scored five straight points to turn a 5-5 tie into a 10-5 advantage. ODU chipped away and trailed just 19-18 when Butsavich put down a kill and the Panthers committed a hitting error. With the score at 21-19, the Lakers received two kills from Ronda, another from Brower, and an ODU error to move ahead 2-0 in the match.

Ohio Dominican went ahead 10-6 in set three and stretched the score out to a 17-8 cushion. The Lakers fought back, however, and closed the gap to 20-15 after two kills from senior Jessica Majerle and another from Smith. ODU responded by scoring five of the next eight points and pushing the match to a fourth set.

The Lakers held a slim lead throughout most of set four, but began to pull away later in the frame. A kill from Ronda put the score at 19-14 and another Ronda kill made it 20-14. Smith followed with a kill and Shomin added an ace to put GVSU on top, 23-16. Smith's 13th and final kill ended the frame.

Majerle provided eight kills and hit .316 in the match, while Winicki totaled seven kills. Olson added 32 assists to her 14 digs for another double-double, while freshman Taylor Stewart added 20 assits, eight digs, and a pair of kills in three attempts.

The Lakers held ODU to a .097 hitting percentage and forced 25 errors. GVSU led in total blocks (7-4) and owned a 57-39 advantage in assists.