vs. Ashland (Thursday, 6:00 p.m.): Watch | Listen | Live Stats | vs. Lake Erie (Saturday, 1:00 p.m.): Watch | Listen | Live Stats | The Grand Valley State women's basketball team will have a chance to take the momentum from a strong start to the season into conference play as they host a pair of GLIAC matches this week. GVSU opens the conference regular season with an 6:00 p.m. game against Ashland on Thursday (Dec. 3) before facing Lake Erie on Saturday (Dec. 5) at 1:00 p.m.
Grand Valley is off to a great start under first year head coach
Mike Williams, owning a 4-1 record in non-conference play. One of those wins was an upset of the #2 ranked Lewis Flyers on Nov. 25 at GVSU Fieldhouse Arena, 71-63. The Lakers open up this conference season against the same two opponents as last season, a pair of victories at Ashland (66-55) and at Lake Erie (64-60).
Grand Valley has been anchored by a strong defense thus far, holding opponents to just 63 points per game on just 40 percent shooting from the field. Grand Valley has only been outrebounded once in the first five games, and has forced opponents into an average of 16 turnovers a game. The Lakers have stolen the ball 53 times this season already, just over ten swipes a game.
In Thursday's matchup, the Lakers will have to contend with the size of the Ashland frontcourt, led by two 6'1" bigs, center Laina Snyder and forward Andi Daugherty, who lead the Eagles with 16.5 and 15.8 points per game, respectively. The tandem is also a threat on boards, with Daugherty holding the team lead at 9.0 rebounds per game, and Snyder averaging 6.8 boards per contest. The Eagles own the second highest scoring average in the GLIAC this season at 79 points per game.
Saturday's contest with the Storm will feature a matchup of two evenly matched teams, from a numbers perspective. Grand Valley and Lake Erie average about the same number of points per game both on offense and defense. From a personnel standpoint, Grand Valley would be smart to game plan for sophomore guard Kayla Gabor, who leads the Storm in most statistical categories, including points (19.0), rebounds (5.8) and assists (3.6).
Four Lakers are averaging double digit points this season, making for a balanced offensive attack. Familiar faces
Kayla Dawson (16.8) and
Brionna Barnett (12.4) are joined by
Bailey Cairnduff (10.4) and the hot shooting
Piper Tucker, fresh off a 19 point effort against Gannon in which she went a perfect 7-7 from the field (5-5 beyond the arc) in a Laker victory. Dawson leads a group effort on the boards with 5.8 per contest, while every other starter averages over 3.5 boards per game.
Next weekend the Lakers travel to Tiffin (Friday, Dec. 11) and Ohio Dominican (Sunday, Dec. 13) for their first conference road trip.
