The #18 Grand Valley State volleyball team clinched a winning opening weekend in GLIAC play, as the Lakers won a tight four-set battle against Saginaw Valley State in Allendale on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 19). After the teams split the first two sets, GVSU rattled off wins in the final two frames to win 3-1 (26-24, 26-28, 25-17, 25-19).

With the victory, the Lakers are 2-0 in GLIAC play and own a 6-4 overall record, while Saginaw Valley State falls to 0-2 in league action. SVSU entered Friday's match at Ferris State with an unblemished 8-0 record; the Cardinals are now 8-2 after losses to FSU and Grand Valley State.

The match - especially the opening two sets - was extremely close, with 35 tie scores and 15 lead changes in the four frames, ending after exactly two hours of competition.

GVSU had four players reach double-digits in kills, with senior Jessica Majerle posting a match-best 14 putaways. She hit .250 for the match and added four digs and a pair of blocks. Freshman Staci Brower provided 12 kills and a match-high five block assists, while also serving up a pair of aces.

A pair of Laker outside hitters recorded double-doubles in kills and digs. Senior Kourtney Wolters delivered a team-high 19 digs, while adding 10 kills, and classmate Betsy Ronda totaled 11 kills, 11 digs, and three of GVSU's six service aces. Also adding double-doubles were the team's two setters: sophomore Katie Olson notched 33 assists, 11 digs, and two kills in her only two attempts, while freshman Taylor Stewart passed for 20 assists and picked up 17 digs.

Senior libero Taylor Shomin tied Wolters for the team-high with 19 digs. Freshman Jillian Butsavich put down six kills and recorded four block assists.

The Laker offense hit .217 with 60 kills and held SVSU to a .130 mark and 52 kills. Grand Valley State owned an 84-78 edge in digs and a 6-2 advantage in service aces, while the Cardinals led in total blocks, 11-7.

In the opening set, the score was tied 16 different times and neither team had a larger lead than GVSU's 7-3 advantage after three early Majerle kills. At 24-24, the set was tied for the final time and the Lakers rattled off the final two points on kills from Wolters and Brower. 

Grand Valley State pushed out to a 15-10 cushion in set two, which included a 6-0 Laker run and two Brower aces. SVSU, however, began to chip away and eventually tied the score at 18-18 before again being knotted up at points 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. The Cardinals used back-to-back blocks to close the set at 28-26 and even the match at one set apiece.

Nursing an 8-7 lead in set three, GVSU ran off 12 of the next 17 points to open up a 20-12 advantage. Majerle put away four kills in the 12-5 run, while Butsavich added a pair of kills. Leading 24-17, Butsavich finished the frame with a kill to put the Lakers ahead in the match. Grand Valley State hit .348 (18 kills, two errors) in the third set.

Set four began with the Lakers jumping ahead 6-1, with four of those points coming on SVSU hitting errors. The lead would grow to 15-9 on a combined rejection from Brower and Butsavich before the Cardinals scored four straight points to stay in the contest. It was 18-17 in the Lakers' favor, but GVSU scored the next four points (senior Kaleigh Lound and Ronda each put down kills) to take control, 22-17. After two more Saginaw Valley State errors, Majerle finished the match with a powerful kill on a pass from Olson.

The Lakers head back out on the road for a pair of GLIAC matches in Canton, Ohio next weekend. On Friday (Sept. 25), GVSU takes on Malone before facing Walsh on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 26).