The Grand Valley State volleyball team got off to a rocky start in their Friday night (Oct. 20) matchup against Lake Superior State but eventually found their footing and earned the 3-1 victory. After dropping the first set 25-21, the Lakers battled back and won the next three by scores of 25-16, 25-11, and 25-17. The win pushes the Lakers to 11-10 on the season and 6-4 in conference play. LSSU drops to 3-16 (1-9 GLIAC) with the loss.
 
GVSU didn't attack particularly well in the first two sets as their hitting percentages were just .075 and .150, respectively. After the second set however, GVSU found another gear and posted attack percentages of .407 and .357 in the last two stanzas. The Lakers hit a combined .222 on the match while holding Lake Superior State to just .088. GVSU also led LSSU in kills (50-41), assists (48-40), aces (5-3), digs (71-61), as well as a large 13-4 lead in blocks.
 
Junior Staci Brower led the Laker attack, as she posted 13 kills to just two errors on 27 attempts for an impressive .407 hitting percentage. Brower was also a defensive force at the night tonight, tallying seven block assists. Sophomore Jayci Suseland tallied the next highest kills for GVSU, as she posted nine throughout the match, while also gathering five assisted blocks to go along with her one solo rejection. Junior Shannon Winicki and senior Sydney Doby also tallied eight and seven kills, respectively, while Doby assisted on six block assists and Winicki assisted on four of her own.
 
Setters Katie Olson and Frankie Cavallaro both saw significant time tonight, as Olson collected 25 assists and seven digs, while Cavallaro tallied 14 assists and four digs. Kaylene Norris led the way for the Lakers in digs, picking up 21 on the match, while also chipping in four assists and an ace.
 
Set one saw both teams struggling to put kills down, as GVSU owned a .075 attack percentage and LSSU wasn't much better at .154 themselves. LSSU opened with two straight points before GVSU would rattle off four straight for the 4-2 lead. Lake Superior State answered with four straight points of their own for the 6-4 lead. The teams would then tie at points 6, 7 and 8 before LSSU would open up a 13-11 lead. After GVSU battled back to take a 16-15 lead, Lake Superior State scored five straight for a 20-16 lead. That run would turn out to be too much for the Lakers, as LSSU would go on to win 25-21.
 
After an early 5-2 lead by the Lakers was erased by a four-point stretch for LSSU, the Lakers started to click and eventually found themselves up 16-11. Later in the set, LSSU had shrunk the Laker lead to 19-16 with a kill from Amanda Reid. Still hitting their stride, the Lakers rattled off six straight points for the 25-16 second set victory and tied the match at 1-1.
 
The Lakers carried their momentum over to the third set, as they scored 11 of the first 13 points. The teams traded points back and forth to a 13-7 score, in favor of the Lakers, before GVSU used a 6-1 run to open the 19-8 lead over Lake Superior State. After a few LSSU points, the Lakers used a final run of six straight points for the 25-11 victory and a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
The Lakers opened up set four with an early 7-3 lead, but LSSU wouldn't let GVSU run away with this one early again and battled back to a 10-9 score. GVSU was able to get on another run, this time a 11-5 scoring barrage and opened up a 21-14 lead. GVSU would then close out the fourth and final set with two kills from Winicki, a kill from Suseland, and an error by LSSU for the 25-17 victory.
 
The Lakers will be back in action tomorrow (Oct. 20) afternoon, as the Lakers are slated to take on the Cardinals of Saginaw Valley State in GVSU Fieldhouse Arena. The match is set to start at 4:00 pm.