The Grand Valley State Laker volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep of GLIAC foe Purdue Northwest on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 23). The Lakers took down the Pride by scores of 25-14, 25-21, and 25-19. With the victory, GVSU improves their record to 6-7 overall and 3-2 in GLIAC play. The Pride drop to 4-10 overall and 1-4 against GLIAC competition with the loss.
 
The Lakers used a .257 hitting percentage to cruise past Purdue Northwest as three Lakers hit .333 or better (10-plus attack attempts). GVSU also held PNW to just a .067 hitting percentage – including a -.227 mark in the first set – and didn't allow any opposing players to hit higher than .180, who attempted at least 10 attacks.
 
Including their lead in hitting percentage, GVSU tallied more kills (38-25) and assists (31-24) than the Pride, while hitting fewer errors (12-19). The Pride did lead the Lakers in digs (48-38) and tallied 4.0 blocks to GVSU's 1.0.
 
Three Lakers tied for the team – and match – lead in kills. Senior Sydney Doby and juniors Staci Brower and Shannon Winicki all tallied 10 kills apiece while only committing a combined seven errors. Doby added 10 digs and an ace to her line while Brower added a block assist, and an ace. Winicki led the team in hitting percentage after converting .368 of her attempts.
 
Libero Kaylene Norris tallied nine digs – second only to Doby – while assisting on two kills as well. Katie Olson led the squad in assits with 26, while tallying two kills on six attempts (.333) as well as six digs and a block assist. Danielle McCormick tallied five kills on the match and chipped in a dig and assist as well.
 
 The first set was dominated by the Lakers from the beginning. After PNW put up the first point of the match, GVSU went on a 16-3 run, during which the Pride committed six different errors. Purdue Northwest would use a five-point stretch to bring the score to 20-12 at one point, but the Lakers stomped out the comeback attempt by scoring five of the last seven points for the 25-14 victory and the 1-0 lead in the match.
 
GVSU used the momentum from the first set to open a 7-2 lead in set two. This time however, PNW wouldn't let it get out of hand as the Pride burned a timeout to compose themselves and went on a 7-2 run coming out of the stoppage to tie the score 9-9. After the Lakers scored to make the score 10-9, GVSU would not relinquish the lead the rest of the set. The score stayed close however, and Purdue Northwest tied the match one last time at 20-20 before the Lakers would score five of the final six points and go up 2-0 in the match.
 
Much like sets one and two, GVSU used an early run to gain a comfortable lead on the Pride. With the score tied 4-4, the Lakers rattled off six straight points for the 10-4 lead. After continuing to keep the momentum going into a 20-10 lead, the Pride pushed back and scored eight points to the Lakers four to make the score 24-19. Despite the last ditch effort, a final kill from Olson to Winicki cemented the 25-19 victory for the Lakers and the 3-0 sweep of the Pride.