The Grand Valley State volleyball team (12-9, 5-6 GLIAC) fell in a couple of 3-0 matches on the first day of the 2018 Midwest Region Crossover Tournament in Indianapolis, Ind. GVSU opened the day against the Tiffin Dragons, where they fell by scores of 25-20, 25-21, and 25-18 before falling in the nightcap to Illinois-Springfield 25-10, 25-23, and 25-23. 
 
The Lakers will look to turn things around tomorrow afternoon in their final match at this year's crossover with a 1:00 PM battle with Bellarmine (14-8, 6-6 GLVC). 
 
It was an offensive struggle for the Lakers in both of their matches, as they combined to hit just .155, well below their season average of .207. While the Lakers also had more kill opportunities than their opponents (252-250), they trailed in overall kills, 100-73, and committed six more errors (34-28). GVSU also struggled to get big blocks at the net to try to turn the tide in their matches, getting out blocked 18-9 on the day. 
 
Seniors Hannah Murdock and Staci Brower were the main sources of offense, generating 22 and 19 kills, respectively. Freshman Ali Thompson also chipped in 14 of her own while contributing 17 kills as well. Libero Kendall Yerkes picked up the most digs for the Lakers with 25 but Murdock (17), Abby Graham (17), Ashlyn Kartes (13) were also big contributors to the Lakers 107 total digs. 
 
Three Lakers tallied blocks defensively, led by Brower with six (three solo, three assisted) who was followed by Kartes with four (four assisted) and Jillian Butsavich with three (two solo, one assisted). 
 
Tiffin jumped out early on the Lakers, taking leads of 5-2 and 9-5 early on. Eventually the Dragons upped their advantage to seven, 15-8, but three straight from the Lakers cut that lead to four, 15-11. Tiffin answered with a 6-1 run that would up their lead to 21-12. Following a slight comeback by the Lakers, the Dragons managed to finish the job with a Laker service error to take set one, 25-20. 
 
Set two was much more competitive early on, as the teams would tie at 4-all and 5-all before a Tiffin run, this time 5-1, would push their lead three, 9-6. After some back and forth point-scoring that brought the set to a 14-12 score, Tiffin would use yet another five-point run to go up 19-12 on the Lakers and force a timeout. Out of the break, GVSU rattled off four straight and five of the next six to cut the Dragon lead to three, 19-16. The early deficit would turn out to be too much for the Lakers to overcome however, as they would eventually fall in set two, 25-21. 
 
An early 4-1 lead by Tiffin in set three wouldn't be able to faze the Lakers early this time, with GVSU answering with five-straight points to take the 6-4 lead. GVSU would hold the lead for the majority of the middle of the set before the Dragons tied it at 15-all and added three more to go up 18-15 late in the set. Following a 19-18 score, the Dragons managed to put the Lakers away with one final run of six-straight to take the set 25-18 and the match 3-0. 
 
After a few hours to recoup, the Lakers still couldn't get things rolling at the crossover, as they would fall to an early three-point deficit to Illinois-Springfield in the first set, 7-4. After cutting the lead to two, 10-8, everything started falling for the Prairie Stars, as they rattled off 10-straight points to go up 20-8 before eventually taking set one 25-10. 
 
GVSU didn't let the first set get into their heads however as they came out firing in set two. After scoring four of the first five points, the Lakers kept their foot on the pedal to go up 13-6 on their opposition. After slowly starting to chunk away at the lead however, the Prairie Stars put down four straight points to cut the lead to just two, 16-14. The Lakers managed to hold their lead over the next few points before Illinois-Springfield tied the match at 21-all. After a crucial point went in favor of the Prairie Stars following a 23-23 tie, a final kill from them would end set two with the Lakers falling 25-23. 
 
Much like set two, the Lakers build a slim but early lead, taking an 8-6 advantage early on. They would hold onto their lead over the middle of the set once again before the Stars tied it up at 14-all before taking a quick 18-15 lead. GVSU wouldn't be put down so easily though, as they would tie it up once again, this time at points 21 and 22, before eventually running out of gas once again, falling 25-23.