The Grand Valley State volleyball team dropped a tough 3-2 decision to the Bellarmine Knights on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 13) in their final match of the 2018 Midwest Region Crossover. With the loss the Lakers fall to 12-10 overall and remain 5-6 in conference action. 
 
While neither team was particularly effective on the attack, the Knights still held the slip .196-.194 advantage in attack percentage. Additionally, they held the lead in total kills (69-48), assists (66-55), digs (102-87), while the Lakers held the 12-6 lead in team blocks. 
 
Senior Hannah Murdock posted a solid outing despite the loss, picking up season highs in four different categories, including kills (20), digs (13), aces (1), and points (21), while hitting .250 throughout. Fellow senior Staci Brower picked up 15 kills herself while hitting .343 while adding two solo blocks and three block assists to lead the team defensively. 
 
Junior libero Kendall Yerkes tallied a team-high 24 digs and was followed by Ali Thompson with 17 and Ashlyn Kartes with 14. Kartes also led the squad with 28 assists while Frankie Cavallaro picked up 16 along the way as well. 
 
The Lakers got out to an early lead on the Knights in the first set, scoring three of the first four and four of the first six. After building up a four-point lead a while later, 10-6, Bellarmine answered with four straight of their own to knot things up 10-all. The Lakers rebuttled with four of the next five to once again take the lead, this time 14-11. GVSU maintained their lead to the end, going up 23-19 before a final Bellarmine surge was shut down by GVSU for the 25-22 first set victory. 
 
Set two started out in Bellarmine's favor as they jumped out to a quick 4-0 lead. GVSU would tie the set at 5-5and the teams would play back and forth volleyball until the Knights broke a 12-all set with a small run to go up 19-15 just a few points later. The Lakers looked like they would surge back for the come from behind victory, scoring six straight points to go up 20-19 but the Knights used two three-point runs to regain the lead and tie the set at 1-1 with a 25-21 victory. 
 
GVSU once again found themselves in a hole early on, falling behind 8-4 early in set three. Bellarmine maintained their lead through the middle part of the set before eventually going up 18-12 on the Lakers a while later. From there, the Lakers mounted their comeback, rattling off runs of five and six points to take the 24-21 lead before a final ball handling error from the Knights gave GVSU the 2-1 lead in the match. 
 
The Lakers took an early 3-0 lead to start the fourth set but the Knights would quickly battle back, eventually taking a 6-5 lead, which they would fail to give up the rest of the way. After going up by as much as 18-11, the Knights would keep the Lakers subdued and go on to take the set 25-21, forcing a fifth and final set. 
 
The final started off all Bellarmine as the Knights answered the Lakers opening point with seven straight of their own to go up 7-1. GVSU slowly chipped away however, and trailed by just two, 9-7, a little while later. Following a Bellarmine timeout, the Knights scored six of the next seven points to take the 14-8 lead before finally finishing off the Lakers, 15-10, to take the match 3-2.