The Grand Valley State volleyball team dropped a tough 3-1 decision on the road at Davenport on Tuesday night (Sept. 11) to fall to 7-4 on the year and 0-3 in conference action. The Lakers now look ahead to their first home stand of the season on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 14-15) as they host Purdue Northwest and Wisconsin-Parkside. 
 
The Lakers posted a .202 hitting percentage on the night, led by seniors Staci Brower and Hannah Murdock, who each tallied 13 kills with .286 and .296 hitting percentages, respectively. Supplying nearly all of the Lakers 56 kills was sophomore Ashlyn Kartes, who tallied a match-high 35 assists. Ali Thompson also added in 12 kills to the Laker total as well. 
 
DU hit a slightly better .281 on the match, also holding the slim 60-56 lead in total kills. The Panthers also tallied eight total blocks compared to GVSU's five.  
 
The Lakers scored the first point of the night thanks to a Thompson kill before the teams would go back and forth for the following seven points to bring the first set to an early 4-4 tie. DU then opened up a slip two-point lead 6-4 and 7-5 before they went on the first run of the night for four points to take the 11-5 lead. From there, the Panthers would maintain their six-point lead to a 17-11 advantage over GVSU. The Lakers cut the lead to five, 20-15, but the margin was too much to overcome as the Panthers would win set one 25-17 and take the 1-0 lead in the match. 
 
DU would score the first point of the second set, but the Lakers rattled off four straight points thanks to a kill from Murdock, two from Brower, before being capped off with a final kill from Kartes. The Panthers battled back and cut the lead to one, 4-3, just a few points later but GVSU held strong with the lead. After an 8-6 score in favor of GVSU, the Lakers used a 6-3 run to push their lead out to five, 14-9. DU tried to get a comeback started, cutting GVSU's lead to 21-20 a while later but following a timeout by GV, they scored four of the next six points to take the second set 25-21 and knot the match up 1-1. 
 
GVSU kept the energy high heading into the third set, opening up a quick 3-0 lead thanks to kills from Murdock, Thompson, and an ace from Thompson as well. The Panthers wouldn't be shutout for long however an would tie the match up at 4-all thanks to a 3-1 run. They carried that momentum through the next couple of points, going up 7-4. The teams would then tie at points 10 and 11 a while later before DU used another small run to open up another three-point lead, 14-11. Ties at points 16, 17, and 18 set the third set up for an exciting ending. Unfortunately for the Lakers, the Panthers would score the next seven of eight points, using another three-point run followed by a four-point run to take the third set 25-19 and the 2-1 lead in the match. 
 
The Lakers used another quick start to take the early lead in the fourth set, 6-1, thanks to five kills all from different Lakers and a ball handling error by the Panthers. Following a DU timeout, the Panthers cut the lead to four, 8-4. The Lakers held their lead throughout the middle of the set, 13-9, before the Panthers used four-straight to tie it 13-all. From there, Davenport would snag the lead, one which they would not relinquish the rest of the night. The Lakers would cut the lead to one at times but after a 19-18 score, DU would go on six of the final nine points for the 25-21 fourth set victory and the 3-1 victory in the match. 
 
Again, the Lakers will host Purdue Northwest on Friday, 14 at 7:00 PM before a 4:00 PM matchup with Parkside inside GVSU Fieldhouse Arena.