vs. Northern Michigan (Sept. 21 – 7:00 PM)
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vs. Michigan Tech (Sept. 22 – 2:00 PM)
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The Grand Valley State volleyball team will make the long trip across the Mackinac Bridge this weekend as they are slated to take on the Wildcats of Northern Michigan on Friday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 PM before a 2:00 PM match against the Huskies of Michigan Tech, both of whom were receiving votes in the latest American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) top-25 poll. After 11-straight games on the road to start the season, the Lakers finally played inside the friendly confines of GVSU Fieldhouse Arena and went 2-0 with a couple of dominating wins over Purdue Northwest and Wisconsin-Parkside. With the pair of victories, GVSU moved to 9-4 overall and 2-3 in the GLIAC, where they currently sit in fourth place in the south division. 
 
GVSU posted their best offensive performance of the season in their 3-0 win over Purdue Northwest after tallying 46 kills to just 10 errors on 90 swings for an impressive .400 attack percentage. The Laker defense was also impressive, holding the Pride to a .054 attack percentage while picking up five team blocks in the process. Against the Rangers the following day, the Lakers weren't quite as impressive on offense, but tied their season-best in blocks with 10 as a team, including 16 assisted rejections and two solo rejections. GVSU once again held their opponents to a low attack percentage, as the Rangers hit just .045 against GVSU, including negative hitting percentages in the first and fourth sets. 
 
In those two matches, senior Staci Brower accounted for 24 kills (3.43 kills per set) while committing just three errors in her 40 total swings for an impressive .525 attack percentage to pace the Laker offense. Fellow senior Hannah Murdock posted a solid weekend as well, tallying 18 kills (2.57 per set) and a .317 attack percentage. Senior Jillian Butsavich (14), and freshman Abby Graham (13) and Ali Thompson (12) all finished with double-digit kills on the weekend as well. Supplying nearly all of those kills was sophomore setter Ashlyn Kartes, as she picked up 74 assists in the victories. 
 
Brower also led the Lakers with nine total blocks (one solo, eight assisted), while Kartes picked up six of her own (one solo, five assisted). Thompson led the way in digs, picking up 31, while Graham tallied 22, and libero Kendall Yerkes tallied 21. 
 
GVSU will have their work cut out for them in the U.P. this weekend. Both Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech own 10-3 overall records with the Wildcats posting a 2-3 record in conference play and the Huskies going 4-1 over the first two weeks of play.
Northern Michigan got off to a blazing start to the season, winning their first nine matches of the season. Following that streak however, the Wildcats fell in three straight conference matches to fall to 9-3 before a tight 3-2 win over Northwood pushed them to their current 10-3 mark. Much of their success has come from their offense, as they currently rank second in the conference in both kills (690) and kills per set (13.53). They are hitting just .207 however, which ranks sixth in the league and one spot behind the Lakers (.209). 
 
Leticia Antunes leads the Wildcat attack as she has put down a team-high 179 kills and 3.51 kills per set. She is followed by Autumn Monsma with 147 kills (2.88 per set), Maggie Liebeck with 141 kills (2.76 per set) and Sarah Kuehn with 136 kills (2.67 per set). Kuehn also leads the team with a .343 attack percentage. Supplying a majority of those kills is Lynzi Svoboda who has picked up 526 assists so far this season. 
 
Defensively, the Wildcats rank right around the middle of the pack in most categories. Rachel Braunschweig has picked up a team-best 200 digs and 3.92 digs per set and is followed by Antunes (184 digs), Monsma (152), and Alli Yacko (141). Keuhn has also tallied a team-high 48 total blocks. 
 
Michigan Tech opened GLIAC play with a five-match winning, dropping just one set during that time, before they suffered their first defeat last Saturday (Sept. 15) to the hands of #7-nationally ranked Ferris State, 3-1. The Huskies come in as the top-ranked offensive team in terms of kills per set, as they are averaging 14.10 so far this season and are the only team over the 14-kill per set threshold. They are also successfully attacking at a .239 clip, the highest-mark in the conference. 
 
Leading the way for MTU in the attack is the individual GLIAC leader in kills and kills per set, Olivia Ghormley. Ghormley has put down 216 kills so far this season at a 4.50 per set pace. Behind Ghormley is Mariah Sherman and Anna Jonynas, who have tallied 141 and 121 kills, respectively. 
 
While the Huskies to boast the top attacking offense in the conference, they rank last in block assists, total blocks, and blocks per set. They are averaging just 1.29 rejections per set for a total of 62, including 90 assisted rejections and 17 solo blocks. 
 
Rachel Ping leads the blocking defense with 27 rejections while Sherman has tallied 24 and Emilia Widen has picked up 21. Megan Utlak leads the defense in digs with 222 and is followed by Jonynas (193) and Novotny (146).