The Grand Valley State volleyball team suffered a 3-0 loss to the Michigan Tech Huskies on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 22), falling by scores of 25-23, 25-22, 25-19. With the loss, GVSU drops to 10-5 overall and 3-4 against GLIAC competition while the Huskies improve to 12-3 overall and 6-1 in conference action. 
 
The Lakers will return to Allendale next weekend as they are set to host Northwood and Ferris State on Friday and Saturday (Sept. 28-29), respectively. 
 
The Huskies led the Lakers in most statistical categories, including kills (46-37), attack percentage (.236 - .200), and assists (44-35) while the Lakers held the advantage in digs (51-50) and total blocks, six to four. 
 
Seniors Staci Brower and Hannah Murdock continued their strong play from GVSU's 3-1 win over Northern Michigan last night, as they led the Lakers with 12 and 10 kills, respectively. They were both efficient in the attack as well, as Brower hit .409 on the afternoon and Murdock posted a .348 success rate. Freshman Ali Thompson added seven kills as well. Sophomore setter Ashlyn Kartes tallied 30 assists for GVSU in the process. 
 
Senior Jillian Butsavich led GVSU defensively at the net, picking up three assisted blocks, while Brower and Murdock both added two to go along with Brower's one solo rejection. Junior libero Kendall Yerkes picked up a team-high 18 digs to go along with a service ace. 
 
It was a back and forth affair in the first set of the afternoon, as the teams traded points to a 4-4 tie to start things off. Following the tie, the Lakers built a 7-5 lead over MTU which would last throughout the middle portion of set one. The Huskies battled back and eventually knotted the match at 17-all before taking the 20-18 lead and eventually going on to win a tight first set, 25-23. 
 
Much like the first set, the second stanza was back and forth at the start before Michigan Tech took the 11-9 lead. After falling behind 18-12 a while later, GVSU pulled out four-straight points to cut the lead to just two, 18-16. After cutting the lead again, 21-20 and 23-22, the Lakers just ran out of steam and the Huskies put down the final two points of the set to take the 2-0 lead in the match. 
 
GVSU came out firing in set three, scoring eight of the first 13 points and forcing the Huskies to burn a timeout early. Following the break however, MTU would score 10 of the next 15 points to jump out to a 15-10 lead over the Lakers. GVSU would eventually cut the lead to three, 20-17, but MTU's lead would be too much for the Lakers to overcome, as they would fall 25-19 in set three.