The Grand Valley State volleyball team got a big 3-0 sweep over the Northwood Timberwolves Friday night (Sept. 28) inside GVSU Fieldhouse Arena to move back to .500 in league play at 4-4. GVSU also improves to 11-5 overall on the season while Northwood falls to 6-10 (3-5 GLIAC). GVSU will try to keep their momentum going into tomorrow afternoon, as they host #6-nationally ranked Ferris State at 4:00 PM on their home floor here in Allendale. 
 
GVSU used a balanced offensive attack and a staunch defense to overwhelm the Timberwolves en route to the sweep. The Lakers hit at a .274 clip and totaled 6.0 team blocks while Northwood managed just a .109 attack percentage, including a -.029 in the first set, while picking up just two team rejections. GVSU also held the advantage in total kills (45-34), assists (37-33), digs (69-54), while the Timberwolves managed one more ace, 3-2. 
 
Senior middle blocker Staci Brower was the lone attacker to tally double-digit kills, as she put down 13 on the night to go along with a .667 hitting percentage and two solo blocks. Fellow senior Hannah Murdock picked up nine kills of her own (.258), while freshman Abby Graham and Ali Thompson added eight and seven kills, respectively. 
 
Supplying a majority of the kill opportunities on the night was sophomore setter Ashlyn Kartes, while junior setter Frankie Cavallaro added 12 of her own. 
 
Junior libero Kendall Yerkes picked up a match-high 21 digs to go along with a service ace, while Thompson (13) and Graham (10) picked up double-digit digs as well. 
 
Set one was all GVSU, as they would quickly jump out to a 4-0 lead after two Northwood attack errors, a kill from Brower, and an ace from Yerkes. GVSU kept the pressure on, eventually building up a 10-3 lead but the Timberwolves fought back, cutting the lead to four, 10-6. Five straight points from the Lakers built the lead back to nine, 15-6, and this time, Northwood wasn't able to fight back as the Laker lead swelled to 19-8. The Lakers would close out set one by scoring five of the next nine points to take the commanding 25-12 victory and the 1-0 lead in the match. 
 
Despite the big loss in set one, Northwood came out strong against the Lakers in the second set, taking an early 6-3 lead after a 4-1 run early on. The Timberwolves slowly built their lead up to one after some back and forth, 12-8, but the Lakers would quickly close the gap and knot the set up 13-all. A two-point swing by Northwood was countered with three straight from GVSU for their first lead since a 3-2 score, 16-15. After some back and forth, Northwood would once again build a slight lead, this time 22-19. The Lakers found their backs against the wall just a few points later as the Timberwolves held the 24-22 lead but GVSU would storm back and score three straight for the 25-24 lead to force an NU timeout. Out of the break, Northwood tied the match 25-all but back to back kills from Graham and Thompson would secure the second set comeback and give the Lakers the 2-0 lead in the match. 
 
Once again, the Timberwolves came out firing in set three, taking an early 3-1 lead over the Lakers. GVSU wouldn't let things get too out of hand this time however, and quickly cut the lead to none as the teams traded points back and forth. After falling down 13-12, GVSU rattled five straight points thanks to a NU service error, an assisted block from Jillian Butsavich and Kartes, back to back kills from Murdock, and finally capped off with an ace from Brower to take the 17-13 lead. GVSU would hold their lead the rest of the way despite a late push from the Timberwolves that cut the lead to two, 21-19 and eventually 23-21. The Lakers had more left in the tank however and used a kill from Brower and a final NU attack error to secure the 25-21 victory in the set and the 3-0 sweep in the match.