The Grand Valley State volleyball team fell to #6-nationally ranked Ferris State on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 29), 3-1, by score of 25-18, 25-18, 22-25, and 25-18. With the loss, GVSU drops to 11-6 on the year and 4-5 in conference action while the Bulldogs improve to 14-3 overall and 9-0 in league play. GVSU, who defeated Northwood last night (Sept. 28), earned a split on their homecourt this weekend.
The Bulldogs used an efficient offensive attack that turned out to be too much for the Lakers to handle, as FSU hit at a .367 clip on the match, while GVSU managed a .175 attack percentage. The Lakers did hold the advantage in team blocks, 5-2, but Ferris State led in kills (61-47), assists (59-41), and digs (89-76).
Staci Brower was the lone Laker to pick up at least 10 kills, as she put down a team-high 15 to go along with a .324 hitting percentage.
Abby Graham and
Jillian Butsavich also contributed eight and seven kills, respectively. Once again, sophomore setter
Ashlyn Kartes led the Lakers with 20 assists, while
Frankie Cavallaro picked up 12 of her own. Freshman
Ali Thompson also tallied three aces while serving for GVSU.
Libero
Kendall Yerkes picked up 25 digs in the contest, while Thompson added 19 and Graham added 12. At the net defensively, Brower led the way with four assisted blocks, while Graham and Thompson each picked up two and Butsavich tallied a solo rejection as well.
The teams battled back and forth to open play in the first set before a three-point swing from the Bulldogs gave them a four point lead, 8-4 early on. GVSU cut the lead to just one, 11-10 and 14-13, before another Ferris State run, this time points, gave them a convincing 19-13 lead. The Bulldogs would maintain their lead the rest of the way, as they Lakers would eventually fall 25-18 in the first set and 1-0 in the match.
The Bulldogs carried their momentum over from their opening-set win, as they tallied five of the first six points to open up a 5-1 lead early on over the Lakers. GVSU slowly chipped away at the lead, cutting it to three, 8-5, before FSU rallied for four straight to go up 12-5. This time, GVSU answered with four of the next five points to bring the score to 12-8 before eventually closing it down to just three, 14-11. Much like the first set however, the early Ferris State lead would be too much for GVSU to overcome, and they would eventually fall 25-18 once again.
After falling into a 4-2 deficit to open set three, GVSU rallied for six of the next seven points to take their largest lead up to that point, 8-5. Another four point stretch a while later force FSU to burn a timeout as the Lakers built up a convincing 14-8 lead. GVSU kept their foot on the pedal though the middle portion of the set, eventually going up 21-14, but the Bulldogs would show they had more in the tank, scoring five straight to knock the lead to just two, 21-19. The Lakers gathered themselves however and secured the third set victory over the Bulldogs, 25-22, to bring the match to 2-1 in favor of FSU.
The Bulldogs quickly jumped out to an 8-4 lead over the Lakers in set four and maintained that lead throughout the beginnings of the set. After a few streaks of points, GVSU managed to cut the lead to two, 16-14, a while later but that's as close as they would get to the Bulldogs the rest of the way. Just like sets one and two, the early deficit turned out to be too much to overcome, as the Lakers would fall 25-18 for the third time on the night and drop the match, 3-1.
