The Grand Valley State volleyball team suffered another defeat this weekend, as they fell to the Eagles of Ashland on Saturday afternoon (Sept. 8) by a score of 3-0. Despite what the score indicates, the match wasn't as lopsided as it seems, as the Lakers fell in the first two sets 26-24 but just couldn't quite pull out the victories before falling 25-17 in the final set. With the loss, GVSU falls to 7-3 on the season and 0-2 in conference play. The Eagles move to 9-2 and 2-0 in the GLIAC.
GVSU had another lackluster hitting performance, tallying a .146 hitting percentage compared to the Eagles .230 mark. The Eagles also led the Lakers in kills (49-38), assists (42-36), and digs (64-58), while both teams managed eight total blocks.
Staci Brower was the bright spot on the Laker attack, tallying a team-high 12 kills and .346 hitting percentage to go with her one solo block and one assisted block.
Ali Thompson picked up nine kills on the match, while
Hannah Murdock and
Abby Graham both tallied six as well.
Jillian Butsavich (4) and
Frankie Cavallaro (1) also added to the kill total. Cavallaro also led the Lakers with 33 assists.
Kendall Yerkes picked up a match-high 20 digs with Thompson not too far behind with 17 as well.
After the Eagles jumped out to an early 9-4 lead in the first set, the Lakers battled back to cut the lead to just one, 9-8, with a four-point stretch that included kills from Thompson, Butsavich, and Murdock, before being capped off with a bad set by the Eagles. GVSU continued to battle and eventually took a 13-12 lead over AU. From that point on, the teams went back and forth in the scoring with neither team being able to manage any sort of run to take a decisive lead. After leading 23-22, GVSU would surrender two points to the Eagles to give them the one point lead before an AU service error would tie things up, 24-24. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Ashland managed to rattle off another two points and take the first set 26-24.
The second set was neck and neck to start, with the Lakers and Eagles tying at nearly every point and neither team holding more than a two point advantage. Following a 13-13 tie, GVSU would score nine of the next 12 points to jump out to a 22-16 lead and force an AU timeout. Out of the timeout however, the Eagles scored six straight points to re-tie the match at 22-all. After another 24-24 tie, AU would once again gain the final two points to knock the Lakers off 26-24 in the second set.
The third set started just like the first two, with the teams battling back and forth with multiple ties and tiebreakers. After a 7-7 tie however, the Eagles would take the lead and GVSU would not be able to recover the rest of the set. After AU used a 6-1 run to go up 19-12, GVSU brought it back within four, 21-17, but the Eagles would score the final four points for the 25-17 victory and the 3-0 win in the match.
GVSU will be back in action Tuesday, Sept. 11 as they are slated for yet another road game, this time at Davenport to face off with the Panthers at 7 PM.
