UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The Grand Valley State volleyball team took down Saginaw Valley State in five sets by a score of 3-2 (25-23, 23-25, 25-20, 19-25, 15-10) on Saturday on the road in GLIAC action. The Lakers, winners of three straight, get back to the .500 mark at 11-11 overall and are now 6-5 in GLIAC play while SVSU falls to 16-6 overall and 8-3 in league play.
Four Lakers tallied at least 12 kills in the match with redshirt freshman
Emma Clines leading the way with 18. Freshman
Jaeli Primus knocked down 15 kills, sophomore
Ali Thompson had 13 kills, and freshman
Karlie Kucharczyk totaled 12 kills. Primus and Clines were also a force on defense around the net as they recorded 10 and eight blocks respectively, while freshman
Mattie McCabe added five blocks. Freshman setter
Rachel Jacquay tallied 48 assists and senior
Kendall Yerkes had a team-high 21 digs.
As a team, GVSU held the advantage in kills (60-51), blocks (15-9), assists (57-50), digs (87-81), and attack percentage (.158-.106). The Lakers defense forced the Cardinals to a -.040 percentage in the fifth and deciding set.
GVSU led much of the first set and got out to a 10-6 lead. SVSU would go on a 5-1 run to take their lone lead of the set at 12-11 but the Lakers quickly regained the lead. The set was tied at 19-19 before GVSU went on a 3-0 run on a pair of Cardinal errors and ended the set with a kill by Clines.
The Lakers got out to an early lead in set two and led 16-12 later in the set, however, SVSU would tie the set at 19-19 and score five out of the next six points to take a 24-20 lead. After GVSU scored three straight points to cut the deficit to just one, SVSU ended the set on a kill.
Set three began back and forth as each team controlled leads of three points or more. After the set was tied at 13-13, GVSU went on a 4-0 run but the Cardinals answered with a 4-0 run of their own to once again tie the set. The Lakers would throw the last punch in the set as they won five of the final six points.
SVSU forced a fifth set by winning set four 25-19 without trailing. In the fifth set, the two teams traded points and were tied at 4-4 before the Lakers went on a 5-0 run to seize a 9-4 lead and never looked back. Clines finished off the match with a kill from McCabe.
GVSU will travel crosstown to take on Davenport next Saturday (Nov. 2) at 5:00 P.M.
