GV volleyball earns wins No. 998 and 999 over the weekend

By BRYCE DEROUIN

Updated: September 30, 2012, 5:26 PM

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When the Grand Valley State University women’s volleyball team takes the court Friday against Lake Erie College, they will have the chance to accomplish a historic feat.

After two wins on the road over the weekend, the Lakers (11-4, 4-3 GLIAC) have the opportunity to secure their 1,000th win in the program’s history.

GVSU dominated over the weekend winning both matches 3-0. The Lakers started their road trip Friday night against Ohio Domincan University (6-7, 2-4 GLIAC) and didn’t waste any time, dispatching the Panthers 25-17, 25-20, and 25-15.

The Lakers carried their momentum from Friday night over to Saturday against Tiffin University (4-9, 0-7 GLIAC). GVSU didn’t have any problems with the Dragons as they cruised to a 25-16, 25-13, and 25-20 sweep.

“On the road and winning in the GLIAC is a hard thing to do,” said head coach Deanne Scanlon. “This has been the longest road trip on a bus in the conference so far. So with a young team you got to get them focused in. I thought we did a really good job getting a 3-0 win in both places. I thought we served and passed fairly well.”

GVSU held the edge in kills (36-26) and assists (32-22) against Ohio Dominican and tallied eight aces and limited themselves to four errors.

The Lakers defense was on display against Tiffin as GVSU held Tiffin to hit just .098 with only 27 kills and 18 hitting errors.

“The next step that we are looking for is consistency,” Scanlon said. “People that watch us play; you can see we’ve been an exciting team. We have a lot of energy and we can do some things really well. But then with a young team, you want to see that on a more consistent basis. I think we are getting there, but we’re not there yet.”

GVSU went into the weekend with the goal to improve their position in the conference. The Lakers are looking to get a better seed for the GLIAC/GLVC Crossover.

“Coach gave us this talk in the locker room last week and she was saying how important it was for us to get back those two wins so that when we have the crossover tournament, we’re placed better than where we are ranked right now,” said junior Ally Simmons. “It was crucial for us to do that or else we’d be failing behind.”

As the season has progressed, the Lakers have gained more confidence with each match. They have a young team that is still in the process of learning, which could be scary for their opponents.

“We definitely have come together more,” said junior Megan Schroeder. “I think it’ll be exciting to see how the rest of our conference goes. We’ve definitely gotten better and we realize what we’re capable of.”

As would be expected, GVSU is excited about the opportunity to secure the program’s 1,000th win at home. It will be a talking point for the Lakers at practice in the days leading up to the match.

“To do it at home in front of our crowd will be a great motivation,” Scanlon said. “It’s certainly something we’ll talk about all week long in practice.”

bderouin@lanthorn.com

Published September 30, 2012 Sports