MARQUETTE, Mich. - The Lake Superior State (LSSU) volleyball program (0-1) fell in their season opener against the No. 2 Bears of Concordia-St. Paul (1-0) at the U.P. Open, hosted by Northern Michigan University (NMU), on Thursday.
The Bears would strike quickly, opening the match on an 11-2 run, but the Lakers' captain Emily Kalinowski (South Lyon, Mich.) would sneak a kill across to jumpstart a 4-2 scoring spurt for LSSU. True freshman Morgan Deming (Boyne City, Mich.) would then make her presence known with back-to-back kills in her collegiate debut, and fellow freshman Rachel Steele (Eaton Rapids, Mich.) would follow that up by earning the first kill of her college career shortly thereafter. However, despite a pair of late kills from Valeriya Varnakova (Ufa, Russia) the Bears would ultimately take the opening set by a score of 25-13.
Varkakova would continue to press the attack early in the second set to get the Lakers on the board first, and the Lakers would push ahead as a service ace from Sydney Briney (St. Joseph, Mich.) propelled her team to a 7-2 run to take a 10-6 lead. The Bears were able to fight back and tie the set, but the Lakers would push ahead once again behind more kills from Steele and Varnakova. Concordia would respond in force to take the lead, but kills from Varnakova and Kalinowski capped off a 5-1 Laker run to tie up the set at 20-20. However, despite a kill from Mariana Velasque (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) to hold on, the Bears were able to close out the set by a score of 25-21.
The Bears started off strong in the third set, but a service ace from Deming and a kill from Jordyn Haller (Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.) cut the deficit to 12-9. The Lakers would continue to hang around with multiple kills from Velasque, but it would not be enough as the Bears closed out the third and final set with a 4-0 run to take the set and the match by respective scores of 25-17 and 3-0.
Despite the loss, the Lakers were able to put together a strong effort against the No. 2 ranked team in the nation. Steele led the way offensively with eight kills on an impressive efficiency of .421 in her Laker debut. Kalinowski notched 18 assists, passing 1400 on her career, while also notching eight digs, and libero Emily Hagelthorn (South Lyon, Mich.) would finish with double-digit digs.
The Lakers return to action on Friday, Sept. 1 for two more matches at the U.P. Open against Northwood and Minnesota-Crookston at 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., respectively. The match against Minnesota-Crookston will not be livestreamed due to being played inside the NMU practice gym.