The #22 Grand Valley State volleyball team used a dominant offensive effort to earn a 3-0 home victory (25-23, 28-26, 25-15) over the visiting Tiffin Dragons on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 3). GVSU registered a .341 hitting percentage for the match and an incredible .615 attack mark in the third set of the win.
 
With the victory, Grand Valley State improves to 10-5 overall and 6-1 in the GLIAC, while Tiffin drops to 7-6 on the year and 4-3 in league play. The Lakers have won six of their last seven matches, including four 3-0 sweeps during that stretch.
 
GVSU's offense has not been better in the early portion of the season. Totaling 54 kills and only nine errors in the match, the Lakers .341 hitting percentage topped the .320 mark the team recorded in an early 3-0 win over Carson-Newman on Sept. 4.
 
It was the team's highest hitting percentage in a match since Nov. 9, 2013, when GVSU hit .387 against Lake Superior State. On Saturday, Grand Valley State hit .357 in set one, .219 in the second frame, and .615 in set three - the Lakers smacked 17 kills and had just one hitting error in the final stanza.
 
Freshman Staci Brower and senior Betsy Ronda both surpassed double-digits in kills. Brower put away a match-high tying 12 kills and hit .391, while adding three block assists. Ronda notched 10 kills, hit .360 (with only one attack error), and recorded 13 digs for a double-double.
 
Seniors Jessica Majerle (nine kills, .471 percentage) and Kaleigh Lound (eight kills, .333 mark) and redshirt freshman Shannon Winicki (eight kills, .333 clip) all committed just one hitting error. The benefactors over those kills and the strong hitting percentage were setters Katie Olson (23 assists) and Taylor Stewart (21 helpers).
 
The first set was tied 13 different times and the Lakers rallied from a 10-6 deficit before taking a 12-10 advantage. Winicki registered two kills and Ronda added another during the 6-0 run. The teams were tied at points 19, 20, 21, 22, and 23 before freshman Brooke Smith put down a kill. Brower ended the frame by crushing an overpass for the set-ending kill, giving the Lakers a 25-23 win.
 
Kills from Ronda, Lound, and Majerle pushed GVSU ahead by a 13-8 score in the second stanza. Smith then notched a kill and an ace on consecutive points to make the lead 16-12. Tiffin would hang around and eventually score three straight points after trailing 23-21. The Dragons led 24-23 and served for set point, but Brower supplied a kill and Smith notched another ace. Moments later - with the score tied again at 26-26 - Ronda and Majerle connected on back-to-back kills for the 28-26 victory.
 
Set three was 10-9 in the Lakers' favor when Majerle put away consecutive kills. Brower, Winicki, and Lound added three kills in a row to push the GVSU lead to 18-12. Later in the frame, Olson served an ace and then delivered an assist to freshman Jillian Butsavich, making the score 23-14. Smith closed the match with her a cross-court kill to finish her statline of six kills, six digs, two aces, and two assists.
 
Tiffin put up a solid .252 hitting percentage, but the Lakers forced TU into 16 hitting errors. The Dragons led in digs (61-54), but GVSU owned advantages in kills (54-47), assists (49-43), aces (4-2), and blocks (4-3).
 
Senior libero Taylor Shomin led Grand Valley State with 21 digs, her seventh match this season of at least 20 digs and her third straight overall.
 
The Lakers head back to Ohio to take on Lake Erie and Ashland next weekend (Oct. 9-10).