Courtesy of D.J. Foster, Grand Valley State Sports Information
ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The #17 Grand Valley State volleyball team continued its sweep through the NCAA Midwest Region Tournament, as the Lakers took care of Rockhurst in the championship match on Saturday night (Nov. 22), winning the regional title by a 3-0 score. GVSU captured its ninth regional title in school history by winning in straight sets, 25-14, 25-16, and 25-19.
When Grand Valley State learned its NCAA postseason fate late on Sunday night, the team was surprised to learn it would be the host institution for the upcoming tournament, despite being named the third seed in the region. The homecourt advantage turned out to be exactly that - a huge advantage for the Lakers, who moved to 14-1 inside the Fieldhouse Arena with Saturday night's win.
GVSU advances to the NCAA Elite Eight on Dec. 4-7 in Louisville, Ky., which was also the location when the Lakers made it to the National Championships in 2010. Grand Valley State will take on Wingate - the #1 seed and winner of the Southeast Region - at 12:00 p.m. on Dec. 4 from Knights Hall on the campus of Bellarmine.
The Lakers will take a 26-5 record to the Elite Eight after sweeping #6 Missouri S&T on Thursday night, #2 Ferris State, and #4 Rockhurst to win the championship. GVSU won all nine sets in the tournament and have recorded 21 sweeps on the year.
It is just the second time in school history that Grand Valley State swept its three regional matches. The other feat occurred in 2005, when the Lakers won the Division II National Championship.
After winning a pair of five-set matches over Indianapolis and Truman State, Rockhurst's season ends with a 28-5 record.
Junior middle blocker Kaleigh Lound had a terrific championship match, notching a match-best 13 kills, hitting .571 - she committed just one error in 21 swings - and a match-high six blocks. Not following far behind was senior outside hitter Abby Aiken, who recorded 11 kills, eight digs, and three blocks.
Lound, Aiken, senior setter Kaitlyn Wolters (34 assists, 10 digs, five kills, three blocks) and senior libero Christina Canepa (14 digs) were named to the NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament Team.
Grand Valley State - who won a pair of three-set matches over the previous two days - certainly looked fresher than Rockhurst, as the Hawks notched a pair of five-set wins on Thursday and Friday. The Lakers recorded 44 kills, hit .291, and recorded 10 blocks, while Rockhurst managed just a .070 hitting percentage and three blocks.
In last season's regional championship match in Allendale, GVSU won the first two sets before Ferris State rallied back to win the next three sets and the regional title. On Saturday night, Grand Valley State would finish the job.
A close first set (with the Lakers leading 11-10) opened up with a 7-0 run to put GVSU out to an 18-10 advantage. The seven-point run started on an Aiken kill, but two rejections from Lound (one with junior Betsy Ronda, the next with Wolters) continued the run. Freshman Katie Olson - whose clutch serving in set two on Friday night helped the Lakers win that stanza - kept up her strong serving on four points during the run.
Leading 18-12, the Lakers received three straight points on two Lound kills and a Lound-Aiken rejection to open a 21-12 lead. Wolters' ace finished the first set at 25-14, as GVSU hit .364 in the opening frame.
The second set was again close, as the Lakers were on top, 15-14. From there, it took five straight GVSU points and an overall 10-2 run to take the 2-0 lead in the match. Ronda's kill and subsequent ace made it 18-14. Wolters notched a solo block and dished an assist to Aiken to up the score to 20-14. A few points later, Aiken's solo block and kill put the team up 23-16. Once again, Wolters served up an ace to close out the set.
Set three saw 11 tie scores, including the final tie at 15-15. Aiken put down three kills in four points and followed that run with an ace, as the Laker lead moved to 19-16. Senior Ally Simmons added a kill before a pair of Rockhurst points made it 20-18. After a combined block between Lound and senior Kourtney Wolters helped GVSU extend to a 23-19 advantage, Ronda smashed consecutive kills to win the match and the regional championship.
The Laker offense was even better in set three, hitting .382 with 17 kills. Grand Valley State's defense was even better though, as Rockhurst hit -.033, .061, and .171 in the three sets.
Ronda supplied eight kills and a pair of blocks, while Kourtney Wolters picked up a dozen digs. GVSU owned advantages in digs (55-48), blocks (10-3), kills (44-30), and aces (4-1).
Laker Notes
- The Lakers nine regional championships came in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2014
- GVSU is now 22-3 all-time in regional tournament matches in Allendale and 29-6 all-time in regional matches at any location
- In 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, the Lakers now improve to 36-13
- Grand Valley State is now 9-1 in regional championship matches
- This is the fifth time the Lakers have won a regional title by a 3-0 final score
- With a 14-1 home record this season, Grand Valley State won 13 of those 14 contests by 3-0 sweeps
- The Lakers and Wingate - the team's Elite Eight opponent - have never played before
- Senior Abby Aiken reached the 1,300-kill mark with her 11 kills on Saturday. She now has 1,304 kills, the eighth-best figure ever at GVSU
- With 14 digs, senior Christina Canepa passed the 1,700 career dig total. Second all-time at GVSU in career digs, Canepa - the 2014 GLIAC Libero of the Year - now has 1,709 career pickups
- Junior Betsy Ronda moved into the career top-10 in digs with 1,068 in her first three seasons, good for ninth-best in Laker history
- Ronda will enter the Elite Eight with 982 career kills. With 18 more putaways, she'll become the eighth player in GVSU history to reach the 1,000 career kills/1,000 career digs club, joining teammate Abby Aiken, who reached that feat during the GLIAC Tournament
