GVSU women’s basketball tops Davenport 56-47

The Grand Valley State women’s basketball team faced off against a GLIAC foe, Davenport University, at home on Saturday, Feb. 10. The Lakers managed to pull out a 56-47 win, bringing the team’s record up to 20-4 on the season and 13-3 in the GLIAC. 

Taylor Parmley led the way for the Lakers, posting her third double-double of the season. She finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds. Cassidy Boensch also had a big game for the Lakers, finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds. 

As a team, the Lakers shot 36 percent from the field and only 19 percent from the 3-point line. One of the areas where the Lakers really separated themselves from Davenport was the rebounding department. The Lakers finished with 46 rebounds compared to Davenport’s 26. 

This was a significant win for the Lakers moving forward, as they have another big week of GLIAC matchups coming up. On Thursday, Feb. 15, they will take on the best team in the conference, Ashland, and on Saturday, Feb. 17, they will face Tiffin. Both games will be held at the GVSU Fieldhouse Arena. 

GVSU track and field competes in ‘Big Meet’ at home

The Grand Valley State track and field teams competed at home in the GVSU Big Meet this past weekend. The main goal of the indoor track season is for runners to make it to the National Championship meet. To make it there, teams must hit certain times in order to qualify. The track and field teams hit 31 NCAA qualifying times this weekend. 

On the men’s side, there were seven qualifying marks set, and there were also some very strong performances by the team. One of the better performances of the weekend came from the men’s distance relay medley team of Dennis Mbuta, Jaylin Golson, Nick Salomon and Woui Mach that finished first in that event and hit an automatically qualifying time of 9:46.76. This time is also a record for the Kelly Family Sports Center. Tyler Kirkwood finshed second in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.21, which was also a qualifying mark. Justin Scavarda had a big weekend, finishing with two qualifying marks himself. Scavarda finished first in shot put with a throw of 16.88 meters and second in weight throw with a throw of 18.85. 

On the women’s side, the team finished with four qualifying marks. Angela Ritter finished first in the 400-meter race with a time of 56.28. The women’s distance relay medley team of Rachel Bendewald, Chant’e Roberts, Carly Burnup and Rachael Walters finished in second in the event and posted a time of 11:40.03. Two throwers posted qualifying scores: Dajsha Avery threw 13.89 meters in the shot put, and Brianna DeSappio finished third in the weight throw with a throw of 17.79 meters. 

GVSU men’s tennis tops Cornerstone University

The Grand Valley State men’s tennis team was in action this weekend and pulled off a sweep of Cornerstone University 9-0. 

The Lakers had three doubles matchups, and all three were won fairly easily. The Lakers’ No. 1 pairing of Alex Van de Steenoven and Sebastien Lescoulie won their match 8-1. The No. 2 pairing of D.J. Colatone and Jack Geissler followed the trend of the first match and won 8-1. The third pair, Drew Coleman and Nicholas Urban, won their match 8-0. 

The singles matches were much of the same for the Lakers. Singles No. 1 Lescoulie won 6-2, 6-0. No. 2 Geissler won his match 6-1, 6-2. Steenoven won 6-3, 6-1. Urban and Colatone both won their respective matches 6-1, 6-1. Finally, Coleman won his match in straight sets 6-0, 6-0. 

The men’s tennis team will take on Hope College on Saturday, Feb. 17.