At a time of the year when most teams are battling the injury bug and sickness, the Grand Valley State University volleyball team just keeps winning. That didn’t change over the weekend in their final regular season road matches at Saginaw Valley State University and Lake Superior State University.

“We had a long bus ride and we had Ferris on Tuesday, so it was good to get two more wins,” said sophomore setter Clair Ruhenkamp. “Three wins on the week isn’t an easy thing to do, so that was definitely good to accomplish that. We are to that point in the season where a lot of teams are fighting through little things and it was good to see that we can overcame that stuff.”

On Friday, the Lakers (22-5, 12-4 GLIAC) held on to defeat SVSU in a five-set thriller, 25-17, 26-24, 23-25, 20-25 and 15-9.

The Lakers trailed 7-5 in the fifth set and then scored five-straight points, four of which came from errors by the Cardinals. Ahead 10-8, GVSU used four more SVSU errors and a kill by sophomore middle blocker Ally Simmons to end the set and the match.

GVSU outblocked the Cardinals, 11-8, and senior middle blocker Eno Umoh had a hand in nearly all of them, recording 10 block assists, two shy of her career-high.

“Having your teammates behind you gets you so fired up,” Umoh said. “Especially block assists, I think that is one thing that makes us play better because we have so much momentum and are so hyped from the block. It is a game stopper for them and changer for us.”

Ruhenkamp and freshman outside hitter Betsy Ronda each led the Lakers with strong performances against SVSU. Ruhenkamp dished out 48 assists and chipped in 10 digs, four block assists and three aces, while Ronda had a team-high 16 kills, also contributing 13 digs, five blocks (one solo) and two aces.

Following the five-set win over the Cardinals, GVSU took to the road for a long bus ride to Sault St. Marie, Mich. However, the little sleep and long travel didn’t affect GVSU on Saturday, as they swept Lake Superior State with scores of 28-26, 25-14 and 25-16.

The defense stood tall in the win, limiting LSSU to a negative .017 hitting percentage. The strong play on that side of the ball propelled the Laker offense to a 43-20 advantage in kills.

“I am so proud of our defense and for our success, it is key,” Umoh said. “It frustrates hitters and leaves us with much more opportunities hitting offensively. We usually beat teams because of our transition game which is also off the great defense.”

Ronda led the Lakers with a match-high 13 kills and added 12 digs for her team-high 16th double-double of the season.

With two wins over the weekend, combined with last Tuesday’s victory at Ferris State University, GVSU has now won 13 of their last 14 matches. The momentum produced by the streak, as well as the experiences from the heavy travel, has prepared the team for postseason play.

“When we get to Regionals, it’s three nights in a row that they are going to play,” said GVSU head coach Deanne Scanlon. “We are able to do some things really well to get some wins – maybe our serving and our passing – and another night it is our blocking and our defense. But we still have some things that we need to fine-tune.”

The Lakers now head home to finish out the regular season against Northwood University on Nov. 9 and Hillsdale University on Nov. 10, before the postseason begins with the GLIAC Tournament on Nov. 15.

[email protected]