]This past weekend, Grand Valley State University’s volleyball team traveled to Indianapolis, Indiana for the nation’s largest colligate volleyball championship, the Midwest Region Crossover. GVSU was unable to secure wins for all three games, but got a good amount of competition to focus on for the GLIAC championships coming this next weekend. 

The team’s first two matches against Missouri S&T and Lewis were unsuccessful, leaving the first match with a 1-3 loss, and the second with another 1-3 loss. After the final match against Drury with a 3-0 win, the Lakers are at 9-11 overall and 4-5 in the GLIAC standings. 

Coming off from three matches in two days is tough for any sports team, but the Lakers won their last game against Drury in three straight sets; 25-14, 25-21 and 25-22.

Jaeli Primus was the star player of this match with 13 kills and one block, followed by sophomore stud Ali Thompson with eight kills, one ace and two blocks.

Coach Deanne Scanlon said that Thompson’s reputation among their competition was amongst the best at the Crossover.

“I think teams saw that in Ali and they scouted for her, so most of the teams game plans were to try and stop her, and that was definitely something we had to adjust to,” Scanlon said. “What made the difference for us to be able to win that final match, we were able to get the ball to our middles, Mattie McCabe and Jaeli Primus, and that just made all the difference in the world.”

Their matchup with Drury was successful, a 3-0 shutout, leaving the players with some optimism leading into their GLIAC championships starting next weekend.

As far as the first two games went, Scanlon had some comments on their tough competition and where they sit so far up against the other teams in the championship.

“I thought we came out strong against Lewis,” Scanlon said. “They ended up being undefeated on the weekend and will probably end up being the number one seat in the region and we jumped on them early and I thought we did really well. After losing to Lewis, to be able to come back and win that match I thought was just huge, because its hard playing three in one weekend.”

Scanlon seems to be keeping her head up for the GLIAC championships quickly approaching, though the competition will be rough. 

In preparation for their upcoming feats, Scanlon says they are going to be working on how to handle other teams targeting certain players or weaknesses, and bouncing back from that. The things that are going really well are serving and blocking, so maintaining their basic skills and pushing offense in practice this week will better prepare them for the next weekend. 

The Lakers will be traveling to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan Friday, Oct. 25 for their match-up against Lake Superior State, and then to University Center to play Saginaw Valley State Saturday, Oct. 26. This will be their second round of GLIAC games, leading into their final battles starting Wednesday, Nov. 20 for the GLIAC Championships.