The Grand Valley State Lakers took on the Davenport Panthers Saturday, Nov. 2 and brought their winning streak up to four matches. GVSU now has an overall record of 12-11 and a GLIAC record of 7-5, maintaining their rank as fifth in the conference. 

The GLIAC tournament is right around the corner for the Lakers, meaning that keeping their winning streak alive has become increasingly more important. 

“You’d like to play at home that first round — that would be huge — but in order for that to happen we need to win and maybe others need to lose too,” said GVSU coach Deanne Scanlon. “You have to be one of the top four teams, and to make that happen we have to keep that up and keep winning.”

The Lakers went into four sets against the Panthers and were able to dominate the court offensively. Emma Clines led GVSU with 17 kills, followed by Jaeli Primus at 16 and Ali Thompson having 14. Rachel Jacquay also had an impressive 46 assists in the match. 

“Just offensively we had three players play very well we had so many options tonight,” Scanlon said. “Jaeli, Emma and Ali were all three playing really top volleyball, some of the best we’ve had this season.” 

In the first set, the Lakers were quick to take the lead 10-7, but Davenport would answer and take the lead 11-10. The match would continue with both teams trading points until GVSU lead 22-21 before the Panthers would pull ahead to take the set 25-23. 

The second set would have the Lakers in the lead 14-8, and they continued to lead the Panthers throughout the whole set. GVSU would take the set 25-20.

The third set would also start out with the Lakers leading the Panthers and extending their lead to 23-9. They would soon finish off the set 25-11. 

The fourth and final set would start with a 15-15 draw, which then led to the two teams passing points back and forth until they once again were tied up, this time 25-25.  The Lakers were able to pull ahead after a kill and service error by the Panthers to win the set, as well as the match. 

This win was an important one for the Lakers, Scanlon said, as it showed the players that they’ve been heading in the right direction.

“It’s something that we talked about with how young we are that it’s going to be a process with growing and developing, and we’ve had to trust that working hard would result in wins even with all the struggles we’ve had,” Scanlon said. “This is proof of the message of, ‘if you work hard it will pull off.’”

The Lakers will be back at home for their next matches Friday, Nov. 8 and Saturday, Nov. 9 against the Parkside Rangers and the Purdue Northwest Pride. Friday’s matchup against the Rangers will be GVSU’s senior night, where they will honor their two seniors: Kendall Yerkes and Frankie Cavallaro.