The Grand Valley State Lakers finished out their volleyball season Wednesday, Nov. 20 during the first round of the GLIAC tournament. The Lakers had an overall record of 13-15 and a GLIAC record of 8-8. Although GVSU did not have one of their winningest seasons this year, Jaeli Primus, one of the freshmen on the team, was very successful.

Primus was named GLIAC Freshman of the Year, awarded ALL-GLIAC second team, and earlier in the season was named GLIAC South Player of the Week Nov. 4. She also ranked first in the entire conference for solo blocks and second in the conference for blocks assists. After finding out that she was in first for blocks, she said she felt determined to stay there.

“I felt hungry the whole season to get first and stay in first place, which means to always be hungry for a block and always wanting the kill,” Primus said.

Hard work and always wanting the kill are both factors that led Primus to have such a successful season in her first collegiate year. She tallied a total of 255 kills (2.48 kills per set) with a .310 attack percentage, pushing her to rank third on her team in kills. She also had a total of 117 blocks (1.14 blocks per set), pushing her to be ranked first on her team in blocks.

“It feels really good, just because it felt like I’ve been putting in a lot of hard work throughout the whole season including preseason and practices,” Primus said. “It feels good to know that it paid off and didn’t go unnoticed.”

Looking back at the season as a whole, Primus is happy with how it went even though it wasn’t perfect. Now, the Lakers are more ready than ever to start pushing forward towards the next season.

“I thought that it went pretty well, although the outcome wasn’t what we wanted,” Primus said. “I’m just excited to work even harder in the off season and it should be pretty good to come back with a pretty full team next season since we only lost two seniors this year.”

Primus already has her sights set on her next season, and is determined to give her all in preseason in hopes to keep herself ranked first overall in blocks, not only on her team, but in the entire conference too. Her focus is on bettering herself as much as possible before hitting the court next year.

“My goal would be to lead the GLIAC in blocks again and I’ll prepare by working extra hard in practice and perfecting it by not going through the motions and by staying in the gym working on agility as well,” Primus said.