Ali Thompson nominated for Woman of the Year award

Grand Valley State University selected former women’s volleyball player, Ali Thompson, for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Playing four seasons for the Lakers, the former outside hitter raked in several honors and accolades while maintaining a 3.90 cumulative GPA, including a four-time All-GLIAC player and AVCA All-Region honors while finishing her career with 1,228 digs and 975 kills. 

Thompson was also a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and graduated from GVSU with a Bachelors in Allied Health Sciences. 

The award winner will be announced in the fall as the selection committee must go through the process of selecting the top-30 athletes (10 athletes each from DI-III), narrowing it down to three athletes from each division, and selecting their winner from the nine finalists. 

No. 4 ranked GVSU Football picked second in preseason poll

As the 2022 season inches closer, the Grand Valley State University men’s football team was selected as second overall in the latest GLIAC Football Preseason Poll.

Falling short to the No. 1 ranked Ferris State in the second round of the 2021 NCAA playoffs, the Lakers are expecting 59 letterwinners, 18 starters, eight All-GLIAC honorees and eight GLIAC Player of the Week honors to return for the upcoming campaign.

Even with the boost coming from a multitude of veteran players, the team is set to face off against a tough schedule that includes two top-three teams and a list of teams with postseason experience. 

The Lakers will kick-off the new season on Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7 p.m. at Lubbers Stadium.

161 GV student-athletes receive GLIAC spring academic honors

Springs sports have come to an end, and the GLIAC honored 161 Grand Valley State University student-athletes with All-Academic and Academic Excellence honors.

In order to receive the GLIAC All-Academic honor, student-athletes are required to maintain a GPA of 3.0-3.49, while Academic Excellence team consists of student-athletes that have a cumulative GPA of 3.50-4.0.

The list includes athletes from the baseball, softball, women’s lacrosse, and women’s and men’s golf, tennis and outdoor track & field teams – all of which are a mixture of All-Academic, Academic Excellence and Academic All-GLIAC honors.

With 91 Lakers being named to the GLIAC Academic Excellence list and 70 named All-Academic, the men’s and women’ s track and field teams led the way with 54 Academic Excellence and 40 All-Academic honors.