The Grand Valley State University women’s volleyball team is certainly pulling its weight in the Battle of the Valleys.

GVSU
was firing on all cylinders at home against Saginaw Valley State
University on Wednesday night and ultimately swept its rival in straight
sets (25-16, 25-15, 25-16) to advance to the GLIAC Tournament
Semifinals.

“That was the best we have looked offensively,” head
coach Deanne Scanlon said. “Everybody was on fire tonight. It’s been a
while since we’ve played like that.”

GVSU (27-3, 18-1 GLIAC) has been on fire for more than two months.

The team found a way to push its winning streak to 17 games and has now won 25 of its last 26 matches.

The
victory ensured the top-seeded Lakers home-court advantage for the
remainder of the tournament at the Fieldhouse Arena, where the team has
won each of its last 10 games.

“Our crowds are great,” Scanlon
said. “To play in front of people like this just makes it exciting
especially when it comes to tournament time. When you’re playing for
championships and trophies in front of your home crowd, it makes it
fun.”

GVSU led the conference in home attendance this year and
appears to be the favorite to win the tournament after taking the
regular season conference championship.

The team had recently swept the Cardinals at home on Nov. 8, and the end result was no different 12 days later.

“We
just wanted to make a statement to start the playoffs,” sophomore
outside hitter Betsy Ronda said. “We should win (the tournament)—we just
want to guarantee that we will host regionals. We don’t want to
travel.”

Ronda finished the match with nine kills and seven digs,
while junior outside hitter Abby Aiken led the way with game-highs in
both kills (10) and digs (11).

Junior setter Kaitlyn Wolters also
posted 11 digs while orchestrating the Laker attack to the tune of 33
assists. The team’s only active senior, right-side hitter Megan
Schroeder, tallied nine kills in the victory.

Schroeder said her team still has some work to do.

“We’re
just trying to work on playing at one pace through the whole match,”
she said. “We’ve been showing that we can either be weak at the start or
at the end of games. We notice it and we get frustrated at times, but
it’s something that we’ll work through and fix.”

GVSU did appear
to be erratic for a brief period of time in the final set but still
managed to overpower a Cardinal attack that struggled all night long.

SVSU only managed to muster up a hitting-percentage clip of .046 as a team while the Lakers hit .330.

The
Battle of the Valleys has been a one-sided affair so far this fall, as
GVSU currently holds a perfect 5-0 record against its rival across four
varsity sports.

The football team will also have a chance to
garner a postseason win against the Cardinals on Saturday at Lubbers
Stadium at 1 p.m.

The Lakers will continue their pursuit of a
GLIAC Tournament Championship in front of their home fans on Saturday
against the reigning champs of 

Northwood University at 5 p.m. in the
semifinals. The championship match will take place on Sunday.
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