ALLENDALE, Mich. - The Northern Michigan (NMU) volleyball team (6-8, 3-3 GLIAC) fell to the Grand Valley State (GVSU) Lakers (12-2, 6-0 GLIAC) by a score of 3-0 on Saturday.
Kaylie McIntosh led all players in kills with 13 on the afternoon, followed by 11 from Laynie Russell. Allie Barlow recorded a double-double with 31 assists and 10 digs while the pair of KC Fortune and Liesl Haugen also finished with double-digit digs with 12 each.
How it happened
The Lakers were able to get on the board first, but a kill from Kaylie McIntosh, who was coming off of a career-high 28-kill performance against Michigan Tech, gave the Wildcats their first point of the day. Both teams continued to battle early, featuring multiple kills from Laynie Russell, but GVSU was able to pull ahead by a margin of 12-8 to force an NMU timeout. McIntosh managed to halt the run, and back-to-back kills from Russell helped her team to a 6-1 run to knot up the score at 16-16. The Lakers were able to push ahead once again, but the Wildcats kept fighting, responding with a 5-1 run to tie the set at 23-23 with an ace by Liesl Haugen to force a GVSU timeout. Haugen served another ace coming out of the timeout to give her team a set point opportunity, but the Lakers were able to survive and hold on to take the first set 27-25.
NMU came out swinging to open the second set, rushing ahead to an early 7-3 advantage, but Grand Valley managed to battle back to tie up the score at 9-9. Both teams would then go back and forth on their way to an 18-18 stalemate, but GVSU was able to close out the set with a 7-1 run to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Wildcats once again started strong to open the third set as multiple kills from Anna O'Keefe and Russell put NMU ahead 6-2. However, the Lakers fought back, pushing ahead to a 14-10 advantage to force a timeout. The Wildcats were able to get back within as close as two, but GVSU would ultimately take the third and final set by a margin of 25-19.
Up Next
The Wildcats return to action on Friday, Oct. 2 when they host the Rangers of Wisconsin-Parkside in Vandament Arena with the first serve scheduled for 5 p.m.
