SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Lake Superior State volleyball team fell to conference rival Northwood in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) play on Saturday, September 30, at the Bud Cooper Gymnasium. The Timberwolves downed the Lakers in straight sets (25-20, 25-22, 25-17).
Northwood (8-7, 2-5 GLIAC) came into the match on the strength of its first conference win of the season, having defeated Saginaw Valley State in four sets on the previous night. Lake Superior (1-12, 0-7 GLIAC), under head coach Dave Schmidlin, having fallen to league-leading Ferris State the night before, was looking to rebound and earn its first conference win of the 2017 season.
In the first set, Lake Superior and Northwood traded points throughout. Back to back kills by junior outside hitter Jena Tulgestke and freshman outside hitter and defensive specialist Kyra Vezina put the Lakers ahead of Northwood 16-15. The Timberwolves, however, reeled off the next six points, eventually winning the set 25-20.
The Lakers took an early lead in set number two, eventually going up 8-4, causing Northwood to use a timeout. Despite earning the first point out of the timeout, Lake Superior continued to put points on the board, climbing ahead by seven points at one point. The T'Wolves slowly began to pull even, tying the set at 19 all on an attack error by Tulgestke. Northwood went 6-3 to finish the set, winning it 25-22.
In the third set, things remained close through the early going. Following a kill by Vezina to tie the score at 9 apiece, Northwood went on a scoring run to pull away from Lake State and claim the set and match, winning set three 25-17.
Lake Superior was led by sophomore outside hitter Amanda Reid with 11 kills and 11 points. Junior libero Paige Gotham and junior libero and defensive specialist Mikala Williams were tops in digs with 23 and 11 respectively. Junior setter Lauren Lukasik had 14 assists, while senior setter Madison Castle had 13.
Leading the way for the T'Wolves was Sydney Greulich, who had 15 points to go with 10 kills. Hailey Jones had 29 assists. Three Timberwolves had double digit digs, including Allison Getty (15), Brenna Murphy (15) and Mackenzie Kelper (10).
Lake Superior hits the road next week to face off against Davenport on Friday, October 6th, and Purdue Northwest the following day. The next home match for the Lakers will take place Friday, October 27th against Northern Michigan. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Bud Cooper Gymnasium.
