HOUGHTON, Mich. - The 2017 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) opener for the Lake Superior State University women's volleyball team saw the Lakers come out on the short end of a 3-1 road loss (17-25, 22-25, 25-23, 21-25) to Michigan Tech this Friday (Sept. 15) at MTU's Student Development Complex Gym in Houghton, Mich.
Lake Superior State concluded the four-set conference match hitting at a .148 clip while Michigan Tech registered a .200 attack percentage. MTU also would claim a 66-44 advantage in kills while LSSU controlled action at the net with 26 block assists and one solo to the Huskies' 10 block assists.
Host Michigan Tech started the contest by connecting on a blistering .326 of its attacks en route to prevailing in the opening set, 25-17. The Lakers were down most of the first set, but managed to get within four points at 18-14 in the late going before the Huskies went on a 5-1 run to bump their lead up to 23-15 and claim the win.
The next set saw Lake State hit for a match-best .229 percentage with 11 kills on 35 attempts. However, MTU managed to pull out the victory as the Huskies snapped a 7-7 tie with three consecutive points and withstood a late Lakers' rally to hang on for a 2-0 match advantage.
In the third set, LSSU bounced back to tally a 25-23 decision as the Lakers picked up a point on consecutive MTU attack errors to break a 22-all deadlock and force a fourth set. Following the pair of Huskies' miscues, Lake State held a slim edge at 24-23 but was able to come out victorious after senior outside hitter Jen Marren hammered the ball over the net into the Huskies' side for the set-cliniching point.
The fourth set was good for LSSU as the Lakers hit for .151 but was just a little better for MTU with the Huskies notching a .220 attack efficiency rate. The set was knotted up at 12 before Michigan Tech took the lead for good with three unanswered points and would never relinquish its lead. A six-point lead (20-14) by MTU was cut into half at 22-19 only to have the host team take a 24-20 advantage and on the verge of match point. A kill by senior outside hitter Brooke Williams gave the Lakers a point back but it was a case of too little too late as MTU's Mariah Sherman tallied the decisive point on a kill.
For Lake State, junior libero Paige Gotham extended her double-figure digs match streak to seven straight with a personal season-high 32 digs to lead all players. Junior setter Lauren Lukasik generated her second double-double of this fall with 10 digs to go along with 25 assists. MTU, which featured five individuals in the double-digit digs department paced by Ellie Heinonen's 23 total, would post a 90-73 advantage for the match.
Offensively, sophomore outside hitter Amanda Reid posted her third double-digit kills performance of this season with a 14-kills output and was joined in double figures by Brooke Williams, who totaled 10 kills and stretched her current double-digit kills match string to three consecutive. Reid also was productive on the defensive side with nine digs and a pair of block assists. Williams' nine block assists was a match high. Michigan Tech's MacAulay Peterson earned top distinction in the match with 19 kills and was supported by Mariah Sherman's 17 along with Olivia Ghormley's 12-kills output.
Senior middle blocker Karlee Weissend compiled seven block assists for LSSU and sophomore middle blocker Caitlyn Kane contributed six block assists along with the team's lone block solo.
With the loss, Lake Superior State's overall record drops to 1-6 and 0-1 in the GLIAC while Michigan Tech improved to 6-3 overall and 1-0 in conference match play.
The Lakers, who are coached by Dave Schmidlin, will try to even their conference mark this Saturday (Sept. 16) on the road against the Northern Michigan Wildcats in Marquette, Mich. First serve of the GLIAC match is scheduled for 3 p.m. (EDT) at NMU's Vandament Arena.