UNIVERSITY CENTER -- The SVSU Volleyball team hosted Lake Superior State University on Tuesday (Sep. 11) in a mid-week league contest. The Cardinals competed the entire match, taking down a tough Laker team, 3-2.
The Cardinals now head to a 2-1 lead in conference, with a 7-3 overall record. The Lakers fall to 1-10 overall, 0-3 in GLIAC play.
Match Breakdown
Emily Friesl brought the heat once again, opening the contest with six kills in the set one victory over LSSU, 25-22. Tamara Heller contributed for the defense, leading the team with five digs.
In set two, Freshman Maria Vukaj stepped into the outside role once again, leading the team with four kills. Although, the Lakers offense was almost unstoppable, posting 15 kills with only three errors. Even with the Cardinals leading in kills with 16, the six errors ended up costing them the set, falling 25-23. Lake State tied up the match 1-1 heading into the locker room break.
LSSU's outside, Amanda Reid, continued to lead her team into the third set, totalling her kills to 12. The Lakers pushed ahead quickly in this contest, posting a .211 attack percentage while holding SVSU to a zero. The 10 errors cost the team the set on top of the low error Lake State team, giving the Lakers a 2-1 advantaged after a 25-18 victory.
Although, Saginaw Valley was not ready to give up just yet — The Cardinals came out swinging, earning 13 kills with Vukaj leading once again with five kills, but more impressively, the team notched four blocks in the set led by Friesl and H. Tabit who each tallied two. Friesl also earned a solo block, pushing the Lakers to their worst attacking set of the match, hitting a -.154. Saginaw Valley took the win 25-8 and headed into the fifth set with determination.
It was a close battle between the two teams in the final set of the night, but the final play of the night showed the defensive improvement of the Cardinals with yet another block by H. Tabit and Friesl. SVSU took the set win, 15-10 and the match, 3-2.
Inside the Boxscore
- H. Tabit earned Player of the Match accolades after posting 42 assists, but more impressively, three block assists and one solo block.
- Friesl led the team once again in kills, posting 14 and added five block assists with one solo block, as well.
- Abbie Toland led the Cardinal defense with 29 digs, matching her career high previously set in 2017 against Michigan Tech.
- Heller earned a season high of 22 digs. She added three kills as well.
- Vukaj posted 13 kills and 17 digs in tonights match, her seventh double-double of the season.
- Lexi Lascowski posted five kills from the middle with no errors and two block assists.
From Head Coach Will Stanton
Up Next...
Saginaw Valley hits the road for a pair of league matchups in the South Division. The Cards play at Ashland Friday (Sep. 14) in a 7:00 p.m. matchup before taking on Wayne State Saturday (Sep. 15) in a 2:00 p.m. match.
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