UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. - The Saginaw Valley State University volleyball team opened Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) play Friday (9/10) with a 3-1 victory over the visiting Michigan Tech University Huskies.  The victory puts the Cardinals at 3-2 overall on the season with a 1-0 mark in the GLIAC while the Huskies fall to 1-4 overall and 0-1 in conference play.

The Cardinals took the first set by a score of 25-19.  Tech bounced-back strong in the second frame, gaining a 25-15 victory to even the match at one set apiece.  SVSU would then close-out the contest, winning the last two sets by scores of 25-16 and 25-18, respectively.

The Cardinal offense had a strong showing on the night, hitting .314 as a squad, thanks to the great setting of Chili's "Player of the Match" Sam Breault (Bad Axe, Mich.), who posted a career-high 52 assists in the match, besting her previous career-high by 11.  Katie Fitzgerald (Whitby, Ont./Sinclair SS) had a huge night as well, making good on 15-of-21 attacks for a hitting percentage of .714 on the night.  Annie Buxton (Aurora, Ont./Aurora SS) had 16 kills, three aces, seven digs and a pair of blocks while hitting at a .375 clip in the contest.  Jessica Treiber (Sebewaing, Mich./USA HS) also had double-digit kills, posting 11.  Laura Ward (White Lake, Mich./Lakeland HS) had a match-high 17 digs defensively for the Cards, who also had 14 total blocks against the Huskies. 

SVSU returns to action tomorrow, Sep. 11, to face the Northern Michigan University Wildcats in a 2:00 pm match-up.  The last meeting between the teams came in last year's GLIAC Semifinals, when the Cardinals defeated the Wildcats by a score of 3-0.  Northern entered play Friday with a 4-0 overall record.