Nov. 29, 2007

Box Score

#5 Grand Valley State's season came to an end on Thursday afternoon as the Lakers fell to #8 West Texas A&M, 3-2 (27-30, 30-24, 30-27, 26-30, 22-20) in the Elite Eight in Topeka, Kan. The Lakers conclude the year with a 33-4 overall record, tying the third most wins in school history. West Texas A&M (36-7) advances to the semifinals against California (Pa.).

West Texas A&M took an early 3-0 lead in the first game and then pushed it to 8-3. Grand Valley cut the lead to 9-7, but the Lady Buffs pushed their lead back to 12-8. West Texas A&M went on a 3-0 run to make the score, 21-16, but then the Lakers went on a 6-1 run of their own to tie the game at 22-22. GVSU took its biggest lead of the game, 27-23 and West Texas A&M cut the lead to two points, 28-26. The Lakers scored the next two out of three points to win game one, 30-27. Grand Valley recorded 18 kills and a .308 hitting percentage in game one, while West Texas A&M hit .267.

"That's usually our goal coming out, winning game one," said senior libero Allyson Riley. "And we came out strong."

The Lady Buffs went up 3-1 in game two and then went up 7-4. Grand Valley tied the game at 12-12, but West Texas A&M went back ahead, 18-14. The Lady Buffs took a five point lead, 25-20 and then took a 28-23 lead. West Texas A&M scored the next two out of three points to tie the match at 1-1 by winning game two, 30-24. GVSU tallied 18 kills and posted an outstanding .441 hitting percentage, but it wasn't enough to take the win.

West Texas A&M jumped out to a commanding 7-1 lead in game three and then went up, 11-4. The Lady Buffs took a 17-10 lead and then went up, 26-19. Grand Valley went on a run of its own to cut the large Lady Buff lead to 27-25. GVSU then scored the next two points to trail 28-27, but West Texas A&M won the final two points to win game three, 30-27. The Lady Buffs hit .217 in the game, while the Lakers hit just .176.

The Lady Buffs went ahead again in game four, taking a 3-0 lead, but the Lakers came back to tie the game at 3-3. The two teams battled back and forth tying the game four times before West Texas A&M took an 11-9 lead. Once again the teams tied four more times and the Lady Buffs took an 18-15 lead. The Lakers tied the game at 18-18 and then they went on a 3-0 run to go up, 21-18. GVSU pushed its lead to 25-22, but West Texas A&M cut the lead to two points, 26-24. The Lakers scored the next two points to take a 28-24 lead. The Lady Buffs took the next two points of their own, but the Lakers closed out the game, 30-26, to tie the match at two games apiece. The Lakers posted an amazing .447 team hitting percentage, tallying 21 kills and just four errors in the game.

The fifth and deciding game proved to be a thriller as the Lakers started out the game with a 3-1 lead. The Lady Buffs tied the game at 4-4, but GVSU then went up, 6-4. West Texas A&M tied the game at 7-7 and the Lakers then went on a 3-0 run to take a 10-7 lead. The Lady Buffs tied the game at 12-12 and then took their first lead of the game as they went up 14-12. GVSU held off the Lady Buffs from winning the match by scoring the next two points and tying the game at 14-14. West Texas A&M went ahead by one point three times, but the Lakers battled back to tie the game each time. GVSU tied the game at 18-18 and took a 19-18 lead, but the Lady Buffs tied it back up again at 19-19. The Lakers went ahead, 20-19, but West Texas A&M scored the next three points to win game five, 22-20 and the match, 3-2. GVSU hit .209 in the game and West Texas A&M hit just .186.

"It was just a great volleyball match, and believe it or not, I probably won't lose much sleep over that because I think our kids did everything they could to win that match," said head coach Deanne Scanlon.

"It could have just kept going on and on and you knew it was going to be whoever got in system at the end on a rally was going to win it," added Scanlon.

Grand Valley State hit .302 as a team in the match, while West Texas A&M had a .250 hitting percentage. Both teams tallied six service aces, but the Lakers had 16 service errors and the Lady Buffs had just five. Both teams also had 16 assisted blocks, but GVSU had five more blocking and four more ball handling errors.

Freshman middle blocker Rebeccah Rapin led the Lakers as she recorded a career-high 24 kills and five assisted blocks, while hitting .444. Senior middle blocker Erica Vandekopple ended her four-year stint as a Laker with a career-high 23 kills, four digs, three assisted blocks, two aces, and hit an outstanding .526. Junior middle blocker Danielle Alexander posted 22 kills, a .385 hitting percentage, six digs, and three assisted blocks, while junior outside hitter Lauren Reber added 11 kills, 13 digs, and two aces. Junior setter Jamie Ashmore recorded a career-high 76 assists, tied her career-high with 23 digs, and added six kills and three assisted blocks. Senior libero Allyson Riley also ended her career as a Laker, posting 28 digs and sophomore outside hitter Meredith Young had 10 digs, three kills, and three assists.

Numerous Lakers set records this season. Senior Erica Vandekopple's .367 hitting percentage ranks fifth on GVSU's single-season list, while junior Danielle Alexander's 122 assisted blocks ties for seventh best. Freshman Rebeccah Rapin's 136 assisted blocks ties for fourth best, while her .350 hitting percentage ties for ninth best on the Lakers single-season list. Senior Allyson Riley recorded 686 digs this season, which is second best in a season behind her 713 in 2005. Her 5.76 digs per game is the most in Laker history. Junior Jamie Ashmore's 1,407 assists and her 10.82 assists per game are both the ninth best in GVSU's single-season history.

Five student-athletes also moved into GVSU's career leaders list. Vandekopple's career .319 hitting percentage ties for seventh best in Laker history, while Rapin's .350 hitting percentage ranks second. Riley ends her career with the most digs (2,488) in school history and her 188 aces is seventh best. Alexander has posted 245 career assisted blocks, which is 10th best and Ashmore's 3,748 assists is sixth and her 154 aces is 10th best.