GRAND VALLEY STATE HEADED TO NATIONAL SEMIFINALS FOR FIFTH TIME IN SCHOOL HISTORY

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Lakers of Grand Valley State (33-3) advanced to their fifth-ever NCAA Championship semifinal game by downing Armstrong Atlantic (28-7) 3-0 in the National quarterfinals in St. Paul, Minn. (25-19, 25-23, 25-17).  Grand Valley faces the victor of the Concordia University/New Haven match at 7:30 pm on Friday evening. While both offenses had troubles keeping the ball inside the lines, the Lakers managed to put down 43 kills to AASU's 25.  Grand Valley hit .193 on the night and Armstrong Atlantic hit at a .058 clip.  Senior middle blocker Danielle Alexander helped keep the Laker season alive with a match high 12 kills and three blocks (1s, 2a).  She did not commit a single error and posted a .522 hitting average. The teams had similar game plans from the serving line, staying aggressive to keep their opposition from gaining good looks on offense.  The Lakers overcame 11 serving errors in the sweeping win.  Armstrong Atlantic showed a greater blocking game in the match with seven team stops to GVSU's four.  Casie Richards, a freshman middle, had six block assists for the Pirate squad. In addition to her blocking success, Richards was second on the team with six kills  Rindy Vidovich topped the roster with eight kills and also added nine digs and four blocks.  Marina Marinova had a team high 11 digs. Grand Valley State's Alexander was the only player in the match to enter double figures for kills (12).  The next highest performance for GVSU was Lauren Reber with nine.  Reber came up just short of a double double, adding ten digs to her line.  The defensive leader was Meredith Young with 13 digs.  Jamie Ashmore had assists on 31 of the team's 43 kills. Please click here for complete match notes.