Grand Valley waltzed into their match on Thursday with three straight wins... but they left with four. They came out on top against the Harding Skippers by a score of 3-1. This was payback for the Mustangs, who suffered a 3-1 loss the last time these two teams met.
Grand Valley had a slow start but a hot finish: after dropping the first set, they turned around to win the next three. The final score came out to 19-25, 25-13, 25-18, 25-16.
Grand Valley's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Nadia Patterson led the charge by getting 23 digs. Patterson is on a roll when it comes to digs, as she's now had 11 or more in the last eight games she's played dating back to last season. Another player making a difference was Rylee Rogers, who hit 87% for 43 kills17 digs.
Grand Valley was lethal from the service line and finished the game with 12 aces. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now served at least 12 aces in five consecutive matchups.
Despite the loss, Harding still got an impressive performance from Ashlie Kastl, who had 18 digs and two aces.
Grand Valley is on a roll lately: they've won seven of their last eight games, which provided a massive bump to their 10-6 record this season. As for Harding, they now have a losing record at 8-9.
Grand Valley will head out to challenge Pymatuning Valley at 6:30 p.m. on Monday. As for Harding, they will look to defend their home court on Saturday against Mathews at 2:15 p.m. Harding is facing Mathews at the right time seeing as Mathews is stuck on a three-game losing streak.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
