HOUGHTON, Mich. - After spending the last month on the road, the Huskies came back to the SDC Gym for the first of three GLIAC matches in Houghton. The 321 Michigan Tech fans that joined them did not go home disappointed. Nine Huskies recorded kills en route to a 3-1 victory over the Lake Superior State Lakers on Friday (Oct. 23). With the victory, The Huskies are in a three-way tie for second place in the GLIAC North along with Ferris State, and Saginaw Valley at 8-4 in the conference. Tech's overall record improved to 12-11 overall. At the other end of the spectrum, the Lakers fell to 3-20 overall and 2-10 in Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference play.

Despite the 3-1 victory, the sets were much too close for comfort for first year head coach Orlando Gonzalez.

"LSSU was hungry tonight, and I don't think that we came out ready to play at first," said Gonzalez. "We came out with a win at the end of the day, but we have to play better than that."

Tech controlled much of set one, but had to hold off a furious Laker rally to claim victory, 25-23. While set one was a one sided affair for the most part, set two was a back-and-forth game, with neither team being able to string together points. The Huskies, though, found their groove late in the set and took a 2-0 lead with a tally of 25-20. The third set featured a bit of a lineup change with senior Alison Greene starting and taking over set-up control from teammate Madeline Haben. The Lakers were able to exploit a crack in the defense of the Black and Gold to edge them out 25-23, and make the score 2-1. The fourth and deciding set was much like the second - all the way down to the 25-20 score which gave the hosts the win.

"Alison showed some great leadership out there, and helped us to that win," stated Gonzalez. "We started Veronica in the libero position mainly so some of our other players could give their arms a rest."

From her libero position in sets one and two, the senior from Battle Creek, Mich. recorded 16 digs on the evening to go along with two kills, an assist, and a pair of service aces. Sophomore Kathleen Storm also showed some of her talent on the court, gaining six kills, a pair of digs, and a block in the four set match.

"Kathleen has been doing very nice things as of late," said Gonzalez. "It started in the GLIAC-GLVC Crossover tournament, where she had some really good outings, and it was good to see her continue her strong play into tonight."

Sophomore Kristine Sexton led the way for the home squad, posting 17 kills to go along with a dig and a pair of blocks during the match. Rounding out the main scoring trio for the Black and Gold were a pair of seniors. Kaari Nevanen garnered a double-double on the evening, by way of 13 kills and 15 digs. The Duluth, Minn. native also added an assist and a pair of service aces in the effort. Alicia Schneider had 10 kills on the night, and those were complemented by three digs and a service ace.

Madeline Haben led the way in the set up category with 37 assists. Green came in and had 22 assists of her own as the duo combined for 59 of the 61 assists for the Huskies.

The Huskies will have a real fight on their hands tomorrow (Oct. 24) when they welcome the Cardinals from Saginaw Valley State to town.

"We have to come out with the right mindset tomorrow," insisted Gonzalez. "We need to bring our "A" game and capatilize on all of the chances that we get. Saginaw doesn't give many teams second chances."

The match is slated to begin at 4:00 p.m.