Northwest Wayne News

The Wayne State University volleyball team is approaching the end of its 2024 regular season. The Warriors, holding a record of 13-11 overall and 10-4 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), are set to face Grand Valley State and Roosevelt on their final road trip. On Thursday, they will play against No. 12 Grand Valley State in Allendale at 6 p.m., followed by a match against Roosevelt in Chicago on Friday at 7 p.m.

"Last regular season road trip," stated head coach Tim Koth. "We are working to get a little bit better each day, and we will need to be against a strong GVSU squad, and an improving RU team."

Wayne State has secured a home court match for the quarterfinals of the GLIAC Tournament scheduled for Wednesday, November 20th at Matthaei. The seeding for the Warriors remains undecided; they could be either third or fourth seed facing Parkside or Michigan Tech.

In recent encounters with Grand Valley State, Wayne State lost three consecutive matches for the first time since 2016. Despite this, two-time First Team All-GLIAC performer Kayla Giroux delivered an impressive performance with a personal best of 23 kills and only five errors on 43 attempts. Her efforts contributed to the team's hitting percentage of .267 with Molly Miller, Leigha Baldwin, and Katie Smith also achieving double-digit kills.

Against Roosevelt, Wayne State hit .330 with significant contributions from Giroux again who maintained her form with another stellar performance over two matches hitting .420 overall. Molly Miller added to the offensive strength with 12 kills while Katie Smith recorded seven.

Wayne State's schedule has included five ranked opponents this season such as Grand Valley State twice, Ferris State twice, and Missouri-St. Louis during the Midwest Region Crossover—marking it as one of their most challenging seasons since facing seven ranked teams in 2015.