Northwest Wayne News

The Wayne State University volleyball team is set to conclude a four-match road series this week. The Warriors, who hold an 8-3 overall record and are 2-2 in the GLIAC, will play at No. 18 Grand Valley State on Thursday at 6 p.m., followed by a match at Purdue Northwest on Friday with a 7 p.m. eastern start.

Head coach Tim Koth commented on the upcoming games: "This will be another challenging road trip for us. We are working to be better and look forward to putting it into play on Thursday and Friday."

Freshman Katerina Stout has shown strong performance recently, particularly during matches against Davenport and No. 12 Ferris State last week. She recorded a .543 hitting percentage with 21 kills and only two errors over 35 attacks, along with five total blocks—three solo and two assisted. In Wayne State's first eleven matches of the season, Stout has maintained a .331 hitting percentage, which places her fourth in the league. She has also accumulated 62 kills, just 21 errors from 124 swings, and totaled 41 blocks (tied for second in the conference), averaging 1.14 blocks per set (third in GLIAC, forty-sixth nationally), with thirty-four block assists (third) and seven solo blocks (fifth).

Senior Kayla Giroux currently holds a .392 hitting percentage for the season—second best in the GLIAC and eighteenth nationally. Her individual match hitting percentage has dipped below .200 only twice; in her other nine appearances she has hit at least .357.

Junior Kayla Dulgar recently surpassed the milestone of 2,500 career assists (now at 2,523). She ranks twenty-second nationally for assists per set (10.26) and forty-ninth for total assists (400), standing second and fourth respectively within the league rankings. Dulgar’s career assist total is seventh all-time in program history, just one hundred eighty-four away from entering the top five.

Grand Valley State enters Thursday’s contest having won six consecutive matches under head coach Jason Johnson, who holds an overall record of one hundred wins to thirty-four losses over five years. This season GVSU leads Division II teams in several categories: thirteenth in blocks per set (2.58), sixteenth in hitting percentage (.263), twenty-second in opponent hitting percentage (.132), thirty-ninth in kills per set (13.48), and forty-third in assists per set (12.3). Redshirt junior middle Brianna Stawski leads both her team and conference with national rankings of fourteenth for blocks per set (1.38), seventeenth for hitting percentage (.398), and thirty-fourth for total blocks (55).

Purdue Northwest is led by fourth-year head coach Sean Douglas with an overall record of thirty-seven wins to fifty-nine losses; his team starts this week at six wins and four losses overall—including three victories out of four GLIAC contests so far this season. Nationally they rank twenty-fourth for blocks per set (2.41) and twenty-fifth for service aces per set (2.26)—ranking second and first respectively within their league.

Among individual performers at Purdue Northwest are senior setter Marina Gronkiewicz—who stands eighth among Division II leaders with an average of .76 aces per set as well as first place within her conference—and sophomore middle Kennedy Rowzee who is ranked twenty-fourth nationally with an average of 1.25 blocks per set, also placing second within their league.