GVSSR - 03/20/23 - Full Episode

>> Hi again, everybody.

And welcome back to an all-new episode of the Grand Valley State Sports reported wgu.

I'm your host Peoples-Jones and here's what we have coming up for you tonight.

Jimmy issue women's basketball have a great run in the NCAA Tournament will wrap up the season at today's episode.

Gvsu Lacrosse put their weekend home in Allendale and Laker.

Baseball rattled off their 6th win in a row on Friday.

Lockett in Laker Nation as the Grand Valley State Sports report starts right now.

>> For the second consecutive year, the TV issue, women's basketball team won over 30 games Grand Valley when the Gliac and the conference tournament.

The Lakers season came to an end in Ashland, Ohio last week in the regional championship.

Joining me now is head coach Mike Williams.

Tell us more about that in the season as a whole coach.

Welcome.

And that's a tough one.

I mean, you're your regional championship berth into the Elite 8 on the line.

But it's the Ashlynn Eagles.

Number one team in the country undefeated, you know, only lose by 3.

That's a tough one to get past.

>> You know, it's it's tough.

It really is.

You don't certainly can't take away from what you did all year long, you know, to to win 30 games, you know, used to be 20 was a standard.

Now we've got, you know, said he's been the number here 2 times in a row to win the conference.

And and I think a really good clear conference.

And when that conference tournament and any other region tournament, you play Wesley Week has not buying that one.

They played really well.

We didn't play poorly.

We had some missed assignments in that first at that we corrected.

But then, you know, you beat a really good jury team lost to Ashland over time.

They come back and play the number.

No number 2 into the country to make plain number one ranked in the country.

And you know, with that at all and I think the better team than us, but not much.

And we played 10 times.

We're going to get for, you know.

>> 61 58 was the final score.

Ashlynn winning that in the regional championship game as the Lakers season comes to an end.

But it talk a little bit more about the region on the just trying to give context, not you know, you're not making excuses, but it was it was brutal.

I mean, it's a really good conferences that are meeting in that region, which I were talking about.

Mitchell about this football.

Top 4 seeds in the region of football could have been number one seeds in the other regions to me.

>> I wasn't in basketball.

It's very difficult.

Well, I I think there's no question.

You look around the country and, you know, these teams have played so many teams play each other.

You watch him on film and and there's a lot of good teams don't get me wrong with with a consistent body work.

And I think that the top 3 teams not region separate could have easily been should have been number one seeds in different regions, you know, and it may be OK, maybe not.

You know, maybe we're not the number one scene region, but certainly we would be playing the number one 2.19, the country back to back its soul.

You know, it's just it is what it is.

You battle through it.

But you can't let that take away from what but these ladies have done and, you know, the coaching staff as a whole, we just did a great job this year and you can't.

It says you can't measure on the elite 8 and you do.

That's kind of what the bar is.

But at the end the day, I think we really we had a great season.

>> Absolutely.

About 31 in 3, the overall record for Grand Valley.

Just a few numbers in this game for Grand Valley against Ashland, talking about how close it was to lose by 3.

But Mike, you only have 11 turnovers in this game, which anybody who knows playing Ashland in their gym with the press, they like a lot of pressure.

And and you feel that as a player only turned it over 11 times, you force 8 by Ashland, you out rebounded Ashlynn.

You're able to hit about the same in terms of threes.

They got about 2 more there.

But just a really good job of statistically so close to the edge.

You but boy are right there with them.

>> Yeah, and you know, I thought we did a good job in that 1st half that we really prepared on both ends of all.

You know, I think they had 7 turnovers that 1st half, only one.

The second.

I think we had 2 or 3 in the 1st half, not made a second, but it was kind of like, you know, I thought they made some a really good adjustment at halftime in space.

The floor on us said keeping that highlights with oppose it did to us for stretches.

No question.

I thought we just after that.

And we will find that that now that stretch Curtis, I think we got down by 8 or 9 points and didn't really recover.

And so, you know, looking back, yeah, we you know, it's something they don't do.

We probably should be prepared for it.

Probably.

She got something just a little quicker.

But at the end the day I like you said you didn't have that at least the turnovers.

And that was a great job offensively.

They just can get the ball in the basket.

>> Yeah.

One final thought on this win this game kind of turned in the middle portion of it.

The Lakers outscored Ashland by 10 in the 2nd quarter and the national came back and outscored Grande Valley.

22 to 9 in the 3rd quarter.

So that's kind of where the game was swaying back and forth as you fall.

But let's talk about the seniors for a moment to these ladies that meant so much to your program.

A been a great part of things.

>> You know, we had 3 really good ones.

And yeah, you mentioned he swing who came in.

We're work every day.

Just brought a great effort.

Great energy.

A great team player.

Unfortunate for Chris.

She a great career.

Just the last, you know, it had the the ACL injury and then this year kind of battling back after to play last year, kind of in that spot is the scene.

And then all sudden have them in this cause tear.

It was out for that, you know, a couple months there and just, you know, had to have to kind of find your place again.

But every day in practice do ever to temper team went in.

Those are the players.

You get players like that.

You're going to let you talk about Hannah.

Cool, awesome Emily Group together because they both, you know, fifth-year seniors and they didn't play a lot of freshmen sophomores.

You look at the minutes and he hardly played in getting the game and we talk to players all the time to work while you wait, stay the course and the ball that and then the third-year head all-conference years first team all-conference players and and just kept getting better every year.

And Hannah last year.

Little had an injury bug as well.

Kind of set it back within this year.

Emily is a first team.

All-conference player has a a second team all-conference player.

But all 3 were just I thought tremendous leaders in their own way in.

You cannot.

It's really, really high.

Should see.

You can't.

But it's really, really hard to win without seniors, not a body and also all through those planes were brought in.

>> Absolutely.

As Grand Valley was the top over 30 or more wins 2 straight years and leadership at the top is a big part of that.

Speaking of which want to get your thoughts, Mike, I know you won't point the stuff out, but I want to for you 200 to win as we talked about this year for you, a big one, but also coach of the year in the conference.

And that's not just your efforts either.

So that help help folks understand what goes into that, why that's important?

Well, >> we've got tremendous staff.

I you know, I think it's the you can you do find Seth like this, a division 2, you know, we've got, you know, coach, there's been here the whole time.

It is equally as important, if not more important in the success we've had tonight, then because he kind of started this program jonelle inside the process.

And just, you know, we kind of split the duties up, as you know, coaches a lot of the offense and late game hits.

And and, you know, I can work the defense.

And, you know, Coach Park also has been a great addition, probably not doing as much as she not be as capable of doing because both of us have such a major wall in the coaching part of it in the next knows, but, you know, work with out of bounds or personnel scouts.

And I think just the combination of the camaraderie, all 3 of us have with our team it just that dynamic.

And you don't it's you don't at this level when with this much success, if you don't have great people helping you and there is it's just it's incredible job they do.

>> Well, incredible job.

No question.

You and your team.

31 wins conference title conference tournament title following in the regional championship.

Mike, congratulations on a great years.

Fantastic and thank you for each and every week talking to us and giving your time.

We appreciate that.

All right.

Steve was great coming down here each and every day.

All right.

We'll be right back.

As the Grand Valley State Sports report continues at Wgu TVs.

You baseball is red hot recording.

Their 6th straight win last week in a battle with Salem University.

They're out of West Virginia.

The Lakers are now 10 4 and coach.

Jamie, to tell you is here with the latest update on his team.

Jamie, welcome.

Thanks for having me.

We'll always want to talk baseball and certainly as we get into spring weather is getting better.

You guys are on a roll here.

10 in 4 won 6 straight.

So tell me you're kind of give us a an overview briefly of the year to this point.

Your thoughts on the start of the where you are sure what we started off in Indianapolis and we try to schedule.

We always try to schedule some originally competitive games early.

>> And we played Indianapolis and they're pretty good team.

So they took care of us.

They just 3 games to none.

But we still played pretty well.

There's a lot of positive draw that and we compete a little bit.

So that's that's good to see.

And, you know, I wasn't sure how to taking on 3, usually get pretty frustrated as a coach and certainly want to win those games.

But moving forward, this 47 games left on the schedule.

So it's what can we do next to get a little bit better so that we can compete the remainder of our schedule.

And we went to Florida and we went 9, 1, and played really well.

We lost her.

We one, I'm sorry.

We want a lot of games late, which was a great sign to see just guys and compete and grind.

So we're down a couple arms, had a couple injuries and our guys continue to battle.

So it was awesome to see.

I'm really proud of our guys for that.

>> Yeah, it takes a mental toughness.

Doesn't it to for players, particularly if you didn't start well yourself individually to push through that and know I got a long season.

I got more opportunities.

But but you don't want to press.

So how do you go about that?

>> You know, helping a lot of challenge been in the north and it's it's reality.

It's not an excuse.

It's not you know anything other than what it is.

We don't get outside were confined to a batting cage indoors and we make the best of it.

We're kind of the king of modification within our sport because we're probably the only sport that doesn't get to simulate scrimmage settings and game settings until we get in the game.

So a lot of it is, you know, we're working as hard as we can and doors to try to prep for that.

But once we got outside the first day, the sea breaking balls, the first day that you see anything live out of the pitcher's hand with with no element or, you know, within the nature's elements that the batting cages or artificial lighting, it's it's always a, you know, a quick adjustment.

So it took us that first weekend, but it can be challenging.

But the quicker we can adjust to that, the better off we'll be.

And you kind of alluded to it earlier.

It does take a little bit of time for the bats to get gone.

And that's exactly what's happened so far.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

Will 6 in a row to mention 9 out of 10.

So let's talk about what you're able to play because again, whether this time of year is huge factor.

So you're able to play Salem University last week.

It was an 8 inning affair and you win this 7 to 3.

It was a little bit of what you touched on already.

Some really good pitching.

You've got some good hitting and what we've got 6 guys here with multiple hits in this game.

7 runs.

So.

>> Really a nice performance or yes.

And Nick Rutkowski was our starting pitcher that game and he's had 4 starts and he's been really good in all 4 of them.

Even the game that we had lost, we just didn't get much run support.

That was the first game of the year.

But he's still in really well today.

And we got some timely hitting, got some timely hitting.

There's some guys that have stepped up that I'm one of them.

Is the program a Dominican or to complain shortstop for us and he's been playing really well are infielders.

We have 3 other guys that are kind of in the mix and were able to work in the DH role with them, too.

But 4 of our top 5 hitters right now are our middle infield and then, you know, 3rd baseman.

So that's great to see from a coaching perspective.

It's as some guys stepping up and those are the guys stepping up to an account.

You know, late in games.

Jonas ago, Branson's had I think 3 go ahead, runs late and actually our last 3 games.

He said, go ahead and winning RBI singles or doubles.

Yeah, I hope so.

Pretty impressive.

Yeah.

Clutch hitting.

>> About the defense.

How do you how to even assess that this time of year?

Because like you said, it's hard, you know, get outside.

And so, you know, you've got to adjust to that very quickly.

How is that going?

>> And I would say with the infield were relatively deep there.

And it's interesting because we put on the field game, one of our season isn't going to be the starting lineup for the remainder of the season.

And it's been kind, you know, revolving door to some degree within, you know, 4, 5, 6, guys.

And, you know, some guys take off and they performance.

It's hard to take them out of line up enough that you want to.

But it's good to see.

We went into the season thinking Connor Schulman was going to be our our starting shortstop.

And with in game 2, we gave aid and then can board a shot and he's kind of rolled with it.

And it's a it's a really good combination with Connor now second base and in the neck and or shortstop.

So they work really well together.

And it's it's been a combination that works.

>> Oh, absolutely.

Grande Valley, the overall mark of 10 4.

And so let's preview here.

You've got again.

Weather permitting Hillsdale is coming up this week scheduled for Wednesday.

You and I talking off camera that may be adjusted and then the ugly acts season's going to open up.

You got Purdue Northwest on the weekend in Saginaw, neutral site before you take on Saginaw Valley and a double header as well.

>> So the next 4, I think 4 weeks are going to be pretty busy for us.

We'll play midweek, which will be a regional game, either verse a Hillsdale that we have one versus northward as well and then sprinkled in with a game against Davenport 2.

So the way that our schedule works, this year's interesting because there's less teams.

So it's 6 teams.

We're trying to play as many games within the conference as we can.

So we added these pods at the beginning of the season.

So on Friday, you know, the home team will play and then the other 2 visiting teams will play Saturday neutral site, double header.

And then the home team will play the team that they didn't play on Friday on Sunday.

So just to try to get more games and still balance out the schedule, is there some competitive fairness and there it should be interesting work around the excited to see what happens with that.

>> The TV issue, Lakers dot com follow it as you again, game times dates.

All of that.

The you know, subject to the weather.

Well, in our final moments, you know the season as a whole everybody Grande Valley, really good program.

Certainly Davenport with Ugly Act.

When state you guys are all battling for the top spot, do you think?

>> Yeah, there's an Wednesday it's loaded with pitching in Davenport's really well-balanced and has won the conference last couple years.

So we definitely have our hands full moving forward.

But, you know, I continue to push up on our guys.

It doesn't really matter who's in the other dugout.

It matters how we progress and how we get better.

It's not necessarily trying to match a, you know, talent level or energy levels of an opponent.

It's more about playing the best that we possibly can every single day regardless of our opponent.

And I think that's where we make the next step.

>> Yeah, it's a baseball so tough.

It's a it's managing failure to some to create, you know, as a hitter.

How do you deal with that as a pitcher execution focus?

All of it.

It's tough.

And the weather is a is a big factor as well.

But you guys appear to really be a turning the corner here and getting into some really good actions.

So we appreciate it.

Jamie, thanks.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

But well, we'll be right back as the Grand Valley State Sports report continues right here.

Wgu right now.

It's lacrosse team welcomed Maryville and Mercyhurst Allen bill this past week to issue split the Games.

And we welcome in head coach McKenzie Lawler to break it all down for us now.

Mackenzie, welcome.

Great to have you here.

Thank you.

So the record out for 4 overall split as we mentioned.

So we'll talk first about Maryville and then Mercyhurst the second of the 2 opponents.

Your thoughts, though, in general on the week?

Good bad, which you've noticed in takeaways.

>> I think we are really excited with the performance that we put against Indianapolis the weekend before at home.

You know, a one-goal loss to the number one team in the country and we're excited to capitalize on that momentum.

I think we started strong against Maryville.

16 shots in the 1st quarter is sort of unheard of.

But it was really disappointing that we can put those away.

And I think we let them stay in the game.

And then when things got a little tight, you know, we didn't respond soon enough.

I'm kind of ran out of time at the end of the game to make that comeback.

>> The USO of 15, 12, the final score there against Maryville.

They're undefeated 8 know after this.

When we're talking about the shots, you have an advantage.

35 26 unit talking off camera how, you know, sometimes that all shots with the same for the same quality and in the 2nd quarter is kind of where they started to really separate.

Wasn't at the 7 to advantage there.

>> Yeah, again, we had great looks, but a lot of our shots just went wide and it wasn't, you know, necessarily making their defense or their goalie earned the save or the turnover.

We just weren't finishing on very, very good luck.

So I think it's frustrating for offense to do.

You know, 95% of their job and work really hard to have a great opportunity.

But then we just weren't able to capitalize.

And I think Maryville really got some momentum going in that 2nd quarter.

They want more draw controls.

You know, they had its gave us a little more trouble on our clear and that all those extra possessions really a play to their favor.

>> Yeah, that's right.

For those.

Maybe not as familiar.

I would be one draw controls thing.

Faceoff and hockey where you're trying to get possession of it.

Yeah.

The 2nd half you outscore in the 3rd quarter outscoring in the 4th quarter.

But that 2nd quarter was was tough to come back from.

All right.

So that was Maryville, 15, 12, the loss.

But then it was or Sears.

That would be the second game of the of the 2 for the week.

And that was on Sunday.

And you won that 17 to 2.

So obviously a lot of things went well.

>> They did.

Our team was really heartbroken from the loss on Friday.

You know, that was a game that we felt like we should have won.

And I think both, you know, us as a coaching staff and as a team, you know, we're just really frustrated that we didn't play to our level.

And so it's great to see the team, I think bounce back for a strong win on Sunday and hopefully that momentum can build into conference play.

>> Sunday, the weather was beautiful at times but a challenging that would think is well, wind cold, maybe footing.

I don't know with some of the ice.

What what was that like for your team in that?

That had to be not real pleasant.

>> What we're used to that, you know, Allendale Springs aren't always the best for us, but our facilities crew was fantastic.

You know, they are out early in the morning, plowing the field, you know, blowing the snow off and everything.

And we just did a 30 minute delay to let the sun do a little more work.

And, you know, and honestly, I don't think affected as much as you would think once the field is clear wasn't really slippery.

And, you know, we're used to the cold.

I thought our girls handled that, you know very well with their stick work throughout the game.

>> Absolutely.

34 7 the advantage in shots.

Shots on goal.

23 to 7 for Grand Valley.

First start for Cirque routes in goal.

5 safer.

>> Sarah did great.

She has been really patient, I think as a freshman and of, you know, understanding with 2 great goalkeepers in Audrey and killing ahead of her, that it might take some time for her to get a chance.

And she stepped in with great confidence.

Hit a really loud voice which I think made our defense played much better on Sunday says really happy with how she did.

>> Grand Valley again, 17 to 2 was the final score.

You look back over the quarters dominate every one of these quarters in this, OK?

So before we get into what's coming up, what what was your message to the team, I guess, essentially or maybe you have that here coming into the week off of the week that you had, because there's some good learning experience is there.

But also, you know, something for looking ahead here with Glee at play.

>> We've talked a lot just about consistency.

And I think that was nice to see in the mercyhurst game that even once we've built a strong lead, we didn't, you know, get sloppy at the end or unfocused re really, I thought played a good 60 minutes and we need that in our losses this year.

You just, you know, CDs, 8.10, maybe 15 minutes pans.

The team really makes a run on us and we're not able to stop it.

And so that's something we're just really focused on trying to build throughout the rest of the regular season so that if we're lucky enough to make it to postseason, you know, we can kind of learn from those mistakes that we made earlier on.

>> O Grande Valley, 44 heading into gliac play.

It's kind of interesting said conference play and Concordia Saint Paul.

Same sentence.

But that's what it will be for.

You wrote trip.

>> It well, you know, we have a few affiliates and the conference is unfortunately pretty small right now with some teams leaving to go to the G MAC or Joe BC.

And so just a 14 conference right now.

But Concordia Saint Paul is always really fast, really aggressive.

Their field is in the dome.

It's a little bit smaller than our field.

So sometimes I think less space is a little bit of an advantage for them kind of equalizes maybe sp difference.

And so it's always tough to play up there.

So we're excited to, you know, open conference play against a competitive team.

Yeah.

Well, the again in the dome, maybe it's a climate-controlled I'm hoping for is that human?

Does it get that way?

But not too much.

You know, the weather's fine in the dome, you know, much nicer than maybe plane and icy cold that we had on Sunday.

Yeah, just the field isn't quite as big.

So it's a tight for some of our formations and especially in transition to have to make some special adjustments when we go up there.

But we'll definitely look to our upperclassmen to take the lead on that.

>> So you're getting also as the season goes here, going early stages, obviously.

But you're getting a little bit of a look at the regional national landscape.

Obviously, Indianapolis Mayor Bill, who tangled with what you're feeling with some of those teams and how Grand Valley can compete with them, because obviously you're close at this point a year with a lot of time to grow.

>> Yeah, I mean, we made a really difficult schedule this year, and that's definitely been hard to handle with some key injuries that we've had.

But we've learned, I think even despite maybe not having a couple of those key players were right in the next.

And so, you know, we played a great game against Regis.

You know, Indi is only a one-goal game.

Maryville was a close game.

You know, Rollins who's even out of region, you know, they're a top 5 team now.

So I think we really challenged ourselves early on.

And so that's where you see those tough losses.

But I think as we grow some confidence, you know, hopefully through this next half of the season, that will be no better prepared to beat those teams.

Second time around.

>> Confidence and consistency, right?

As you go for 4 overall the of the record Grande Valley on the road Concordia Saint Paul to open up the act play coming up this week.

Thank you, coach.

Great to have you.

Thank you.

We'll be right back.

As the Grand Valley State Sports report continues here.

WTVD.

>> And that's all the time that we have this week.

A Grand Valley State sports report GVSU Baseball will head to Hillsdale College for an afternoon game.

That's on Wednesday at 03:00PM Bill that hit the road for a four-pack of games over the weekend.

First up, the play Purdue Northwest and double header.

The University Center on Saturday March 25th on Sunday.

They'll wrap up the East side trip with a double header against Saginaw Valley State GVSU softball Open Glee Act play at home this week on Saturday March 25th against PARKSIDE.

The double header starts at 01:00PM followed up with a home doubleheader against Purdue Northwest on Sunday March 26th at 01:00PM.

Chief issue lacrosse will start Glee Act play on the road this week as they take on Concordia Saint Paul this Friday game time is set for 07:00PM in Minnesota for upcoming games as well as live broadcast of every Laker athletic program.

Visit GVSU Lakers dot com or the show head over to our YouTube channel.

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35 make sure you hit the subscribe button to get updated videos and highlights all year long for the entire crew here.

Wg view.

I'm Steve Lloyd-Jones have a great week Laker Nation and as always, a corrupt