Lakers’ Wiitanen excited to face Huskies

For freshman middle hitter Giselle Wiitanen, the chance to battle the Huskies in Houghton is something she has been looking forward to.

“I have always gone to MTU summer volleyball camps as a kid up through high school,” she said. “I’m very excited to be back, and this time playing against the team.”

Giselle’s mother, Heather, and a good chunk of her extended family are from the Houghton area, so she has spent a lot of time in the area while growing up, which means the area has a special place in her heart.

“Ever since I have moved to Mount Pleasant, we still visit Houghton a lot,” she said. “Christmas, Thanksgiving, (and even) summer, I’m always there as much as I can be.”

Of course, she even has her own favorite places to visit when she is in town.

“Besides seeing my family, I love going to the breakwaters and Agate Beach, and then the Ambassador for dinner,” she said.

While at Mount Pleasant High School, Giselle was an All-Region honoree, as well as an All-Saginaw Valley League honoree. She competed in three sports at Mount Pleasant, and earned All-Academic First Team honors as well.

The reason that Giselle, who stands 5-foot-10, settled on Lake Superior State was that since the school is located in Sault Ste. Marie, it falls in about the geographical middle between her mom and her immediate family in Mount Pleasant, and the rest of her family in the Copper Country.

“I choose Lake State because it’s in the middle of my family,” she said. “My mom and siblings live in Mount Pleasant, and the rest of the family is in Houghton, so I am right in the middle.”

This trip will not be for fun, however, as she has a job to do. The Lakers are off to a good start to the season, having gone 5-7 through their first 12 matches of the season. In GLIAC play, they are 2-2 after sweeping their opening weekend against Saginaw Valley State and Roosevelt, before getting swept by Grand Valley State and Wayne State last weekend.

“We didn’t do as well as we wanted to in preseason, but we won our first two conference games against SVSU and Roosevelt,” she said. “Then, (we) fell short this weekend against GVSU and Wayne.”

To make matters worse, the Lakers lost their senior middle blocker, Maggie Morris, who was off to a strong start to her fourth season with 43 kills in nine matches. Morris’ injury has presented Giselle with a chance to show what she brings.

“At the first conference game against SVSU, our senior middle went down, and is now out the season with a knee injury,” she said. “So, I have now became a starter.”

Giselle had not yet seen action until Morris went down, but she stepped into that match and picked up her first two career kills in the match. She also had a block assist and added two digs as the Lakers swept the Cardinals in three sets.

Less than 24 hours laters, she was starting against GLIAC-newcomer Roosevelt. The Lakers again won in three sets, and Giselle had two more kills, three block assists, a solo block and two more digs.

She now has a better sense of what the college game is like, and she knows she has a lot of work to do to get to where she wants to be.

“The transition from high school and club volleyball has been very big,” she said. “Everything is way faster. The speed of the game is the hardest adjustment.”

Despite the steep learning curve she is facing, Lakers coach Zac Rambo has put trust in her that she will make the appropriate adjustments on the fly. The third-year coach is looking to build his program up from the 8-22 mark they had a season ago, which included a 3-2 win over the Huskies to close out the regular season.

This past weekend, Giselle and her teammates dropped a pair of tough matches against Grand Valley and Wayne State. In the match against Grand Valley, she recorded a solo block and a block assist. Against the Warriors, she had a career-high two solo blocks and a dig.

Wiitanen and the Lakers will be looking to spoil the Huskies’ home stand Friday night at 7 p.m.