On the heels off its preseason showcase against Michigan at the 2025 Matches on the Mack, Lake Superior State’s volleyball team aims to climb back into the GLIAC Tournament in 2025.
While the Lakers were selected 10th in the GLIAC’s Preseason Poll, head coach Eric Snyder sets ambitious goals for his team and feels this squad is in a good place with regular season play set to begin on September 5th.
“We’re excited,” Snyder told LSSULakers.com. “We’re in the honeymoon phase of a brand new coaching staff, and a new direction for the program. The girls have been amazing with the transition. They’ve been working incredibly hard. They were impatient this summer, trying to get back on campus.”
The Lakers’ first-year head coach stated two goals for his program. The first focuses on academics. “We want a 3.5 cumulative GPA in the program or higher. We want to be the top academic program in the department. That’s a focus for us, and I think it’s fully capable of happening. We have a lot of smart, intuitive, high-academic young ladies on our team.”
The second goal? “To win the GLIAC.” Be ambitious, set your sights high and drive for success in the short-term and long-term.
Snyder said, “We have pieces that will get better and better throughout the course of the year, and if that’s not our goal… what are we doing? We’re going to be underdogs in a lot of games. But in three to five years from now? We’ll continue to recruit really well in the state of Michigan and beyond. There’s a lot of really talented players in the state of Michigan right now.”
He continued, “I think the university as a whole has a lot to offer and is very attractive. It’s a beautiful area. Our campus is gorgeous.”
Snyder’s team competed on Mackinac Island on August 22nd in the Matches on the Mack showcase against the University of Michigan. The exhibition was Snyder’s first time taking charge of the team in competitive play, and the Lakers had only opened preseason at the beginning of that week.
“It was a phenomenal event. It kind of blew me out of the water,” he said. “Very grateful for the support from the administration, from the university itself. The girls definitely felt it.”
This season, the Lakers expect big things from their imposing middle hitter Morgan Deming. At 6’3”, the Boyne City, MI native hit .258 during her sophomore campaign of 2024-25 while averaging .84 blocks per set – 9th among all GLIAC players. Snyder described her as “phenomenal,” adding that she “loves to block.”
Vanessa Swerdon’s 6.40 assists per set ranked 9th in the league. The Lake State setter enters her senior campaign. Redshirt Junior Faith White opens the year as the primary libero. Snyder has heaped praise on the Sault Ste. Marie, MI native, pointed to massive improvements in the summer. He’s also impressed by returners Valeriya Varnakova and Gia Waters, along with incoming freshmen Elisa Rizzoli and Caitlyn Matelski. Snyder said that Matelski in particular caused Michigan problems off the bench at the Match on the Mack.
Snyder comes into his first season on the sidelines in Sault Ste. Marie with a stellar resume. Count an NCCAA National Championship in 2020, multiple Final Four appearances in the NCAA Division III and NAIA ranks, three Conference Coach of the Year awards, and the 2020 AVCA and NAIA National Coach of the Year as career highlights.
Brooke Stoever remains on-board as an assistant coach, while Mitchell Hoffman debuts as second assistant. Jen Constantino, who served as the Lakers’ full-time head coach in 2013 and 2014, returns to the program as Volunteer Assistant. She’s worked as a civil litigation attorney at the Diane Peppler Resource Center since departing LSSU in 2017.
When asked about his own career highlights, Snyder quickly pointed out, “None of those accomplishments are done alone. It’s not about me. I had some phenomenal assistant coaches, some very supportive administrations, great players who did all the work and made me look great. Because it is all about them.”
He continued, “The best teams that I’ve ever coached have been ridiculously talented and won championships, but the defining figure of those teams and what they had over other teams was the fact that they loved each other.”
The Lakers play on the road all September, then host Michigan Tech in GLIAC action on Friday, October 3rd at Bud Cooper Gymnasium in Sault Ste. Marie. The Lakers host Northern Michigan the next day. They open the regular season September 5th at the Illinois-Springfield Tournament against Kentucky Wesleyan, then play host UIS later that day. They’ll close out that showcase against Quincy on September 6th. They’ll also compete four times in three days at the Mankato Tournament in mid-September, travelling to Mankato, Minnesota.
Buy your 2025 Laker volleyball game tickets online at LSSULakers.com or at the Laker box office. Hear select games aired locally on News Talk 1400, WKNW-AM, and follow all the GLIAC action with a subscription to FloVolleyball.
