The No. 3 Grand Valley State University women’s soccer team (7-1) earned a 1-0 win against the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Rangers (3-4-2) at their Family Day game this past Friday.
Holding their opponent scoreless, the home game marked the fourth-straight shutout for the Lakers. Sophomore forward Sarah Fromm led the team with four goals and nine points, redshirt freshman goalkeeper Sara Csernyik led the team with five saves and both freshman midfielder Cora Conley and senior midfielder Sophia Morgan led with three assists.
In the first half, both defenses held up, keeping their opponent away from the net. With a struggling offense on both sides, the game remained scoreless heading into the second half.
In the second half, after senior forward Amanda Palmer had an apparent on-field injury, sides became heated and chippy during play, resulting in junior forward Alli French being given a red card and junior midfielder Sonya Mehta being issued a yellow card in the 62nd minute. One Ranger also got ejected as a result.
“I think just remembering that while we’re here, we have our teammates (and) we have each other’s back,” Fromm said. “We just help calm each other down. It’s going to be frustrating and they’re (opponents) gonna try to get on our skin.”
Head coach Katelyn Longino agreed her team needed to pull through, despite aggression.
“Whenever red cards in particular are shown, I think it’s going to come down to the team that has the most grit and the team that’s able to do the work,” said Longino. “You have to cover ground when there’s one less person on the field. I thought they managed the last few minutes of the game relatively well.”
Holding each other up, the Lakers were able to strike first in the 77th minute with a shot from Fromm, with an assist by Morgan. The Lakers’ defense, which was solid throughout the game, was able to hold off the Rangers for the 1-0 victory.
Fromm, who earned the game’s winning goal, praised the whole team for their performance.
“It was a battle for the whole 90 minutes, ” said Fromm. “I think it was down to who wanted it more, who was going to work harder. It was just the team’s energy. We wanted it more and we knew we had to put it away in the last 20 minutes.”
Longino gave credit to the Rangers, who according to her, put up a good fight and displayed great defense performances.
“Credit to Parkside, they’re a very good team, very well coached and it was a good match all around,” said Longino. “I think it could have gone either way at the end of the day. Being able to have another shutout was really, really important for us, (and we are) excited that our back line and Macie (Hunter) was able to do that. But, at the same time, they exposed us in some areas and they had some good moments, (which gave us) opportunities inside our own 18-yard blocks to get a bit better.”
Longino added that defensively, Parkside made the game very difficult, which was a welcome challenge.
