Since its 65-game regular season winning streak was snapped earlier this year, the Grand Valley State University women’s soccer team has circled one game on its schedule – a rematch against Northern Michigan University, the first GLIAC team to take them down in four seasons.

Friday’s game against the Wildcats in Allendale went scoreless until the 28th minute when senior Jaleen Dingledine netted her eighth goal of the season off of a cross from sophomore Ashley Botts. That one goal stood as the only goal until the 78th minute of the game when Botts tacked on an insurance goal for the Lakers, affording the team to coast to a 2-0 win.

The Lakers heavily outshot the Wildcats 32-6 while also holding a 12-1 advantage in corner kicks.

The Lakers lost a 1-0 game on Sept. 19 to Northern Michigan in Marquette, Mich., with an overtime goal ending their 43-game GLIAC winning streak and knocking them from the top of the conference. It was a game that saw the Lakers heavily outshoot the Wildcats and spend the majority of their time on the attack, but the team was unable to finish and get the ball in the net.

GVSU head coach Dave DiIanni said the team was excited to take advantage of the chance to down Northern Michigan after the upset earlier in the season.

“I think that any time a team is the only one who beats you, you want to try to redeem some of that,” he said. “I thought that we played with a little bit more passion than the first time we played them, they’re a good team, they’re athletic and they defend very well all over the field. They’re not an easy team to play, but I thought our kids really came with intensity and focus in that game.”

The Lakers (13-1-1, 10-1-1 GLIAC) have not given up a goal since the Wildcat loss as they’ve outscored their opponents 39-0 and never scored less than two goals over the last eight games.

Goalkeeper Chelsea Parise said the team’s defense does not go out and look for a shutout, but they know it will come with solid play.

“We’re not really thinking about ‘Oh, we need a shutout’ or ‘Oh, we need to do this,’” she said. “It’s just playing the game, doing things right and working with each other. That’s been the key with the back line, everybody works off of each other very well.”

The second game of the weekend saw GVSU squaring off against Michigan Technological University, a team they already beat 5-0 earlier in the year. The Lakers had identical luck against the Huskies on Sunday, benefiting from a hat trick from sophomore Kayla Addison. Junior Erin Mruz added one for the Lakers as well as the team cruised behind Parise’s ninth shutout of the season for another 5-0 win against Michigan Tech.

The weekend’s games signaled the end of a significant home stretch for the Lakers as the team will hit the road next weekend for the first time in almost a month. Friday the team travels to Tiffin University for a 4 p.m. game and will then travel about 26 miles east for a Sunday matchup at noon against the University of Findlay.

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