A lot of things can happen in 16 hours. One could drive from Allendale to Boston, run eight marathons at world-record pace or watch the first five and a half Harry Potter movies. But, after downing crosstown rivals Ferris State University on Saturday, the Grand Valley State University women’s soccer team has spent their last 16 hours of game time outscoring their opponents 27-0.

It was an interesting morning for the Lakers (10-0-2, 6-0-1 GLIAC), who made the short trip up to Ferris State University (4-4-3, 3-2-2 GLIAC) on Saturday. But, as they have done all season, they returned to Allendale with a ‘zero’ still collecting dust in the loss column following a 3-0 victory.

“The proximity definitely leads them to being more of a rival,” said head coach Dave DiIanni. “As they become much more competitive, which they are this year, it becomes a bigger game.”

In this important conference matchup, it was important for the Lakers to get a win. Although Coach DiIanni didn’t believe his team brought their best stuff, a good result in a conference game remains the top priority.

“Just to get a road win is great,” DiIanni said “I thought our kids did enough, I thought we played okay at times offensively. But we got an early goal, and that’s what we were looking for on the road, and our defense sealed the rest of the game for us.”

Anchoring that back line that sealed the game was junior defender Kayla Kimble, who has played a huge part in keeping Laker opponents off of the scoresheet since September 2.
“We’re coming together as a group.” Kimble said. “We’re starting to communicate a lot more, and that’s what I think has caused us to shut out a lot of teams.”

While Kimble was holding down the back line on Saturday, senior midfielder Alyssa Mira took care of the Lakers’ attack in this game against Ferris State. Normally a ball-playing midfielder, Mira got forward in this game, assisting a Jenny Shaba goal in the seventh minute as well as putting in her well-deserved first goal of the season to cap off the Lakers’ three goal day after a Cassandra Wiltshere strike gave them a 2-0 lead with just a few seconds remaining in the first half.

“It’s nice to be able to attack from attacking midfield.” Mira said. “It’s a nice change from playing defensively and I was happy to get a goal. It was scrappy inside the box and I was waiting on the edge of the box for it to be cleared. I took a touch and hit it in.”

In a game where GVSU out-shot Ferris State 8-1, possession of the ball was a priority for Mira and the Lakers. Coach DiIanni believes that this type of possession when combined with their already quality defending, makes for a tough team to attack.

“The more that we can possess the ball and take the pressure and stress off our back line, it gives opportunities for our back line who are playing exceptionally well right now, where we have speed, athleticism, and we aren’t allowing teams to get in behind us,” DiIanni said.

After remaining undefeated on this season, DiIanni looks to use the Ferris State contest to help make small adjustments and improvements as the Laker soccer team goes forward into the coming weeks of crucial conference games.

“I think consistency is a big deal. Today is one day where we didn’t have consistency in our midfield,” DiIanni said. “I think our kids need to play on edge, they need to play every game with the understanding that there is a bullseye on our back and we need to be a little bit more aggressive at the beginning and I think we did a little bit of that today. We’ll continue to work on that, we’re too slow coming out of the gates and that’s an issue.”

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