While the Grand Valley State University women’s lacrosse season may still be months away, the Lakers managed to gain valuable experience in the GVSU Laker Classic.

GVSU hosted Davenport University, Marquette University, Indiana Technological University, and the University of Detroit Mercy which gave each team a chance to get early season competition against other schools.

The Lakers dropped their first two decisions of the day, losing to Marquette and Davenport.

“There were some ups and downs,” said head coach Alicia Groveston. “A great thing is that we play a spring sport so the fall is the time to make mistakes and not play at our full potential. We’re still figuring out what our full potential is. We started off well, but our second game was not as great as I’d liked it to have been, but we finished on a high note so I’m happy with where we ended up.”

GVSU recovered from a rough second match to secure their first victory of the day against Indiana Tech, the Lakers got out to a quick start, leading at halftime.

“It’s a moral victory as well as an actual victory,” Groveston said. “There was some really good things. We moved the ball well and played some good defense when we actually got settled into seven v seven.”

The GVSU Laker Classic was the third time this year that the Lakers were able to compete against other schools this fall. GVSU has two more fall tune ups before their spring season begins March.

“It gives us time to prepare for our real season and it gives us time to practice things and fine tune everything for the spring,” said redshirt sophomore Sarah Lowe. “We have a tough spring season this year so it really helps that we have these weekends.”

GVSU has been using these tune ups as a way to integrate the freshman into the program. The freshmen have been gaining valuable playing time at the collegiate level and are getting acclimated to the rest of the team.

“They’re really important because they give us time to build relationships with our new freshman before we go into our spring season,” said redshirt sophomore Ashley Stoltenberg. “We need to work on our communication a little more and work on our transitions down the field.”

GVSU opens their regular season on March 4 in Worcester, Mass. against Assumption College. Until then, the Lakers will look to continue to improve the roster in the fall for the spring season.

“We got a lot of kids to play,” Groveston said. “It was a great success in the last one. Everyone got in and everyone got significant time which didn’t necessarily happen in the first two games. More importantly, everyone got experience playing at the collegiate level and that’s exactly what we need.”

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