After a long stretch of being on the road, the no. 2 ranked Grand Valley State University women’s soccer team finally returned home in a match against the University of Wisconsin Parkside Rangers. The Lakers continued their win streak on to seven, winning 2-0 under the lights.

In the first half, the Lakers couldn’t seem to find the back of the net until a set play cross from sophomore defender, Cate Brown ended the drought as senior defender, Cecelia Steinwascher, leaped in with a header making it 1-0 for the Lakers.

Later in the first half, the Lakers extended their lead with a goal from freshman forward, Alicia White, and an assist from junior midfielder, Darlene Radamaker. The Lakers would not score another goal for the rest of the match but end with another shutout win making it their sixth of the season.

Although there were some missed opportunities, coach Jim Conlon knows that a shutout win is nothing to hang your head for.

“A multiple goal, shutout win is a great night for the Lakers,” Conlon said. “We had a lot of people play minutes tonight, and we got to see some new pictures we haven’t seen this season. Overall, I think the ladies did a nice job tonight.”

With this being the first home game in almost a month, Conlon saw it as a boost and thinks it gave the team some jitters as well.

“I think being home is great,” Conlon said. “I think it gives a little bit of extra energy and that could have even been a cause to some of our rapid pace with the ball kind of flying around the field a little bit. But it is always great to be home, we have a great fanbase, great support, it’s just nice to play on our home grass.”

With all the success the Lakers are having this season starting out at 7-0, a team can become comfortable with where they are at. Conlon says that is not the case for this 2021 team who continues to strive to raise the bar for themselves game by game.

“They’re really hungry and eager to learn,” Conlon said. “We are asking them to do different things each game and I think they are excited to continue to grow one game at a time.”

Senior leader, Cecilia Steinwascher, echoed Conlon’s thoughts and although she’s happy with the win and their undefeated win-streak, isn’t satisfied.

“As a team, we feel good about the win,” Steinwascher said. “But obviously we expect better from ourselves. We had a lot of opportunities to score and as a team, I think that we can do a lot better. But overall, we did capitalize, we did still get the win, so I’m really proud of this team and how we responded to that.”

After finally being home, the Lakers are on the road once again against Purdue Northwest in Indiana on Sunday, Sept. 26. Steinwascher was glad to be at home but has her eyes forward to the next game on their schedule.

“It was really good to be playing at home,” Steinwascher said. “It’s nice to play at home with this atmosphere again, but getting on the road, it’s just another game and we have to adjust to it and face the adversity of it and keep going on.”