Following their 1-0 win in Mankato, Minn., over the Minnesota State Mavericks (3-1-1), the Grand Valley State University (3-1-1) women’s soccer team returned home for a 2-1 win over their archrival, Ferris State University (2-2-1), on Friday, Sept. 15.
Early on in this season, the Lakers have been playing several underclassmen, somewhat by necessity, but also because they have been performing well. Lakers women’s soccer Head Coach, Katie Hultin, said the underclassmen have learned during this process.
“I think they are understanding the principles that we are trying to apply in the game,” Hultin said. “I think they are understanding that mistakes are okay, and it is all about their response and just kinda the work rate and work effort that it is going to take against big, strong, fast teams.”
Sophomore defender Kacy Lauer tallied the only goal of the game against Minnesota State. After a GVSU corner kick led to Lauer’s penalty kick, she knocked it in for her team-leading third goal in four matches. Lauer has emerged, among other young players, for the Lakers.
Junior Kendall Robertson was in the net for GVSU and showed out against the number eight team in the country, pitching a shutout on the back of a strong defense.
The Lakers have been performing well since their 0-1-1 start and are now on a three-game winning streak.
“Minnesota State was a really good reflection of the kind of growth and progress we are trying to get out of the season,” Hultin said.
GVSU followed up a huge two-win weekend with another big victory over their top rival. The Lakers jumped on Ferris early when just six minutes and 26 seconds into the first half junior midfielder Emma Chudik buried a shot to the goalkeeper’s short side to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead. Junior midfielder Ryann Fetty assisted in the play.
Less than five minutes later, FSU kept the pressure in the GVSU zone and a ball that spun off of Lauer’s foot as she tried to clear spun past Lakers’ freshman goalkeeper Isabella Imes and into the net for an own-goal.
GVSU put a handful of shots on goal in the first half (7) to FSU’s (3) but failed to score the rest of the half. FSU’s junior goalkeeper, Darya Mosallaei, made saves on four of those shots, while the Lakers’ redshirt freshman goalkeeper Imes did not have to make a save attempt on any of those shots on goal, just allowing the own-goal off of Lauer.
Early in the second half, the Bulldogs kept the ball in the Laker’s end but could not come away with a score. Instead, GVSU dominated the ball for the rest of the half, with what seemed to be most of the final 30 minutes played near midfield or inside FSU territory.
In turn, freshman Alli French made the Bulldogs pay at the 66:15 mark. French pushed it past Mosallaei on the same lower right side that Chudik scored on in the first half, French’s first of the season.
“It was really surreal for me. Everyone was manifesting the goal the whole day before the game,” French said. “I have been coming to Grand Valley camps ever since I was in second grade. I told myself that ever since I first came here that I was going to go here, so to get my goal against our rival that was really nice.”
The Bulldogs and Lakers played a tough-nosed and physical game, but the Lakers came out on top in the closing moments. A corner kick with less than 45 seconds remaining failed, as FSU sold out by putting Mosallaei in front of the opposing net. After a Laker knocked it out of bounds, the Bulldogs had another shot at a corner kick as one of their players went down with an injury at the 15-second mark. Another well-defended kick later and a cleared ball by the Lakers closed the game out for a hard-fought 2-1 GVSU victory.
