What do you get when you combine a determined Grand Valley State lacrosse team, 78 degree weather in Allendale, a slew of alumni and parents in town and a holiday weekend?

You get a 22-2 trouncing of conference rival Northern Michigan Wildcats—that’s what.

The game was played at GVSU Lacrosse Stadium Saturday, April 15 and began at 1 p.m.

The victory is by far the largest of the season so far for GVSU, with the next highest margin of victory being eight goals. With the win, the Lakers’ record improves to 4-7 (3-1 GLIAC) while the Wildcats fall to 2-10 (0-4).

GVSU came out of the gates smoking hot, as they netted eight straight goals within seven and a half minutes before NMU was even able to advance the ball into Laker territory. Once the Wildcats scored their first goal, GVSU responded with six more to close out the half and take a 14-1 lead into the break. The Lakers scored three and five goals on either side of the Wildcats second and only goal of the game in the latter half, sealing the blowout victory.

“This gives us just the confidence that we need and the team spirit that we need going into the last couple of games. I think we really needed something like that,” said sophomore Kelley Fitzgerald, who recorded eight points in the contest. “We haven’t had the best season nor the worst season, but we needed a little pick-me-up to show what we’re capable of. We played incredible as a team, everyone contributed, we showed we’re capable of working together and we see what we do when we all work together.”

A staggering 17 different Lakers scored goals in the victory, led by junior attacker Maria D’Angelo with four. Junior Ashley Bailey and Fitzgerald each scored two while Kira Dosenberry, Kelly Leibovitz, Elizabeth Yeomans, Abbi O’Neal, Meghan Datema, Aimee Hite, Carly Shisler, Adrianna Smith, Sarah Stagaard, Elizabeth Grisko, Bailey Ellsworth, Annie Yost, Aly Barian and Carolina Reis all scored one goal apiece.

Fitzgerald also handed out six assists, tying her for second most in school history in a single game (Sarah Lowe, seven, 2013 and 2014). It is the third time in program history a Laker dished out six dimes in a game (Bailey, 2016 and Lowe, 2014).

“I don’t know if you ever know it’s going to be a win; our goal is always to get a 10 point lead, that’s when the clock continues running, so once we got that 10 point lead we were pretty confident that we could keep going with that,” D’Angelo said. “Morale was high on the sidelines and we wanted to get everybody as many looks as we could for everyone on the team.”

Perhaps the most telling statistics of the way the game went are shots and shots on goal: the Lakers held a 45 to four and 35 to two advantage in each category, respectively.

GVSU also committed less turnovers (22 to seven), scooped up more ground balls (26 to 11) and managed more ground controls (17 to nine) than the Wildcats.

Though dominating in nearly every facet of the game head coach Alicia Groveston still feels as though her team could have played a more complete game–a virtue she has preached all season long.

“Are we getting closer (to playing a full 60 minutes)? Yes. Do I think they did it? No,” Groveston said. “Games like this are tough because you want to work on things but at the same time you want to get other people opportunities to play and see what they’re capable of. It’s almost like you’re playing two different games at the same time and I think for us we weren’t able to play the full 60 minutes.”

The Lakers will look to carry their momentum into their Tuesday, April 18, home contest against the No. 20 Seton Hill Griffins (7-6). The contest is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at GVSU Lacrosse Stadium.