For Grand Valley State women’s lacrosse, it was a time of hard-work and grinding to reach a couple of coveted wins during its annual spring break road trip.

The Lakers packed their suitcases and lacrosse bags and headed not south, but east for Sparks, Maryland where they would defeat No. 13 Bentley 13-5, lose to No. 3 Le Moyne and No. 20 Pace by scores of 18-5 and 14-9, giving them a 1-2 record on the trip and 1-4 overall.

The road trip began on a high note when the No. 12 ranked Lakers upended No. 13 Bentley. Sophomore midfielder Carly Shisler led the offensive attack by netting a hat trick and was supplemented by two goals each from juniors Ashley Bailey, Meggan Loyd and Meghan Datema. Senior Chelsey Bishop handed out three assists.

Bentley was unable to score consecutive goals throughout the entire game as GVSU went on several scoring runs in each half. This kind of momentum-killing play can be attributed to stifling defense and patience on the offensive end.

“We moved the ball around and looked for the best opportunity and took them,” Datema said. “I think defense played lights out too and we took advantage of that and then got the ball on our end of the field.”

Things would go differently Thursday when Le Moyne blew the Lakers out after starting the game 6-1 in the first eight minutes.

Senior Kira Dosenberry netted two shots for GVSU and three others added a single goal.

When asked what could have gone better, the Lakers found it hard to pinpoint certain physical aspects and attributed the play more to mentality and communication issues.

“(The) communication (lacked), mainly on the defensive end. We lacked that fire inside of us of why we play the game in the first place,” Dosenberry said. “It’s hard to think of words after this kind of a loss. Extra communication and our style of play, not basing that off who we play was something we could do better.”

Sitting at 1-3 after the loss, head coach Alicia Groveston described the matchup against Pace as a must-win.

Unfortunately for the Lakers, an 8-2 halftime deficit was too much to overcome despite scoring the last six goals of the game.

“We’re going to focus on that last nine, 10 minutes. It wasn’t even the second half, really just the 10 minutes where we put together a semblance of something great,” Groveston said. “It was a collection of something great across the board. We came together and we can build off that for the next one.”

Dosenberry knocked in three goals, totaling five on the trip. Datema added two goals in the loss.

After dropping the “must-win,” GVSU fears that it will no longer control its own destiny regarding a second straight NCAA tournament berth.

“I think what it means is that we need some help. We’ve hurt ourselves with Le Moyne and Pace, but we can go win and beat Lindenwood and Davis & Elkins, but we’re going to need some help,” Groveston said. “We no longer control our own destiny. Hopefully we can take that fire from today and put it towards (the coming games).”

GVSU will try to get back on track Tuesday, March 14 when they travel to Elkins, West Virginia to take on the Davis & Elkins Senators (0-3).