The Grand Valley State women’s soccer team continued to take care of business over the weekend, as the Lakers withstood upset bids from two conference foes.

The No. 7 Lakers defeated rival Saginaw Valley State 2-0 in an away match on Friday night. GVSU then battled conference foe Northwood on Sunday back at home and sauntered away with a 5-1 victory.

“We learned from this weekend that lack of focus will cost you,” said GVSU head coach Jeff Hosler.

Four different GVSU players stamped their name in the scoring column in the two-game weekend. The Lakers also were once again able to outshoot its opponents on the shot chart, 44 to 10, in the two games combined.

Friday night marked the second time this season the Lakers faced the Cardinals. The Lakers handled the Cardinals with ease in the first game of the season, defeating SVSU 6-1. The encore matchup, however, was quite a bit tighter.

SVSU had an idea of what the Lakers wanted to do, and used that prior knowledge to counter GVSU’s waves of attack. It wasn’t until about 25 minutes into the match when the Lakers broke through with its first goal from junior Kendra Stauffer. The goal was Stauffer’s fifth goal of the season.

After Stauffer’s goal, there weren’t many highlights for either team. The Lakers outshot the Cardinals 9-3 in the first half, but had just one goal to show for it.

The second half was a similar story. Once again, about 25 minutes into the second half, freshman Samantha Riga netted her fourth goal on the season to give the Lakers a 2-0 lead. It was all GVSU would need, as it grinded to a 2-0 conference victory.

Sunday was another low scoring affair for the Lakers, as they faced conference foe Northwood for the first and only time this season.

The Lakers were sporting pink uniforms on Sunday to support breast cancer awareness. GVSU found itself against another prepared defense. The physical play from the Timberwolves made it difficult for the Lakers to finish scoring opportunities.

GVSU lept onto the scoreboard eight minutes into the game, however, as senior Katie Klunder scored for her fourth goal of the season. The Lakers earned another goal later in the half from senior Katie Bounds, who knocked in her second goal of the season.

“It was a big jumble up in front of the net and just tried to be scrappy,” Bounds said. “I haven’t scored in a while, so it was nice just to get one.”

Northwood, however, would not go down without a fight. With about five minutes left in the first half, the Timberwolves connected for a strike inside GVSU’s zone to cut the lead in half. At halftime, the Lakers led Northwood 2-1.

The Lakers were able to pull away late in the second half as team leading scorer Marti Corby scored her 13^th and 14^th goals of the season late in the second half to add insurance for the Lakers.

“I’ve been working on free kicks all season,” Corby said. “Every practice I work on them so during the game it’s nice to be rewarded.”

The Lakers finished with a 5-1 win and their 10^th straight victory on the season. They are undefeated both at home and in GLIAC play this season. During their 10 game win streak, the Lakers have outscored their opponents 51-4.

“The win streak means a lot, but it also means we have to take the foundation and keep moving forward,” Bounds said.

GVSU was once again without freshman goalkeeper Emily Maresh. Sophomore Paige Pryson stepped up and gave the Lakers two solid performance in net, which included a shutout at SVSU.

The Lakers will try to continue the win streak next weekend on the road in Ohio in GLIAC play against Ashland on Friday and Ohio Dominican on Sunday.

“We are playing two exceptionally talented teams,” Hosler said. “Both teams are well-coached and will have a lot of confidence against us.”