After closing a four-game road slate, No. 5 Grand Valley State University women\u2019s soccer team (11\u20132) welcomed Northern Michigan University (3\u20137\u20134) to Allendale for the annual \u201cKick Out Cancer\u201d game.<\/p>\n
The Lakers put on masterclass offensive and defensive dominance, outscoring the Wildcats 3-0 in Friday evening\u2019s Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) matchup.<\/p>\n
Early in the matchup, it was clear that defense and physicality were key themes. Those tropes persisted as both teams aimed to have strong defenses throughout the first half, with a stalemate keeping both teams near midfield. Senior defenders Mackenzie Ford and Kacy Lauer found themselves busy defending freshman goalkeeper Macie Hunter.<\/p>\n
Head coach Katelyn Longino complimented the Wildcats\u2019 competition and physicality.<\/p>\n
\u201cNorthern Michigan came in with a great game plan,\u201d said Longino. \u201cCredit to them and their staff. Our group was coachable and resilient. We didn\u2019t control it the whole time, (and) they chipped away in moments. We\u2019ve got to be better and put together a full (turn). Still, we scored some pretty great goals tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
GVSU\u2019s offense showed signs of gaining traction late in the first half. The first goal of the contest came from the Lakers when freshman forward Ivy Wilhelm tallied her fourth goal of the season from a dazzling assist from Ford.<\/p>\n
With 10 seconds left in the first half, sophomore defender Vesna Dennison struck one from the top of the box to the back of the net, giving the Lakers momentum going into the half. This was also her first goal of the season, and Wilhelm assisted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d probably say the assist was more impressive than the goal,\u201d said Wilhelm. \u201cI didn\u2019t think the ball was coming to me, I was just in the right spot, and I\u2019m glad it fell to Vesna to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the second half, the Wildcats\u2019 offense seemed to have found its footing, making cleaner passes and delivering nice through-balls. However, the Lakers\u2019 defense was still a brick wall, not allowing any shots on Hunter. The offense simply matched their effort, orchestrating multiple attacks but never getting one in the back of the net, even hitting the post once.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the 61-minute mark, sophomore forward Sarah Fromm found the net while knocked to the ground, squeezing the ball just under the diving goalkeeper. Lauer had perfectly placed the ball just in front of Fromm, giving her the opportunity on a silver platter.<\/p>\n
The game demonstrated the Lakers\u2019 complementary performance, dominating on both offense and defense. In addition, Hunter notched her seventh clean sheet this year, and the women\u2019s soccer program secured its 500th program win\u2013 the 11th under newly tenured Longino.<\/p>\n
Wilhelm credited the team\u2019s offensive performance to everyone being on the same page. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve figured out where everyone wants the ball, some to feet, some in space,\u201d Wilhelm said. \u201cNow we can really play around each other. It\u2019s fluid instead of robotic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Longino further discussed the team\u2019s recovery routine, citing the quick turnaround time between games.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now it\u2019s ice baths and protein shakes,\u201d said Longino. \u201cWe want a real dinner in them (players), then lock in recovery, sleep, nutrition (and) hydration. We\u2019ll get the bodies moving to flush the lactic acid. Recovery\u2019s the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After closing a four-game road slate, No. 5 Grand Valley State University women\u2019s soccer team (11\u20132) welcomed Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-243396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}