ALLENDALE, Mich. – In what looked to be a low-scoring battle between the top teams in the conference, Grand Valley State dominated in the second half to come away with a 19-8 victory over Tiffin in the final home GLIAC game of the regular season for the Lakers. With today's win, Grand Valley State (12-4, 6-0 GLIAC) locks up their third consecutive GLIAC regular season title, along with the top seed and an automatic bye to the semifinal round of the GLIAC Tournament, with one game still to go in the season.
 
Sophomore Erika Neumen tallied a game-high eight points off six goals and two assists, giving her the school record for points in a single-season. Her 74th point of the year came with 38 seconds remaining on the clock, after receiving a pass from Jordan Luberto and ripping her shot past Tiffin goalkeeper Jessica Bombard.
 
Carolyn Kraus and Brooke Ingraham each tallied a hat-trick in the win, while Kraus added two assists to give her five points on the afternoon. Sarah Lowe and Zoe Stiemann both found the back of the net twice, while Jordan Luberto, Kira Dosenberry and Ryan Skomial all chipped in one goal each. Lowe and Skomial tied for the team-lead with three assists apiece, giving the two four points on the day. Ingraham pulled down four draw controls in the afternoon's win, while Skomial led the team with four ground balls.
 
The Laker defense once again stepped up big against a quality opponent, causing 16 of Tiffin's 24 turnovers. Skomial, Niki Jacobs, Caitlin Wojichowski and Rachel Leibovitz all forced two turnovers, and Sarah Zwilsky made seven saves, caused one turnover and picked up one ground ball to earn her 12th W of the year.
 
Neumen connected with Lowe just 22 seconds into the contest to put the Lakers on top, and Neumen put her first goal in the back of the net off a free-position shot shortly after to put GVSU up by two. Two straight goals by Tiffin (9-7, 5-1 GLIAC), including a short-handed free-position goal, knotted the game at two before Lowe dished to Neumen to put GVSU back in the lead.
 
Tiffin tied the game at 10:26, and at 6:07 earned their first lead of the game on an unassisted tally by Tori Nelson. GVSU struck back with three goals inside the final six minutes of the half, with Kraus tying the game on a free-position attempt, Rachel Leibovitz cashing in an assist by Stiemann to give the lead back to Grand Valley State, and Stiemann tickling the twine to put GVSU up by three at the end of a tight first half.
 
Tiffin struck first in the second half to put the score at 6-5, but it would be the closest the Dragons would come to retaking the lead as Grand Valley State went off for six unanswered goals in five minutes to put the game away for good. Two straight goals by the Dragons made it a five-goal gap, but two goals by Ingraham and scores by Luberto and Neumen gave the Lakers a 16-7 advantage with less than six minutes remaining on the clock.
 
Neumen's two goals in two minutes, along with Kraus' third of the game, countered the final Tiffin goal of the day, locking up home-field advantage for the Lakers as the clock ran out on their final home game of the regular season.
 
Grand Valley State held a sizeable advantage in nearly every major statistical category on the afternoon. They outshot Tiffin by a wide margin (51-19), picked up 31 ground balls to Tiffin's 22, won 17 draw controls, and limited Tiffin to only six free-position attempts while earning 15 of their own. The Lakers were also a perfect 16-16 on clears, the third time that has happened this season, while limiting Tiffin to just 14 successful clears out of 22 attempts.
 
Prior to the opening draw, Grand Valley State honored all eight of their graduating seniors for all their accomplishments to the program, both on and off the field. Zoe Stiemann, Sarah Lowe, Victoria Devine, Jordan Luberto, Brooke Ingraham, Rachel Leibovitz and Alyssa Neumen were all honored in front of the home crowd by head coach Alicia Groveston, Athletic Director Tim Selgo, and Associate Athletic Director Keri Becker.
 
The Lakers will close out the regular season on the road as they take on Lake Erie (7-6, 4-2 GLIAC) on Friday (Apr. 24) at 6 p.m.