ALLENDALE, Mich. – Right from the opening whistle, Grand Valley State women's lacrosse dominated visiting McKendree in a 19-2 win to open a string of four consecutive home games at GVSU Lacrosse/Track & Field Stadium. The win, the sixth in a row for the host Lakers, puts their record at 9-4 overall and 4-0 in the GLIAC, while conference newcomer McKendree sees their record drop to 9-3 and 2-2 in conference action.
Erika Neumen scorched the Bearcat defense to the tune of five goals and one assist, inching her closer to a pair of GVSU single-season records. Her five goals gives her 47 on the year, just one goal shy of tying for second on the single-season goals list with the 48-goal season of
Rachel Leibovitz in 2013, while her 55 points puts her at third on the single-season points list behind
Sarah Lowe's 60 point season in 2014. Neumen also pulled down four draw controls to tie for the game lead with Dana DiPasquale of McKendree.
Zoe Stiemann also had a hand in the dominating victory as she found the back of the net three times in the first ten minutes of the opening half.
Rachel Leibovitz also tallied a hat-trick, and
Ryan Skomial put two past the Bearcat keeper. Lowe and Skomial each tallied three assists to lead the team.
The Laker defense was stout today, causing 15 of the 25 McKendree turnovers and shutting down the top scoring offense in the conference.
Kira Dosenberry paced the defense with three caused turnovers, while
Niki Jacobs,
Caitlin Wojichowski, and
Alyssa Neumen each tallied two. Wojichowski also led the team with six ground balls, while
Sarah Zwilsky made eight saves in the win.
Stiemann kicked off the day with the fastest goal in program history just seven seconds into the contest off a fast-break pass by Neumen at 29:53. Her score, the 16th of the season for the sophomore midfielder, broke the previous record set this season against Walsh by
Victoria Devine by four seconds.
An unassisted score by Leibovitz and a free-position goal by Stiemann were followed by the sophomore midfielder's third tally of the day, scoring off a pass by
Sarah Lowe to give the attacker 100 assists for her career. With the 16th assist of the season, the Okemos-native became the first Laker to tally 100 assists in a career. The senior captain found the back of the net for her fifth goal of the season after receiving a pass by Devine shortly after the historic assist, and it was 5-0 just 10 minutes into the contest.
Kelly Leibovitz joined the scoring spree by notching her first goal of the season at 15:02 before Neumen tallied her first goal of the afternoon. A rip from the senior Leibovitz made it 8-0 before
Carolyn Kraus found the back of the net on a free-position attempt to put the lead at nine.
Ashley Bailey assisted on the 45th goal of the season for Neumen to give GVSU a 10-0 lead and put the running clock into effect. Skomial connected with Neumen late in the half to make it an 11-goal game before Skomial scored a goal of her own on the ninth free-position attempt of the first half, putting the score at 12-0 going into the break.
Grand Valley State widened their lead to 15 with three goals in the first six minutes of the second half from the sticks of Leibovitz,
Brooke Ingraham, and
Jordan Luberto. McKendree's Rianne Holzmeyer snuck a shot past Zwilsky at 23:25 to keep themselves from being shutout. McKendree added a goal by Paige Salthouse after allowing the Lakers to put three more shots in the net, making the score 18-2 with 8:17 left in the game.
Ashley Bailey's goal at 3:06 proved to be the final tally of the game as the Laker defense and Zwilsky turned away the Bearcat offense for the remainder of the contest.
Grand Valley State outshot McKendree 37-13, picked up 28 ground balls to their 16, turned the ball over only 17 times to McKendree's 25, and prevented the Bearcats from converting any of their four free-position chances while going 6-12 from the arc. The only stat GVSU didn't hold an advantage in was draw controls, with McKendree pulling down 12 to Grand Valley State's 10.
Grand Valley State welcomes their final non-conference opponent of the season on Monday (Apr. 13) when they host #12 Regis (9-3, 4-1 RMAC) at noon. The game will be broadcast over the web on the
GVSU YouTube page.