Courtesy of Kevin Meyer, Grand Valley State Sports Information Graduate Assistant
ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The Grand Valley women's soccer team was held off of the scoreboard for the first half of Friday's game against Walsh University. Enter star midfielder Marti Corby, who put her team ahead for good just 11 minutes into the second half with a nice display of skills.
"Marti had been knocking on the doorstep a few times before her goal, and she was able to position herself well off of a throw in to get a good shot off on the far post."
Corby's flush was her 19th goal of the season, and proved to be the difference maker for the Lakers, as the game remained 1-0 at full time.
With the win, Grand Valley clinched the regular season title outright, a much improved result from last season's sharing of the conference title with Ohio Dominican.
"For us to win the GLIAC outright means a lot to the girls after having to share it last season," GVSU head coach Jeff Hosler. "It feels good for us, but we still have one conference game to focus on and look ahead to."
Offensively, the Lakers controlled the ball well early and created a flurry of shots on goal, but weren't able to push one past senior goalkeeper Michaella Stuckey of Walsh until the second half.
"We did posess the ball very well today, we just didn't do it well enough in the right areas," said Hosler. "We came out better in the second half, we weren't doing as much sitting and watching and waiting for someone else to make a play. We made some adjustments in our lines at halftime allowed us to create better spacing."
On the other half of the field, the Laker's remained steadfast on defense, showing why the team has only allowed one goal all season in conference play. Walsh managed just five shots in the game, and Lakers goalkeeper Emily Maresh earned the shutout in goal by making one save.
"Walsh was more dangerous on offense in the first half, but in the second half they didn't really get many looks on our end because of how we controlled the ball," Hosler said.
Grand Valley returns to action on Friday, October 30th, playing host to rival Ferris State University at GVSU Soccer Field in Allendale, Michigan. Ferris State is second in the conference standings with a 8-1-1 conference record (12-3-1 overall). Kick off is set for 7 p.m.
