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All season long, the Grand Valley State women's soccer team never lost sight of its motto—The Relentless Pursuit. Saturday (Dec. 6) afternoon, the Lakers completed their inexorable chase, capturing a second consecutive NCAA Championship with a 3-0 victory over No. 8 Rollins at Owsley B. Frazier Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.
 
This season was a far cry from a year ago. This club didn't shatter defensive records. They trailed in five matches, unlike last season when it never faced a deficit of any kind. They lost two games and settled for draws in two others. They had an entirely new coaching staff to work with.
 
But both the 2013 and 2014 were talented, driven and special enough to produce the same result: a national championship.

"This year, we were able to present a different challenge to them, being defending national champions. Being a new coaching staff, we never talked about being the national champions," said first-year coach Jeff Hosler. "Never once did the girls hear us talk about last year, or the national championship. That was our mentality all along: if we (win a national title) this year, it's going to be because we earn it; it's not going to be given to us because we won one last year."
 
There was much more to overcome this time around, though. A massive target burdened its back all season long. It had to go through four ranked opponents, two of which were unbeaten, to win the national crown. No team in school history had ever faced more than three in a row. Injuries to key players on the back line forced two unknown reserves—freshman midfielder Shannon Quinn and redshirt freshman Alexis Mencotti—into crucial starting roles at center back.

"We proved a lot of people wrong. That's a really neat feature to this team," said senior goalkeeper Andrea Strauss. "We came together after the Ohio Dominican (loss on Oct. 17) and coach challenged us and said, 'Where are we going to go?' He put that on the seniors and the returning players to help guide this team and to show a direction of our experience and that we have been here before.

"Ever since that game, we went through those next games and took care of business. As soon as we hit the NCAA Tournament, again, our level of play just rose and rose, and it finally paid off in the end."
 
As it has in each of its previous championship seasons, GVSU's defense came together when it mattered most. The lumps it took early in the year were made irrelevant. Recording a clean sheet against Rollins, the second-best scoring offense in Division II, showcased exactly how far the unit has come since it allowed five goals in the month of September. It marked the ninth time in the Lakers' last 12 matches they held an opponent scoreless as well.

"(With a coaching transition) it's hard to get offensive things going early in the season, so much of our focus was in that framework and maybe we didn't spend as much time defensively as we probably should have," said Hosler. "We had a lot of players in and out of our back line due to injury the first half of the season. Today, we had Alexis (Mencotti), who has started the last 11 games and hadn't had a start until that point, stepped up when Katy Woolley tore her ACL. Then on top of that, to have a freshman (Quinn) get her first college start today in a national championship game and play the way she did was absolutely fantastic.

"All season long, the outside backs (Juane Odendaal and Clare Carlson) have been tremendous. They're just two shut-down backs, and they were again today."
 
The unit cleared away nearly every Tars run. And Strauss nabbed anything that managed to get through, making seven saves to match her career high.
 
Strong defense quickly contributed to scoring opportunities. Just 16 ticks into the sixth minute, a defensive clear set up a run for the GVSU offense. Freshman forward Gabriella Mencotti got a bouncing ball inside the 18-yard box onto her right foot, sending it across the box to senior forward Jenny Shaba. One touch later, Shaba blasted her 11^th goal of the season past a diving Mary Spring.

"The first goal was huge, because it allowed us to settle in," said Hosler. "I thought Rollins did a good job the first 10 minutes of the game of delivering some probing and penetrating balls."

True to its yearlong adage, the Lakers were relentless. Even after the goal, they hounded Rollins' undersized back line, seemingly amplifying the pressure with every run at goal, eventually finishing with 11 shots.
 
Then came the reappearance of sophomore forward Kendra Stauffer. The 2013 Most Outstanding Offensive Player of the NCAA Tournament hadn't scored a goal since Sep. 28 at Findlay. She had been inching closer to ending the scoring drought in recent weeks, but couldn't seem to break through. Well, not until the Lakers needed an insurance goal in their biggest match anyway.
 
A gorgeous aerial through ball from sophomore midfielder Marti Corby gave Stauffer a one-v-one opportunity. After letting the ball bounce, Stauffer lined it up. With the keeper charging out, Stauffer lifted a perfect chip shot into the vacated goal.
 
Roughly 36 minutes after Stauffer's goal, Shaba added an exclamation point with 41 seconds left. The 2013 GLIAC Offensive Player of the Year rifled a shot from the middle of the 18 to make it 3-0.

"I was super pumped to just get after it, knowing it would be my last game," said Shaba. "I was just happy to be able to perform for my team."

Hosler saw something else on that final goal, too.

"I think Shaba was trying to smash the ball as hard as she could on the final goal to send a message," he grinned.

Shortly after the final horn sounded and the frenzied celebration began, Corby, G. Mencotti, Shaba and Strauss were named to the All-NCAA Tournament Team. Shaba earned Most Outstanding Offensive Player honors, while Strauss was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player.

With its championship victory, the Lakers are now one of only two Division II programs with at least four NCAA Championships. They also became the first school in Division II history to win back-to-back national titles twice. GVSU ended its season with a 22-2-2 overall record, matching the 2008, 2009 and 2010 clubs for the second-most wins in program history.

It may be too early to look ahead to 2015, but there will certainly be a chance for GVSU to continue its reign atop Division II in roughly 365 days. Although six seniors—Odendaal, Kaely Schlosser, Shaba, Charlie Socia, Strauss and Alyssa Wesley—will depart, the Lakers will bring back over half of their starting lineup, along with seven of their top 10 point getters. 

As everyone found out this season, these Lakers are here to stay.

Notes:
-The Lakers are now 32-8-6 in NCAA Tournament matches, including a 4-2-0 mark in NCAA Championship matches
-GVSU's 16 shutouts this season were tied with the 2006, 2009 and 2011 clubs for the fifth-most in school history
-With her appearance today, Charlie Socia became just the third player in program history to play 101 consecutive matches and touch the field for every match of her career
-Jenny Shaba's four points brought her career total to 102, moving her past Jenny Swalec for the seventh-most points in school history
-Shaba's game-winning goal was the ninth of her career, tying her with Kristen Eible and Charlie Socia for the 10th-most in GVSU history
-Shaba's four-point effort today marked the 17th time in her career she recorded at least four points in a match
-Andrea Strauss' 16th career solo shutout moved her into a tie with Abbey Miller for the fourth-most by a Laker
-GVSU improved to 4-0-0 against first-time opponents this season