The Grand Valley women's soccer team was in unfamiliar territory when it did not take a lead into halftime of Sunday's game against Ohio Dominican in Columbus, Ohio.
 
The nation's top scoring team in Division II would not be held back, however, and scored three goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half on the way to a 3-0 victory over the GLIAC foe.
 
"We created a couple of pretty good scoring chances in the first half, a couple of nice saves from their goalkeeper and one that hit off the post," said GVSU head coach Jeff Hosler. "In the second half, we were much more composed, which opened the game up, and as the game progressed, our fitness and style of play really opened up the game and gave us control."
 
Grand Valley got on the board right out of halftime when Katie Klunder scored her fifth goal of the season off of pass from defender Clare Carlson. Her shot from 18 yards out gave the Lakers a decisive early goal.
 
Just six minutes later, freshman defender Mackenzie Fox scored her first career goal for Grand Valley, taking the feed off of a free kick into the box by senior Katie Woolley and pushing it to the back of the net to push the Laker lead to two.
 
Midfielder Marti Corby got in on the action in the 54^th minute, after Jayma Martin played a nice ball in over top of the ODU defense. Corby chipped the ball past Panthers goalkeeper Marissa Wierzbicki for her 15^th goal of the season and the final score of the day.
 
Playing on the road against a tough defensive team was the theme for the weekend, and the Panthers showed a better effort early on in the game than the Lakers.
 
"ODU is a team that plays really hard, plays with a lot of intensity, and I thought they brought better intensity and execution in the first 15 minutes of the match, before our girls really switched on," Hosler said.  "Once we started knocking the ball around, having a little bit of patience and composure, that really changed the way the game went."
 
Grand Valley once again put forth a solid defensive effort, led by the play of senior center back Katie Woolley. The Lakers yielded just three shots on goal in the game, shutting out the Panthers.  
 
"I think staying organized and keeping the ball in front of us, communicating and staying in formation was the key to shutting out those two teams.," Woolley said. "I thought the game today started off a little show, but we really picked it up in the second half."
 
"ODU had a few shots early in the game, but they were all 18-30 yards away, and Emily Maresh didn't need to make a difficult save," Hosler said.  "They had one chance late in the second half, and Emily did a nice job closing down and holding the ball on the shot. "
 
GVSU's victory over ODU capped off a solid weekend for the team, as the Lakers defeated two very tough GLIAC foes on the road, defeated ranked and unbeaten Ashland, and managed to shut out both potent offenses.
 
"Defensively, these two teams we faced this weekend were teams with a lot of firepower offensively, so to get two wins, and come away with two shutouts, I'll call it a good weekend," Hosler said.
 
" It was a really good weekend, coming out on top of two of the top teams in the GLIAC," said Woolley.
 
The Lakers return to action on Friday, October 16^th, hosting Michigan Tech at 7 p.m at GVSU Soccer Field in Allendale, Mich.