ALLENDALE, Mich. – Grand Valley State women's lacrosse suffered a 14-5 defeat at the hands of #3 Lindenwood in their 2015 home opener at the GVSU Lacrosse/Track & Field Stadium. The loss, which snaps the Lakers' two-game winning streak, puts their record at 3-4 on the year, while the highly ranked Lions improve to 8-0 with the win.
 
Lindenwood drew first blood with a goal at 27:56, but Ryan Skomial with Zoe Stiemann for her 10th goal of the season to knot the game at 1-1 less than five minutes into the opening half. Lindenwood scored the next three goals in a span of seven minutes to pull ahead 4-1.
 
Erika Neumen scored her first goal of the evening on an unassisted strike at 13:25 to pull GVSU to within two. Two more Lion goals would increase their lead to four, but Neumen struck for the second time off a pass by Brooke Ingraham to make the score 6-3 with 5:54 left before halftime. However, Lindenwood would score goals at 4:21 and :05 to put the third-ranked team in the country on top 8-3 going into the break.
 
The Lions continued their run into the second half with two goals in the span of 2:35 to go ahead 10-3 with plenty of time left on the clock. Neumen ripped a shot past the keeper for her third goal of the contest off a feed by Skomial to reduce the deficit to six.
 
Lindenwood would go on a run of four goals from 21:36 until 12:44, keeping GVSU off the board while putting the 10-goal running clock into effect for the last 12 minutes of the contest by stopping five GVSU shots and forcing the Lakers into committing three turnovers. Neumen's fourth goal of the contest stopped the running clock and put the final score at 14-5.
 
Neumen led the team and tied for the game-lead with four goals, giving her 25 on the year. This marks the sixth game she has led the team in scoring. Skomial tallied three assists to lead the team, putting her season total at nine just under halfway through the season. Skomial also led the game with five draw controls. Alyssa Neumen scooped up a team-leading three ground balls, and Sarah Zwilsky made six saves in the loss.
 
Despite coming on the losing end of the game, Grand Valley State managed to outshoot Lindenwood (25-24) and pull down more draw controls (13-9). Unfortunately, they committed more turnovers (19-15), committed more fouls (21-20) and picked up fewer ground balls (17-16).
 
Grand Valley State returns to the field on Thursday (Mar. 26) when they host Fort Lewis at 7 p.m.