Video Highlights

ALLENDALE, Mich.—It was a tale of two halves for the Grand Valley State women's soccer team on Sunday afternoon, as the Lakers (9-0-1, 4-0-0 GLIAC) came out flat in the first half against undefeated Ashland University before putting the game away in strong form in the second half. GVSU scored three second half goals to earn their eighth straight win by a 5-0 final tally.
 
Gabriella Mencotti scored her fifth and sixth goals of the weekend in the 25^th and 69^th minutes, with the former being the game-winning goal, her third such goal of the season. Senior Kendra Stauffer also netted a pair of goals in the victory, both second half strikes.
 
Coming off Friday's big stage game against Tiffin, in which the Lakers coasted to a 10-0 victory, GVSU struggled to find an offensive rhythm early in this one. Ashland's physical, on-ball defense, coupled with the Laker's inaccuracies in the passing game, accounted for the lack of an early goal, and the defending national champions would not find the net until Mencotti's strike in the 25^th minute.
 
After Marti  Corby played one of the Laker's six corner kicks in the game into the Ashland goal box, junior Shannon Quinn headed the ball to Mencotti from the far post. Mencotti's easy finish with the left foot gave the Lakers a 1-0 lead. 
 
" I thought we were sluggish throughout the first half.", said GVSU head coach Jeff Hosler. "Ashland put a lot of pressure on us early, and we didn't respond well to it. Our saving grace today was how effective our subs were off the bench in the first half, I think that's when the game had it's best and most composed moments. At the same time, I think our starters responded really well in the second half."
 
The Lakers would wait 18 minutes for their next goal, this time off the foot of one of the aforementioned substitutions, Lindsay Ebeling. After freshman Charley Campbell played in a low pass to Mencotti moving to the right of goal towards the baseline, Mencotti's back heel pass found a waiting Ebeling eight feet in front of the net for a high and powerful volley into the net past a diving Barker. That strike in the 43^rd minute gave the Lakers a 2-0 halftime lead despite struggling heavily in the first half.
                                                                                                                  
"While we weren't playing as well in the first half as we would've liked, we were very opportunistic in finished the chances we had early on", Hosler said, "Obviously Lindsay gave us a huge boost before half, because going in with a two goal lead at half is very different than going in with one.
 
Coming out of halftime, the Lakers were a much improved side, as some of starters that had struggled in the first session came to play in the second. Stauffer in particular made an impact, becoming the dangerous attacker she is meant to be and scoring just four minutes into the second half. That strike came off a through ball from freshman Mia Gale, who threaded the needle behind two Eagle defenders to a streaking Stauffer, whose shot from 12 feet out caught Barker out of position, deflecting off her gloves into the right side of the net for the Lakers's third goal of the afternoon.
 
Striking again in the 64^th minute, Stauffer headed in a brilliant pass floated in from sophomore Madz Ham, directing the ball past Ashland reserve keeper Maddie Diestel for a 4-0 lead.
 
"Kenny is so hard to defend 1 v 1 when she has a sense of urgency, and she did not have that in the first half", Hosler said,  "Just doing the little things in the second half, linking up, finding moments to take players on and wanting to get to goal, scoring a great goal with her head, that was all good."
 
In the 69^th minute of play, Mencotti rounded out the scoring with her second goal of the game, also coming from a corner kick by Corby. Floated to the far side of the net by Corby, Mencotti jout-jumped three Ashland defenders to head the ball into goal from eight feet out to make the score 5-0.
 
On the other side of the ball, the Lakers were once again sharp in notching their eighth team shutout of the season. In total, GVSU allowed just four shots in the contest and only one shot on goal, which Jennifer Steinaway saved to notch her seventh clean sheet of the season. Ashland's top two scorers, junior Morgan Bittengle and 2015 GLIAC Freshman of the Year Deijah Swihart, were held completely in check by the Laker defense.
 
"Defensively we've been reading the game really well", Hosler said. "Our back four are all highly intelligent kids, they're not just good athletes. They have good ability on the ball, they read the game really well, they anticipate, they have good awareness and they know how to defend as a group, and that's a really big part of that success.. Ashland's a very good team, they were undefeated coming in for a very good reason. I think their coach is fantastic, with how he recruits and prepares his kids, he's got some of the most dangerous attackers in the league and we held them mostly in check aside from the opening 10 minutes of the match."
 
Mencotti led the Lakers with two goals and an assist, while Stauffer scored twice and Corby assisted on two goals to give her a team high 12 assists on the season. Overall, seven different Lakers recorded an assist, as the team had eight assist on the five team goals.
 
GVSU will face a quick turnaround, squaring off against previously 14^th ranked Florida Tech on Wednesday, October 5^th at GVSU Soccer Field. The Panthers are members of the highly competitive Sunshine State Conference and will be the Lakers final non-conference game of the regular season.