ALLENDALE, Mich. – #8 Grand Valley State opened GVSU Lacrosse Stadium with a convincing win on Friday, taking down conference opponent McKendree 23-11. The win give the Lakers a 3-3 record overall and a 1-0 mark against GLIAC opponents, while the Bearcats drop to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the conference.
 
Erika Neumen paced the Laker offense with six goals scored, with five coming in the second half, while Meghan Datema put up four goals and one assist for five points, and Carolyn Kraus put up five points on three goals and two assists. Ryan Skomial and Kira Dosenberry both put up three goals and one assist, and Chelsey Bishop dished out a team-high three assists in the conference-opener.
 
Neumen led the team with six of their 25 draw controls, while Caitlin Wojichowski scooped up a team-best four ground balls in the win. The Laker defense caused 13 of McKendree's 20 turnovers on the afternoon, with Wojichowski leading the way with four. Sarah Zwilsky earned the win after playing the entire first half and making one save. Brianna DeMilia played the entire second half and made six saves in her relief appearance.

Grand Valley State took 50 shots while limiting McKendree to just 21. The Lakers also held an advantage in ground balls (22-19) and draw controls (25-11) and committed three fewer turnovers than their opponents.
 
The teams traded the first two goals of the game, with Datema scoring the first goal of the day on an unassisted strike and McKendree scoring right back, until Grand Valley State went off for eight unanswered goals to pull ahead 9-1. Datema and Dosenberry tallied two goals during the run, while the other goals came from Carlyn Shisler, Kelley Fitzgerald, Skomial and Neumen.
 
GV kept McKendree off the board until 10:21, but back-to-back goals by Kraus from Bishop and off a free-position attempt gave the highly-ranked Lakers an 11-2 lead with 8:44 to go in the half.
 
Skomial fed Neumen for the All-American junior's second goal of the afternoon shortly following a McKendree goal, but McKendree refused to roll over as the Bearcats ran off four unanswered goals in four minutes to bring the visitors to within five of the hosts. A free-position goal by Danielle Tunnell with 36 second on the clock gave the Lakers a 13-7 lead going into the break.
 
Following a McKendree goal 41 seconds into the second half of play, Neumen took over for the Lakers as she buried three straight goals to jump-start a seven-goal run to give the Lakers a 12-point advantage over the Bearcats. Craus, Dosenberry and Datema all scored during the run, putting a running clock into effect.
 
A McKendree goal stopped the run at 11:55, but a pair of goals by Skomial and a strike from Shisler put the Lakers up 23-9 with 5:16 left in the contest. Two more goals by the Bearcats late in the half gave them 11 goals before the final whistle sounded.
 
The eighth-ranked Lakers will face a quick turnaround when they play again on Saturday (Mar. 26) in a GLIAC affair against Indianapolis (2-5, 0-2 GLIAC) at 1 pm.