ALLENDALE, Mich. -- The No. 13 Grand Valley State Lakers 2018 season came to a close Friday night in a 27-19 loss to the McKendree Bearcats in the semifinals of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament. The Bearcats advance to the championship match while the Lakers finish the season 13-5 overall with an 11-1 GLIAC record and regular season championship. This will be the first GLIAC Tournament finals in history to not feature the Lakers.

The Lakers scored two of the game's first three goals. Carly Shisler opened the scoring and Sophie Conroy broke a 1-1 tie just a few minutes later. The game turned in the final four minutes of the first half. GVSU trailed by two and seemed to be gaining momentum, but the Bearcats rattled off four unanswered goals to close the period and take a 12-6 lead into halftime.

GVSU came out of the locker room with ferocity, scoring two quick goals within three minutes. McKendree battled back with a pair of their own and then GVSU fought all the way back within one goal with five unanswered tallies. Shisler and Meghan Datema had two goals apiece during the run and Ashley Bailey, who led the Lakers with five goals on the day, found the back of the cage as well. McKendree again had the answer, responding to the 5-0 run with a stretch of six straight goals of their own. This time the hole proved too big for the Lakers to climb out of, as the desperation attempts allowed McKendree to balloon their lead as time ran out on the Lakers campaign.