ALLENDALE, Mich. – The No. 1 Grand Valley State Lakers used an offensive barrage to earn a 5-2 season-opening win over the Rollins Tars Thursday night (Sept. 5) at the GVSU Soccer Field. GVSU begins the season 1-0 while the Tars are 0-1 to start the year. Ava Cook scored twice, Riko Sagara had a goal and two assists and a pair of freshmen, Chantel Carranza and Kennedy Bearden recorded their first career goals.
The Lakers got off to a fast start when a combination from Sagara through Caitie Baron found Carranza to open the scoring in the 16'. Cook then took on the entire defense from the left side of the box and pinged a goal inside the far post to double the lead, 2-0, headed into half.
It was a fast start out of the locker room, too. Cook scored just 82 seconds into the second half after a through ball from Sagara put her behind the defense. Sagara turned goal-scorer just 15 minutes later with a long-range strike from 30 yards out straight-away into the top shelf.
The Tars answered with two goals in 66 seconds around the hour mark to get themselves back into the match, but the Laker defense stiffened and then with under four minutes left, Kennedy Bearden had a great charge after a feed from Cecilia Steinwascher and scored her first career goal.
Rollins was also shown three yellow cards in the match as things turned fairly physical down the stretch. GVSU out-shot Rollins 21-9, including an 11-4 edge in shots on goal. The Lakers will face yet another test this Saturday (Sept. 7) when they take on sixth-ranked Lee at 11:00 AM.
