ALLENDALE, Mich. – The defending National Champion Grand Valley State women's soccer team's fall 2021 schedule has been unveiled. The Lakers will play 18 regular season games and a brand-new Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) format this season. Click here to see the full schedule.
 
The Lakers start the season on Thursday, September 2, when they host the Lindenwood Lions in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. The Lakers will also host Findlay that Saturday in a matchup of perennial Midwest Regional hopefuls.
 
The Lakers will hit the road to Warrensburg, Missouri the following weekend to take on Northwest Missouri State on a neutral field and then face Central Missouri, whom GVSU had a six-year streak of facing in the NCAA Tournament Quarterfinals before 2019.
 
The new-look GLIAC format begins the following weekend as the nine-team league, with Ashland moving to the G-MAC, will play a 14-game conference schedule. The Lakers will face six of their eight opponents twice, once at home and once on the road, while facing Purdue Northwest and Saginaw Valley once. Both of those games will be played on the road.
 
The first conference games are slated for the weekend of September 17-19 with the Lakers making the trip to the Upper Peninsula to face Northern Michigan and Michigan Tech. The Lakers will play their GLIAC home-opener on Friday, September 24, in a prime-time showdown with the Parkside Rangers. Three of the Lakers' six home GLIAC games will be played Friday nights under the lights.
 
The Lakers have won 15 straight fall GLIAC regular season championships and 14 consecutive GLIAC Tournament titles. The six-time National Champions are also set to defend their 2019 crown after the fall 2020 season was canceled due to COVID-19 and there was no national tournament in the spring of 2021. For updates and news throughout the summer and into preseason, visit GVSULakers.com and follow @GVSUSoccer on social media.