ALLENDALE – The No. 7 Grand Valley State women's soccer team is set to open the 2024 season at home this week against a pair of Midwest region foes at the GVSU Soccer Field. The Lakers will begin the season hosting No. 9 Ashland on Thursday (Sept. 5) at 3:00 PM before hosting Cedarville on Saturday (Sept. 7) at 3:00 PM.
 
Ashland: Watch | Live Stats | Tickets
Cedarville: Watch | Live Stats | Tickets
 
Katie Hultin enters her third season as head coach of the Lakers and has posted a 30-6-11 overall record in her first two seasons. Hultin led the Lakers to a GLIAC Regular Season and Tournament Championship in 2022 and a Midwest Regional Championship in 2023.
 
GVSU returns 18 players that played last season including their top five leaders in points. Senior Taylor Reidreturns after coming off an All-American season leading the Lakers in goals and points last season. Reid is a two-time All-American, first team All-Region, and first team All-GLIAC performer. She was named the Midwest Region Player of the Year and GLIAC Offensive Player of the Year in the 2022 season. 
 
All-GLIAC defenders Kacy Lauer and Daan Louwerse return to help lead the Laker defense. Lauer was named to the all-region first team and was second on the team in minutes played and was also second with 11 points. Louwerse led the team in minutes played, starting in all 24 games last season.
 
The Lakers also bring back Kennedy Bearden who missed the 2023 season due to injury. Bearden is a two-time national champion and scored the game-winning goal for GVSU in the 2021 national championship game. In the 2022 season, Bearden led the Lakers with 33 points and was named a first team All-Region and All-GLIAC performer.
 
Sophomore goalkeeper Isabel Imes returns after compiling a 10-3-5 record in 19 games played in the 2023 season. Imes stopped 43 shots and recorded six individual shutouts. GVSU welcomes junior goalkeeper Cailynn Junk to Allendale this fall. Junk transferred to GVSU from IUPUI where she spent two seasons appearing in 18 games posting a 5-3-1 record, including three shutouts.
 
This will be the 35^th all-time meeting between GVSU and Ashland. The two programs played each other twice last season. Ashland won the opening game of the season 1-0 in Allendale, while the Lakers beat the Eagles 1-0 in Ashland in the NCAA Midwest Regional Championship game to claim the 15^th regional championship in program history. 
 
Ashland enters the 2024 season returning four of their top five leaders in points from last season. Junior Dani Hicks returns after leading Ashland with nine goals and 25 points last season. Hicks also led the team with four game-winning goals, 49 shots, and was tied with seven assists. Junior Merrik Mihalek returns after notching seven goals and five assists for 19 points in 2023. Senior McKinley Mendenhall and sophomore Ella Schnieder scored five goals each, while appearing and starting in all 24 games last season.
 
Ashland returns two goalkeepers that started at least 10 games last season. Mackenzie Simon returns as a fifth-year senior and posted a 13-0-1 record last season. Simon led the country in goals-against average (0.22) and save percentage (92.7). Maddie Dolenga returns for her senior season after posting a 6-1-3 record in goal last season. Dolenga notched a 0.19 goals-against average and 95.7 save percentage in 10 starts for the Eagles in 2023. 
 
This will be the fourth all-time meeting between GVSU and Cedarville. The Lakers lead the series 3-0-0 and won the last meeting 2-1 in the NCAA Tournament back in 2021. 
 
Cedarville finished the 2023 season with a 16-5-1 overall record and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. Megan McClish returns for the Yellow Jackets after leading the team with 11 goals, five assists, and 27 points. McClish notched six game-winning goals and 44 shots. Payton Fraley returns for Cedarville after scoring five goals and four assists for 14 points in the 2023 season. 
 
Cedarville returns fifth-year goalkeeper Brooke Ackley who appeared and started in all 22 games last season. Ackley posted a 16-5-1 record with five individual clean sheets and four combined clean sheets. She notched a 0.99 goals-against average and 77.2 save percentage. 
 
Both games will be streamed live on FloSports. Visit gvsulakers.com for links to live video, live stats, and tickets. Follow @gvsusoccer on Twitter for live in-game updates all weekend long.