PITTSBURGH — The Grand Valley State Women's Soccer team has done nothing but dominate the Division II tournament over the past decade. And on Saturday, that continued when the Lakers won their sixth national championship—their first since 2015.
Playing at Highmark Stadium in Pittsburgh, the Lakers beat Western Washington 1-0 in a game that went into overtime. Grand Valley credited their defense's strong plays for the win.
At the half, the game was 0-0 between the two teams who were fighting hard for a national title. This match up was one the Lakers had seen before; they lost 2-3 to the Vikings in the 2016 national championship game.
In the second half, goalkeeper Jessica Radice blocked a kick from Western Washington's Grace Eversaul.
“We were not going to let (what happened last year) happen again,” Radice said after the match.
The Lakers' defense played hard in the second half when the Vikings had several corner kicks. But GVSU kept them out of the net.
Radice had another save in the second.
The second half ended with both teams at 0, so the championship game went into golden-goal overtime. In the first period, the Lakers controlled much of the game, but neither team managed to score.
In the second period of golden goal, the Vikings had a free kick but the shot sailed over the bar. Then the Lakers' Gianna Parlove kicked the ball into the goal, ending the game and winning Grand Valley another title.
“The feeling was just incredible. To be surrounded by my best friends and celebrate what we’ve worked so hard for all year,” Parlove said. We showed so much resiliency today and I couldn’t be happier.”
The Lakers set a new record for goals in a season, which ended 25-1-0.
“If you look at the box score, the better team lost today. But the fight we showed, the way our defense stepped up – particularly Jess – and then Abby (Willerer) and Liv (Olivia Trombley) when Cec (Cecilia Steinwascher) went down. That was incredible. It’s hard to put into words how I feel right now,” said head coach Jeff Hosler, who earned his third National Championship in six years as head coach at GVSU.
The Lakers have won the national championship six times and they've been runners-up three times since 2009. They only didn't make an appearance the final game twice in the last decade, in 2012 and 2017.
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