No. 1 Lakers yet to allow a goal this season, move to 8-0-1

GVL / Robert Mathews
Abbey Miller

GVL / Robert Mathews Abbey Miller

Pete Barrows

The Grand Valley State University women’s soccer team returned home on Friday having scored 13 goals in seven matches this season. In two games against GLIAC opponents over the weekend, GVSU scored 15 times.

“I think we were able to score as much as we did as a team because that’s what we’ve been striving for
in practice, knowing that we’re so young and still trying to connect with each other offensively,” said
senior midfielder Shelby Humphries. “We wanted to put on a good show for our home crowd.”

GVSU (8-0-1, 6-0 GLIAC) opened against Malone (3-4-1, 1-3 GLIAC) at home on Friday night and
routed the Pioneers 8-0, scoring six goals in the second half.

The Lakers scored more than two goals for only the second time this season.

“You don’t shoot, you don’t score,” said head coach Dave Dilanni. “We’re really deep, we have a lot of
options and it’s making everyone play better, longer.”

Freshman midfielder Marti Corby, who fired 18 shots over the weekend and leads the Lakers with 47
on the season, notched goal No. 1 in the ninth minute off an assist from junior forward Jenny Shaba.

The goal was Corby’s first as a Laker.

“Finishing,” she said. “It’s been one of our main goals in practice and I guess it just clicked this
weekend. My mentality is to take opportunities when they’re presented…I was feeling it. We were
feeling it.”

On Sunday, the Lakers came prepared with plenty of offense for a rainy day of action in Allendale. The
opponent was Walsh (3-6-1, 0-5) and the match was a near carbon copy of the route stormed against
Malone on Friday.

“Both games were similar in the fact that our girls did a nice job of making some adjustments at
halftime,” Dilanni said. “It just seems like one (goal) is turning into five really quickly.”

Through a torrential downpour, the Laker side was held to a single score in the first half, a goal by
Humphries in minute 31.

The GVSU offense opened with the clouds, however, and safely navigated both inclement conditions
and Walsh defenders to reign over and rain upon their opponent with 46 shots and seven goals, six of
which once again came in the second half.

In minute 64, Humphries beat her defender in the box and netted a ball in the upper 90 of the crease
for her second goal of the game. Freshman defender Clare Carlson then scored goal No. 3 in minute
70 and just 20 seconds later, Humphries completed her hat trick, the first hat trick recorded by a
Laker since Kayla Addison scored three goals in a 5-0 win over Michigan Tech in October of 2010.

“I was able to score as much as I did because of my teammates,” Humphries said. “They really set me
up well to score, and coming off the bench and a cortisone shot earlier in the week, it was just
exciting to be out there and play and pickup that first goal in my career here (at GVSU).”

Freshman forward Emily Bush scored her first collegiate goal in minute 79, then assisted on Emery’s
goal in minute 83 that gave the Lakers a 6-0 lead. Shaba added the final goal of the contest less than
30 seconds later, giving her a goal in five of GVSU’s last six matches.

Overshadowed for the only the third time this season, the Laker defense was once again stout, holding
Malone to two shots and Walsh to three shots while preserving a nine-game shutout streak to begin
the 2013 campaign.

GVSU will return to action on Wednesday when it travels to take on the University of Indianapolis at
6:30 p.m.

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