By Shy’Ana Thomas
Grand Rapids Community College women’s soccer team earned their first victory of the season against Lake Michigan College in a match that ended 5-1 on Sept. 18. This win now puts the Raiders season record to 1-4-1.
The Raiders played a fantastic match against the Red Hawks which led them to walk away with the victory. Left back Keaton Morris reflected on the feeling of taking the win and how the other matches relate to this moment.
“I think we came out and played our best game today,” Morris said. “We did a lot of good passing around all the other players, and I think it really helped us out today and we got some good goals today.”
Morris also spoke about how this game was different from the rest, “I think mainly it was just our motivation and mentality about these games… Since it was our first actual conference game, we were excited to get a win on this.”
GRCC’s women’s soccer coach Jason Hill also shared his thoughts on the Raiders’ success and what motivated them.
“We could work hard all the time, you can expect to win, but that’s not how life works. And so, you can’t get down on yourself or on the team. You just gotta keep working hard and eventually good things are gonna come,” Hill said. “You know we did a little adjustment of formation and changed a couple of players, and it looks like those roles suited them better, so we were able to move the ball. You know we were able to use our deep end to get multiple subs in, and then just keep pressing, keep shooting, and things break here for us today.”
Motivation was a big thing that kept the Raiders on their toes for that game which gave them the result they were looking for. The winning goals came from four different players and assists from two players with those being sophomore midfielder Alexandria Ellsworth, sophomore forward Claira Deyoung who was assisted by sophomore forward Ava Simonson, sophomore forward Allyson Seevers, Simonson, and freshman forward/midfielder Emily Krampitz who was assisted by freshman defensive midfielder Sophia Harrison. Simonson left the game that afternoon with both a goal and assist for the team.
The Raiders will fight for their second victory of the season against Lakeland Community College at 1 p.m. Saturday Sept. 21 in Kirtland, Ohio. For information on the women’s soccer team, head to Grccraiders.com.
