Grand Valley football, ranked as high as No. 4 in preseason polls, opens
its season with a tough challenge from No. 3 Colorado School of Mines
Image credit - Valerie Hendrickson
Lakers football, women's soccer teams face big challenges in home openers
Sep 1, 2022
Grand Valley opens the 2022 football season at 7 p.m. September 1, meeting one of the best Division II teams in the country.
The Lakers, who are ranked as high as No. 4 in preseason polls, welcome No. 3 Colorado School of Mines to Lubbers Stadium.
Colorado School of Mines is the first of two NCAA Division II semi-finalists the Lakers will face in the first seven weeks of the season. The other is rival Ferris State, the defending Division II champion, on October 15.
Head coach Matt Mitchell said the Lakers have been laying the groundwork for success since Ferris State knocked them out in the second round of last year's Division II playoffs.
“It goes back to the work in spring ball, summer workouts and fall camp,” Mitchell said. “You can’t get ready for those types of games in four or five days. You have to build a foundation through everything you do.”
The No. 4 Lakers open their 2022 football season against No. 3 Colorado
School of Mines at Lubbers Stadium.
Image credit - Valerie Hendrickson
The Lakers returns a veteran group with 59 letterwinners, which includes eight All-GLIAC honorees and five preseason All-Americans.
Grand Valley fans will have plenty of options to follow the action, thanks to a new streaming partnership between the GLIAC and FloSports, the largest Division II rights deal to date.
Lakers fans can register for an annual subscription at the GLIAC’s home page on FloSports and view FloSports content online or via iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire and Chromecast.
Three Lakers football games, including the September 1 season opener, will also be broadcast locally on WXSP-TV (Channel 15 over-the-air broadcast in the Grand Rapids area), serving as the exclusive in-market television partner.
Every game this season will also be broadcast across West Michigan on the radio via 96.9 WLAV-FM.
For full coverage of GVSU football, including broadcast info, news, features, highlights, press conferences and more, follow @GVSUFootball on social media or visit gvsulakers.com.
Women's soccer
The No. 1 Lakers women's soccer team, which won the 2019 and 2021 NCAA
Division national championships, faces No. 6 Central Missouri to start
the home portion of its schedule.
Image credit - Courtesy
No. 1 Grand Valley will face its first ranked opponent of the season with No. 6 Central Missouri visiting for a 7 p.m. contest on Friday, September 2.
The Lakers are the two-time defending NCAA Division II champions after winning titles in 2019 and 2021. The 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic.
A two-game road trip to open the season produced the Lakers’ first two wins, heading into Friday’s game with Central Missouri.
There will be plenty of new faces on this year’s roster, including a new coaching staff, beginning with head coach Katie Hultin. Assistant coach Mario Zuniga-Gill, goalkeeper coach Sam Tracey and graduate assistant Taylor Timko join Hultin’s staff.
Hultin said fans can expect a lot of new faces on the club — nine first-year players and three transfers — but their skill and talent should mesh nicely with the solid core of returners like goalkeeper Kendall Robertson and forward Kennedy Bearden.
“All the returners are going to be impactful, and that’s one of the main expectations for our team, and that’s no matter your role, whether on the bench or on the field, you’re impactful,” Hultin said.
Friday’s game is available on FloSports. Lakers fans can register for an annual subscription at the GLIAC’s home page on FloSports.
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