Reality CheckPublished on: February 22, 2010
Walker, MI — In sports, the term ‘trap game’ is often thrown around. It is a relatively unimportant game that precedes a huge matchup. This weekend, the Grand Valley State University women’s hockey team found themselves trapped by the University of Michigan. Taking on the Wolverines, a team they trounced 5-0 earlier in the year, the Lakers struggled offensively throughout the weekend. A second period UM goal stood up on Friday as the only tally of the game, and goalie Hannah Robbins turned away all 27 shots that came her way as the Lakers fell 1-0. On Saturday, the Lakers came from behind multiple times but had to settle for a 3-3 tie. Head hockey coach Cory Whitaker said his team, that coming into the weekend had only lost one game since the New Year, may have been caught looking ahead to both the upcoming conference playoffs and national tournament. “Sometimes, with as young as we are, we lose focus on what the overall picture is and get caught looking too far ahead,” he said. “We’re worrying about playoffs and nationals, wondering who we’re going to play, and when you do that on a consistent basis it catches up to you, and you lose sight of the teams that come in hungry and a little bit bent out of shape. I think we may have needed to be chopped down from our pedestal a little bit going into the important weekends of playoffs and nationals.” The last home weekend of the year also served as senior night, as the Lakers honored their lone graduating senior, Stephanie Murray, the last remaining member from the team’s inaugural season three years ago. Murray, who also serves as the team captain, said one of her main roles from here is to guide the team through the postseason. “Last year we had a lot of freshmen on the team and this year we’ve added some new people, so I think they are looking to the older people like me to lead them in playoffs and nationals because they don’t particularly know what it is or what to expect,” she said. “We just need to work on the little things to correct going into playoffs and nationals, just so we can have that extra boost to carry us, and I think the emotion should give us the extra confidence and energy to play well.” Sophomore goalie Kristie Kowalski, who was the hard-luck-loser in the Lakers’ 1-0 loss on Friday after turning away all but one of 28 shots, said in order for the Lakers to have success in the upcoming playoff and national tournament they’ll have to play a better team game than they played the past weekend. “For playoffs and nationals, we just have to pull off our systems,” she said. “We have to get those down to the point where we had them at earlier in the year. We’re just super excited to have a shot at nationals this year. All the teams are evenly ranked and it’s going to be a really competitive week of hockey.” 
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