ST. LOUIS – The Saints were narrowly defeated 1-0 by the reigning national champion Grand Valley State University Lakers on Saturday afternoon. Despite battling and earning scoring chances in the second half, Maryville fell just short of the first-ranked Lakers.
 
The visitors held possession for a majority of the first half and put their first shot goal at 5:34 that starting goalie Katie Nash stopped with a diving save. Grand Valley picked up their first goal 10 minutes later, however, when Nina Ferraro got free of the defense and found goal scorer Ryan Fetty in the box for the early lead.
 
Another Laker scoring chance came at 28:54 when Kennedy Bearden aimed a shot at the top left corner of the goal. Nash once again sprawled out to make the diving save to keep things 1-0. Three minutes later, Ashlyne Hunt put Maryville's first shot on goal but was denied by goalie Kendall Robertson. The score heading at the end of the first half remained 1-0.
 
The Saints applied a lot more offensive pressure in the second half, highlighted by a pair of shot attempts from freshman Gina Catanzaro in the 67th minute and the 86th minute. After Catanzaro's header with four minutes remaining, the Lakers ran down the rest of the time to hand Maryville their first loss of the season.
 
Next on the schedule is a home meeting with Quincy University on Friday, September 2. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. at Maryville Soccer Field.