Sept. 27-- EAST GRAND RAPIDS Mehney Field at the EGR Middle School will be closed for the rest of the field hockey (and soccer) season starting on Monday, Sept. 29th. The Lady Pioneers made sure that they gave a proper send-off when they hooked up with the Grand Blanc Bobcats on Saturday. The team from EGR made sure they preserved home field advantage. The team from Grand Blanc travelled quite a distance to take on the local girls, and probably wished they had not made the trip. From the opening whistle, the Pioneers dominated the time of possession and controlled the tempo. The difficulty for the Lady Bobcats was not stopping the home team, it was trying to figure out who to stop. Contributions came from all over the field, from the defense to the offense, and from starters to substitutions. By the end of the first quarter, EGR held a 3-0 advantage. After an initial foray into the EGR defensive area, Grand Blanc seemed to succumb to the ball-control sustained possession by EGR. After forcing an offensive penalty corner, Avery Albers ('27) finished off a stealthy pass from Toccoa Lepley ('29) with the first goal. Only a minute later, Lepley again was able to slide a pass to Camilla Volovlek ('28), who had positioned herself on the far post and slotted home the second goal. The final goal of the quarter came off of the stick of Vivian Cherveny ('26) as she gathered in the rebound off of a shot from Peyton Astrauskas ('27) from a corner and stuck it into the back of the net past the Grand Blanc netminder. The second quarter brought more of the same type of dominant ball possession. With more corner opportunities, the Lady Pioneers scored off one of those corners with an insert from Addi Storrs ('26) to Astrauskas, who cracked a shot from the top of the circle that banged against the backboards. Six minutes later, a shot on net for EGR off of another corner got past the goalkeeper, but was illegally stopped from going into the net by a foot foul from the Bobcat defender. The resulting penalty stroke gave Astrauskas her second goal of the day when she flicked her shot into the top left part of the goal, well out of the reach of the Bobcat goalie. The final goal of the first half came from the stick of Neel van Woudenbergh ('26), one of the Dutch exchange students, as she got her name on the score sheet by finishing a nice pass from Cherveny and pushing a shot into the net for the 6-0 lead heading into the break. After the halftime, during which Mr. Casey Smith (Social Studies) was honored as the Teacher of the Match for this game, the girls from EGR came out with a definite plan to maintain possession as long as possible. The goals were not plenty in the frame, but the time of possession was dominated by the team in blue and gold. The one goal of the quarter was scored by Tess Bombery ('28) as she gathered a pass from classmate Volovlek and pushed her shot to the left of the outstretched pads of the Bobcat keeper. As the final stanza began, the Lady Pioneers picked up right where they left off as they bounced passes from one player to the other, keeping the Bobcats chasing and never quite catching up to the next pass. Off-ball movement and consistent communication allowed the home team to move the ball at will around the field from defense to midfield to the offense. Goalie Ellie Hilgendorf ('26) got in on the action by participating in helping to transfer the ball across the back line with a strong kick from the right to her teammate on the left. The game lasted until the fourth minute of the quarter when Lepley completed her trio of assists on the day with a solid rip on net that Bombery gathered a rattled home for her second of the game. The game was a dominant performance and one that we have come to enjoy on Mehney Field. Going forward, matches will be held for the Lady Pioneers on the turf in Memorial Stadium the rest of this season, which includes this coming Monday's final home game of the regular season. This game against Hudsonville will be our opportunity to celebrate the eleven Seniors in the program this year. Please come out and support them as the festivities will kick-off at 6:30 with the match starting at 7 PM as they bid farewell to their home field one last time during the regular season. The JV will play Hudsonville as well with that game tipping off at 5:30 PM in a rematch of Saturday's match, won by the Lady Pioneers with a suspenseful 1-0 result. We will also be honoring Monday night's referees before the Varsity match as part of Umpire Appreciation Week. A picture will be taken prior to the game with both teams, coaches and umpires for the match. If you have a chance, please extend your appreciation with a thank you to our umpires- without them, our girls would not get to play.