SPRING LAKE – The Spring Lake girls soccer team took everyone by surprise last season by going on a long run in the state tournament and finishing as the Division 2 runner-up, after losing to Bloomington Hills Marion in the state finals.

The young Lakers posted a 15-4-2 record, which was quite a turnaround after starting out 1-1-1.

This season the loaded Lakers won’t be sneaking up on anyone. They are going to be the hunted rather than the hunters.

“It’s scarier,” said star senior forward Meah Bajt about being the favorite in so many games this season. “We know a lot of people want to beat us. We have to focus more and know that people want to beat us. We just have to do the same things as last year.”

Spring Lake is off to a fantastic start this season, with a 4-0 victory over Western Michigan Christian and a 3-0 win over Cedar Springs. Both WMC and Cedar Springs always have strong teams, so the wins were good indications that the Lakers are headed in the right direction.

Head Coach Becky May learned right away that she has a strong defensive team, anchored by players like Eryn Bouwhuis, Ella Rabideau and Emma Nicles.

“It shows what our defense can do,” May said about the two shutout victories. “They’re really tough to get past. Part of that is they go against Meah (Bajt) every day in practice, which puts them on their heels.”

Offensively, Bajt has stolen the show., starting the season with back-to-back three-goal hat tricks.

“It was very fun,” said Bajt about her scoring outburst. “I just wanted to get my foot loose and get warmed up going back into the season. It’s exciting to see what our team can create up front, and I’m with Claire (Saunders) this year, who creates so much.”

Saunders and Bajt are two of eight returning starters from the 2021 squad, which gives May hope that her team will make limited mistakes.

“Our biggest goal as a team is we don’t want to give a game away,” the coach said. “We need to win the games where we’re the better team. We can’t give a game away by making critical mistakes. We have to minimize the errors and let the kids do what they do best.”

Spring Lake will get a major test on Friday on the road against North Muskegon, the defending Division 4 state champion. Like the Lakers, the Norse return a lot of talented players from last season, and the game should be a very good one.

“Obviously that’s a huge game,” said May about the non-conference clash. “It’s the (Division 4) state champs versus the (Division 2) runners-up. It’s actually kind of rare, but I think it’s a good test for both teams.”

The importance of the early-season showdown isn’t lost on Bajt.

“I’m really excited to play them,” she said. “They’re just a really great team. It will be a good game to see where we stand and where our team chemistry stands.”

No matter how far the Lakers go this season, Bajt is hopeful that she and her fellow seniors get everything they can out of their last varsity experience and have a great time.

“Obviously it will be sad when it ends,” Bajt said. “But I think all of us seniors are thinking it’s our last chance to prove what we have. We’re going to go out every day and play as hard as we can. We want to get back (to the finals).”