The Calvin women's soccer team celebrated Senior Day with a 4-0 victory over the visiting Belles of Saint Mary's College. The Knights are now 14-2-1 overall and on top of the MIAA standings with a 12-0-1 conference mark. Calvin also has an unbeaten streak of 15 games heading into the final stretch of the MIAA regular season.

Senior Paige Capel (Hudsonville/Unity Christian HS) was the catalyst for Calvin in the win, scoring a pair of first half goals that sparked the Knights. The goals were the eighth and ninth of the season for Capel who now has 42 in her career, ranking 7th on the Calvin career list.

Capel put the Knights on the board in the 16th minute, dribbling to the edge of the Adrian box, beating a defender with a move and then smashing a strike over the keeper's head. In the 22nd minute, Capel slid over to the left wing and belted a shot off a feed from freshman Mackenna Nesky (Hudsonville/Unity Christian HS) just inside the far post to give Calvin a 2-0 lead.

Calvin then salted the game away early in the second half as Nesky blasted in rebound shot in the 57th minute for her second goal of the year. Two minutes later, senior Taylor TenHarmsel (Holland/Holland Christian HS) was able to head in a corner kick from senior teammate Kelsey Hiegel (Mundelein, IL/Mundelein HS) to put the Knights up 4-0. The goal was the eighth of the year for TenHarmsel.

Calvin held a 21-11 shots at goal advantage. Senior goalkeeper Holly Ellerbroek (Holland/Holland Christian HS) had three saves in 59 minutes of action while freshman Brianna Koehn (Grand Rapids/Forest Hills Eastern HS) went the final 31 to seal the shutout.

"I don't think we were particularly sharp as a team today," said Calvin women's soccer coach Mark Recker. "I think the key was the energy that Paige Capel brought early in the game. We have told her that now is the time for her to step up and she is doing exactly that. She made a couple of critical runs for us in the first half. Without them, the complexion of this game could have been much different."

Prior to Saturday's game, Calvin saluted seven seniors playing in their final regular season home game. Those seniors include Capel, Ellerbroek, Hiegel, TenHarmsel, Jaimie Verbal (Whitmore Lake/Dexter HS), Christina Drost (Denver, CO/Denver Christian HS) and Sidney Kinney (Ada/Grand Rapids Christian HS).

Calvin will now prepare for a difficult three-game road slate to close out the MIAA regular season. The Knights will travel to Alma on Tuesday (4 p.m.) and to Olivet next Saturday (2:30 p.m.) and then close out the regular season on November 2 at Hope (6 p.m.).