North Michigan News

The Northern Michigan University (NMU) women's lacrosse team concluded their regular season with a victory against the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears, securing an 11-5 win in St. Paul, Minnesota. This triumph marks NMU's best regular season record in program history, finishing at 13-4 overall and 4-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). The team enters the postseason with wins in four of their last five games.

Minnie Bittell led the Wildcats by achieving her 300th career point, contributing four goals and four assists for a total of eight points, alongside three draw controls. This performance marked her tenth instance this season scoring four or more goals and fifth time recording eight or more points.

Kaitlyn Bridger added to the scoreboard with a hat-trick, reaching 34 goals for the season after a successful last-minute free position attempt. Molly Ruhland achieved a personal best with four draw controls and one ground ball. Natalie Thomas, Olivia Rose, and Madi Bast each contributed three ground balls.

Lauren Esposito was instrumental in goal with 11 saves on 16 shots, yielding a .688 save percentage. The Wildcats dominated most major statistical categories including shots (34-23), shots on goal (21-16), and ground balls (24-20). They finished their regular season maintaining strong records both at home (7-2) and away (6-2).

The match began after a brief delay but saw Bittell quickly put NMU ahead just 42 seconds into play. Despite Concordia-St. Paul's efforts to respond, Bridger soon extended NMU's lead off an assist from Bittell. By halftime, NMU held a comfortable lead thanks to Bittell’s contributions.

In the second half, NMU continued to control the game with Stanton scoring early in the third quarter. The teams exchanged goals throughout but NMU maintained their advantage until securing an 11-5 victory.

Looking ahead, NMU will participate in the GLIAC tournament starting Friday, May 3rd.