North Michigan News

The Northern Michigan University women's soccer team is set to host two conference opponents this weekend in Marquette, including the nationally ranked No. 3 Grand Valley State Lakers and the Davenport Panthers.

The Wildcats, with a record of 1-2-3 overall and 1-1-0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC), return home after starting their conference schedule on the road. This will be their first weekend of home GLIAC matches under head coach Erin Egolf. Last weekend, NMU split its games, earning Egolf her first win as head coach following a strong offensive performance late in the second half.

NMU will face Grand Valley State (4-1-0 overall, 1-0-0 GLIAC) on Friday, September 26 at 1 p.m., followed by a match against Davenport (0-4-2 overall, 0-2-0 GLIAC) on Sunday, September 28 at noon.

Head coach Erin Egolf commented on the team's approach: "For our [team], it's about having the mentality that we are going to be in a dog fight, and that we want to make the game difficult for [our opponents]... we want to make teams have to battle us as hard as they can."

In their recent road games, NMU secured its first win of the season against Roosevelt in Chicago after scoring four goals in the final thirty minutes. The goals came from Marena Maceroni, Madison Bilbia, Alyse Daavetilla, and Addison Frantti. Assists were provided by Maceroni, Gretchen Ellis, and Kenna Alexander. Only Jillian Thompson, Hannah Kastamo, and Irene Kiilunen played all ninety minutes.

In their next game against Parkside in Kenosha, NMU lost 1-2 with Kenna Alexander scoring via penalty kick. Redshirt freshman goalkeeper Carly Sides made her debut with eight saves—the most for an NMU goalkeeper debut since at least 2009—and Addison Wargo along with Kiilunen played every minute.

Grand Valley State enters this weekend after reaching last season's NCAA Tournament Elite Eight and moving up from fifth to third place nationally according to United Soccer Coaches’ latest poll. The Lakers are led offensively by Sarah Fromm with three goals; Alli French has scored twice over her last two games; Cora Conley leads with three assists across recent matches. In goalkeeping changes this season, Sara Csernyik started four games before being replaced by freshman Macie Hunter who recorded a shutout last week.

Historically against Grand Valley State, NMU holds a record of 2 wins, 26 losses and three draws; their only home victory over GVSU was on September 19th of 2010.

Davenport remains without a win this season heading into Friday’s game at Michigan Tech before traveling to Marquette for Sunday’s match-up. The Panthers have scored just three goals across six games—with each goal and assist coming from different players—and senior Bailey Gauthier ranks third among GLIAC goalkeepers with twenty-two saves so far this year. Davenport has both the lowest scoring offense and one of the highest goals allowed totals within conference play.

NMU is unbeaten at home versus Davenport since October 20th of 2019 and has won seven out of nine recent meetings between these teams.