North Michigan News

Northern Michigan University’s athletic teams saw a mix of results across several sports during the week of September 22 to September 28.

The women’s volleyball team ended a difficult stretch by winning both of its first home matches. The Wildcats secured a five-set victory over previously undefeated Parkside, overcoming a two-sets-to-one deficit and finishing with a strong run in the fifth set. They followed this performance with a straight-set win against Roosevelt. Senior McKenzie Gruner tied her career high with 15 kills and posted an attack percentage of .414, sharing the team lead in blocks with Emilia Gulock at 2.5 each.

In women’s soccer, NMU suffered a 0-4 defeat against No. 3 Grand Valley State but rebounded to defeat Davenport 4-0 on Sunday. Against Davenport, Northern outshot its opponent 23-11 and controlled possession for nearly 60% of the match. Addison Frantti and Hannah Kastamo combined for goals and assists, while Irene Killunen scored twice from free kicks.

On the men’s soccer side, NMU split its road games—claiming their first conference win with a 1-0 result at Purdue Northwest before falling by the same scoreline at Roosevelt. Luca Rosen scored the decisive goal against Purdue Northwest after passes from Teun Van Gansewinkel and James Carr. Goalkeeper Asaf Kristal kept his third clean sheet of the season during that match.

The cross country team placed fourth out of 23 teams at the Lucian Rosa Invite in Wisconsin, finishing behind three nationally ranked programs: Adams State, Colorado School of Mines, and UC-Colorado Springs. Senior Madi Szymanski led NMU runners with a ninth-place finish among more than 200 competitors.

Women’s golf finished near the bottom in two tournaments—the Warrior Invitational (12th out of 13) and Bulldog Fall Classic (13th out of 13). At both events, Maddy Martens was Northern's top performer; she finished tied for 34th at Warrior Invitational after back-to-back rounds of +7 and climbed five spots to finish 44th at Bulldog Fall Classic after shooting a final-round score of 79 (+7).