Minnesota Duluth's Natalie St. Martin (left) duels for the ball with Northern Michigan University's Anna Worman during the first half of a game against Minnesota Duluth Sunday, Sept. 2, 2018. (Journal photo by Ryan Stieg)

MARQUETTE — After getting dealt its first loss of the year Sunday, the Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team will head out on its first road trip this week.

The Wildcats will be heading down south for this journey as they take on Southern Indiana at Purdue University-Northwest’s campus Thursday and then move over to Illinois to face Lewis on Sunday. Both teams are winless so far with USI sitting at 0-2 and Lewis at 0-1.

In last week’s opening weekend, the Wildcats took down St. Cloud State 2-1 Thursday thanks to goals from forwards Taelor Moore and Jenna Halonen. Moore’s tally came less than three minutes into the game helping NMU defeat the Huskies for the first time since 2008.

On Sunday, Northern fell to Minnesota Duluth 2-0 despite controlling play for the majority of the contest. The Bulldogs didn’t record a shot in the first 28 minutes of the game, but started to find a groove in the second half. Duluth got on the scoreboard during a scramble in front in front of the net where the Wildcats were unable to clear the ball out.

NMU had two good chances to tie the game at 1-1, but a nice deflection in front of the net and a leaping save from the Bulldogs’ goalkeeper helped preserve the shutout. UMD then clinched the win with a goal in the final minute of play.

The Wildcats play USI at 6 pm. Thursday and Lewis at 1 pm. Sunday.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.