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MARQUETTE — There’s almost nowhere to go but up for the women’s soccer team at Northern Michigan University.

The Wildcats were picked ninth in the 10-team GLIAC in the coaches preseason poll released earlier this week.

NMU received 24 points from the league’s nine other coaches as they vote for their predicted order of finish except for their own team.

Northern Michigan University sophomore forward Rachael Erste, right, slides around Wisconsin-Parkside's Samantha Nickell as Erste knocks the ball away in the second half of their GLIAC women's soccer game played at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Sept. 27, 2019. (Photo courtesy Daryl T. Jarvinen)

Northern was just one point behind No. 8 Wisconsin-Parkside in the voting and eight votes behind No. 7 Michigan Tech. The Wildcats were also chosen ahead of Purdue

Northwest, which received the minimum nine votes.

NMU returns 14 players from its fall 2019 roster, the last time the sport was played in the GLIAC, and 10 of the 14 returnees saw action in at least 14 games.

Assists leader Caroline Halonen is among the Northern returnees as she’s now a junior. She finished ’19 with two goals, including a game winner, and five assists.

The other multi-goal scorer returning is junior Rachael Erste, who had two goals, one a game winner.

Coach Jon Sandoval, who was named head coach of the women’s team in February 2020, will lead his NMU squad for the first time with a two-game road trip in the Grand Rapids area next weekend. The Wildcats play at 4 p.m. Friday at Grand Valley and 11 a.m. Sunday, March 21, at Davenport.

Northern’s first home game is the following weekend, Sunday, March 28, at 4 p.m. when the Wildcats host Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech. The Wildcats are scheduled to play home games indoors in the Superior Dome, but if weather permits, some may be moved outside to the nearby NMU Soccer Field.

Northern plays two games per weekend for the first three weeks of April, ending its regular season at home at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 18, against Parkside. The GLIAC Tournament follows over the next two weekends extending into early May.

Northern was 5-13 overall and 2-7 in the GLIAC in 2019, good for a tie for eighth with Michigan Tech and only a half-game behind Parkside.

The Wildcats won out on a tiebreaker to earn the final spot in the league tournament, where they lost at regular-season champion Grand Valley State 5-1 in the quarterfinals. GVSU went on to win the playoff championship, too, beating Ferris State 3-0 in the semifinals and Saginaw Valley State 4-1 in the finals.

Not surprisingly, the votes in this year’s preseason poll nearly mirror the teams’ finish in 2019.

In 2019, Grand Valley won the league with a perfect 9-0 record, and this winter the Lakers are a unanimous pick to win it again, getting nine first-place votes and 81 poll points.

The 2019 co-runners-up, Ashland and Saginaw Valley, are picked in 2021 to finish second and fourth, respectively, with the next team from 2019, Ferris, now slotted between them in third.

Northwood and Davenport tied for fifth in 2019 and were picked fifth and sixth, respectively, with just one poll vote between them this winter.

Parkside was seventh in 2019, while MTU and NMU tied for eighth. This time around, Tech is picked seventh, Parkside eighth and Northern ninth. And Purdue NW was 10th in 2019, just where they are picked now.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.

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