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MARQUETTE — Coming off its second-ever appearance in the NCAA Division II national tournament, the Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team hopes for more success this fall as its schedule was recently revealed.

The fall season’s 18 matches runs from the end of August to the second day of November and include nine home games and 14 in the GLIAC.

In 2022, NMU finished 13-4-5 overall and 8-2-4 in the conference, good for second place in the regular season in head coach Jon Sandoval’s third year at the helm.

Jon Sandoval

Northern finished as runner-up in the GLIAC Tournament and just missed out on the league’s automatic NCAA berth after a 2-1 loss to Grand Valley State in the tourney’s championship game.

But NMU still received an NCAA at-large bid and played Maryville (Missouri) in its national tourney opener on Nov. 11, losing a tough 1-0 decision.

Since the program’s inception in 1996, the only other time the Wildcats had played in the NCAA tournament was in 2010.

Sandoval returns plenty of firepower from the 2022 team as he sets the squad’s sights on another run through the conference and hopefully to the NCAAs.

The Wildcats begin their campaign with four nonconference games, including the first two at home against Minnesota-Duluth at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 31, and against St. Cloud State (Minnesota) at noon on Saturday, Sept. 2, during Labor Day weekend.

Northern Michigan's Izzy Brusilow makes a throw-in during a college women's soccer game against Bemidji State at the NMU Soccer Field on Sept. 2. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Both will be played at the NMU Soccer Field located adjacent to and on the Lake Superior side of the Superior Dome.

Then they travel to Illinois the following weekend for games at Lewis and Illinois-Springfield on that Friday and Sunday, respectively, before jumping into an all-GLIAC schedule for the rest of the regular season.

During the conference campaign, the Wildcats play two games a week each Friday and Sunday with the exception of the weeks against their “travel partner,” Michigan Tech, when that will be the only game that week.

The GLIAC schedule opens at home against Wisconsin-Parkside on Sept. 15 and Purdue Northwest on Sept. 17.

Following a week on the road at Ferris State and Saginaw Valley State, NMU returns home to face Grand Valley State on Sept. 29 and Davenport on Oct. 1.

Then comes the first game against the Huskies, a contest at Houghton on Friday, Oct. 6, with a time yet to be announced.

That’s followed by two straight weekends on the road, at Davenport and Grand Valley on Oct. 13-15 then at Purdue NW and Parkside on Oct. 20-22, before a return home for three games in Marquette to end the regular season.

There’s a game vs. SVSU on Oct. 27, Ferris on Oct. 29 and the finale vs. Tech scheduled for 3 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 2.

The GLIAC tournament quarterfinals are expected to be held the following week, with the semifinals and finals that subsequent weekend.

The entire schedule and other news on the team can be accessed on the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and looking under women’s soccer, or this team’s schedule can be directly accessed at https://nmuwildcats.com/sports/womens-soccer/schedule.

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