Northern Michigan University’s Isabelle Brusilow makes a throw-in during a soccer game played against Purdue Northwest at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Sept. 17. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team is coming home fresh off a road trip where the Wildcats suffered their only loss of the season.

NMU is 6-1-1 overall and 2-1-1 in the GLIAC and will play nationally ranked No. 13 Grand Valley State and Davenport this weekend. Northern hosts GVSU (5-1-2, 3-0-1) at 3 p.m. today at the NMU Soccer Field, then DU (4-1-2, 1-1-2) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Wildcats are also nationally ranked, now for a program-record third straight week, at No. 18 in the United Soccer Coaches poll.

NMU resides in third place in the conference with the Lakers leading the way and the Panthers in fourth. Sunday’s game is also a Pink Out game, where fans are encouraged to wear pink for breast cancer awareness.

Fans can follow this Northern team @NMU_wsoccer on X (formerly Twitter) and visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com under the women’s soccer schedule for live statistics and livestream video on FloFC.

Northern head coach Jon Sandoval knows the importance of these games against teams near the Wildcats in the conference standings.

“As I’ve mentioned many times before, everybody (in the GLIAC) on any given day can beat you (and) Grand Valley and Davenport are no different,” he said in an NMU Sports Information release previewing the weekend.

“It’s going to be really important that we play with pride this weekend to defend our home field.”

NMU has scored a robust 18 goals in eight games, led by Molly Pistorius, whose six goals, 13 points and 32 shots lead the GLIAC. And she is the only conference player with two hat tricks. Nationally, she’s tied for 10th in goals, tied for 19th in points and tied for 25th in shots. She’s also tied for 21st with 18 shots on goal.

Sophomore forward Hannah Kastamo is a solid offensive producer as her four goals are third in the GLIAC and 10 points is second.

Teammate Brenna Musser leads NMU with four assists, which is also tied for the most in the league and tied for 14th nationally.

Goalkeeper Jillian Thompson is second in GLIAC shutouts with four, tying her for eighth nationally, while she leads the league in wins and time played having been in the game for all 720 of NMU’s minutes. Teammate Gwen Kiilunen is close in minutes with 719.

Northern has outscored opponents 18-6 and outshot them 158-49. In Division II, NMU is fifth with 85 shots on goal, eighth with 10.62 shots on goal per game, sixth with 158 shots and 11th with 19.75 shots per game.

In conference, the Wildcats are No. 1 with their 18 goals, 12 assists, 48 points, 158 total shots and four shutouts.

Northern’s 1-1 weekend just past included a 2-1 win at Ferris State and 1-0 loss at Saginaw Valley State.

Stephanie Trujillo and Maria Storm scored for the Wildcats at Ferris, while Trujillo also had an assist, Brooke Pietila took five shots and Thompson had two saves while watching NMU’s offense register 25 total shots.

Trujillo and Madison Bilbia had the most shots for Northern vs. SVSU with three apiece, while Bilbia also had two shots on goals and Thompson made two saves.

GVSU won both its games last week vs. Purdue Northwest and Wisconsin-Parkside. The Lakers’ Emma Chudik scored in each game and Ella Kleiver scored vs. the Pride.

Chudik ranks right behind Pistorius in the GLIAC with five goals and her 10 points is fourth.

For Davenport, Haley Diekevers leads the Panthers with four goals, ranking her fifth in the league, and is second in the GLIAC with 26 shots.

Goalkeeper Gabriana Bennecke has started every game for DU and has a 0.50 goals-against average (tied for first in the GLIAC) and .857 saves percentage (tied for third).

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