Northern Michigan University’s Molly Pistorius, right, gets a jump on Purdue Northwest’s Sarah Scaling during a GLIAC Tournament quarterfinal game in women’s soccer played at the Superior Dome in Marquette last Monday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team won its GLIAC Tournament semifinal match 4-1 against Ferris State University on Friday afternoon at the NMU Soccer Field.

This puts the tourney No. 1-seeded Wildcats in the conference championship match for the second consecutive year after a runner-up finish a year ago.

“I thought it was all around a very good team effort,” NMU head coach Jon Sandoval said of Friday’s match. “The team executed in a lot of ways in the game — both offensively and defensively — I thought we dominated the midfield. A lot of things we tried to implement throughout the week in practice, we were able to do that.”

The first half began with fierce offensive Wildcat forces focusing the ball on the No. 5 seed Bulldogs’ half of the field.

Less than five minutes in, NMU’s Molly Pistorius scored her 13th goal of the season from the right side of the Ferris goal off a pass from Isabelle Brusilow.

At 1-0, the Bulldogs attempted to fight back, but to no avail. Through the entire first half, only one FSU player, Katherine Welch, was in a position to attempt a shot on the goal but the effort proved fruitless as the shot was saved by Northern’s goalkeeper Jillian Thompson.

Meanwhile, NMU took 14 shots in the opening 45 minutes. Still, the Bulldogs put up a fight, but it was an uphill battle for them as NMU made it 2-0 about six minutes before halftime on a shot by Calihan Bearden for her first goal of the season that was assisted by Brooke Pietila.

“We knew that they were going to be physical. We knew they were going to be very similar to us in terms of playing style,” Sandoval said.

The second half contained even more excitement.

Ten minutes in, NMU’s Madison Bilbia, with assistance from Stephanie Trujillo, scored a goal for her team from the field’s low center off a set piece that made it 3-0.

After three free kicks by Ferris, NMU’s Pistorius scored again from the high center with an assist from Pietila.

By the time the Bulldogs averted the shutout with about 10 minutes remaining on a goal by Isabella Sabo, the result was no longer in doubt.

Brusilow also made an amazing save in the second half, knocking a sure goal away with her foot just before the ball would’ve crossed the goal line with around 25 minutes to go.

No. 6 tourney seed Wisconsin-Parkside won its later semifinal at the same site, 1-0 over No. Grand Valley State, to advance to meet the top-seeded Wildcats on Sunday afternoon.

“(Parkside is) a very quality opponent,” Sandoval said. “Very good opponent that’s organized, physical, has some very good offensive weapons that can hurt us in a lot of areas so we got to make sure we’re getting back to the drawing board and preparing properly for Sunday.”

Alexandria Bournonville can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 506. Her email address is abournonville@miningjournal.net.