But they can certainly try.

The Wildcats turned around a last-place Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference finish in 2024 to a league tournament championship one year later last fall.

Three of their four All-GLIAC honorees are eligible to be back this fall — current juniors Luca Rosen and Asaf Kristal and sophomore Ian Weimer. As a senior last fall, only Alessandro Scialanga would seem to be out of eligibility.

NMU finished at 9-5-6 overall and 6-4-2 in GLIAC games, but turned its No. 3 seed in the GLIAC Tournament into three straight wins to take its first tourney title in the decade-long history of the program, while also gaining a berth in the NCAA Division II tournament.

Players on the Northern Michigan University men’s soccer team get in with fans to take a postgame photo after a cold and windy game played against Purdue Northwest at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

The Wildcats lost a hard-luck 1-0 decision to nationally ranked Cedarville in Claremore, Oklahoma, in its inaugural NCAA tourney game on Nov. 20.

This year, fifth-year head coach Alex Fatovic sees a beefed-up nonconference schedule as an asset to success this season.

“The fall schedule will be the toughest we’ve faced in my time here, and it is exactly what we need to prepare for the grind of the GLIAC regular season and the defense of our tournament title,” Fatovic said in an NMU Sports Information news release reviewing the schedule.

Northern plays three exhibition games, two of them at its home NMU Soccer Field, in mid-August before opening the regular season the final week of that month.

Including the exhibitions, the Wildcats will have 10 home games. The full schedule includes 17 regular-season games plus the three exhibitions.

The home schedule opens with the first exhibitions at the NMU Soccer Field, hosting NCAA Division I Wisconsin-Green Bay at noon on Thursday, Aug. 13, then Schoolcraft Junior College from downstate Livonia at noon on Sunday, Aug. 16.

The Schoolcraft game will also be Community, Superior Soccer Association and Marquette United Way Day at the field.

The exhibitions wrap up with a game at Wisconsin-Superior in Superior, Wisconsin, on Aug. 22.

The Wildcats will get in four regular-season contests before this year’s later-than-usual Labor Day observance on Sept. 7.

They open at Northwood in Midland on Aug. 27, then travel south to Tiffin in Tiffin, Ohio, on Aug. 30.

Tiffin, like Northwood, is not only a former GLIAC member, but has won the Great Midwest Athletic Conference title the past four years and been in the NCAA tourney the past three seasons.

The inaugural regular-season home game is at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 3, against a third straight former GLIAC member, Lake Erie College.

The Wildcats travel to league member Saginaw Valley State for a nonconference game against the Cardinals on Sept. 6, then come home for their last out-of-league contest vs. Jamestown of Jamestown, North Dakota, at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 12.

The rest of the schedule is comprised of Northern’s dozen GLIAC games, opening back at SVSU in University Center on Sept. 18.

With Tiffin also included, the early-season slate should prove to be tough as Saginaw Valley won the league regular season title last year and the conference tourney in 2024.

“We’ll have every opportunity to test ourselves against some of the top teams in the country before opening conference play with four straight road GLIAC matches,” Fatovic said. “It doesn’t get much tougher than that, but with six of our final eight at home, including the last four, we know we control our fate. August can’t get here soon enough!”

The second Saginaw Valley game begins a four-game road trip, which continues with a trip to Grand Rapids to face Davenport on Sept. 20, then a trip to suburban Chicago for Roosevelt on Sept. 25, and wrapping up the trek in St. Cloud, Minnesota, for a game at St. Cloud State on Sept. 27.

October opens at home for the Wildcats, hosting Purdue Northwest at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, and Wisconsin-Parkside at noon on Sunday, Oct. 4.

The next two games are back on the road for the final road trip of the regular season. In an unusual twist in the schedule, NMU faces Parkside in back-to-back games over a five-day period, the second one in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Oct. 9 before a trek to nearby Hammond, Indiana, to take on Purdue NW on Oct. 11.

Northern then comes home for its final four games. The Wildcats host St. Cloud at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 16, Roosevelt at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 18, Davenport at noon on Friday, Oct. 23, and SVSU at noon on Sunday, Oct. 25.

If the GLIAC Tournament quarterfinals are similar to previous formats, then the Nos. 3 through 6 seeds play in that round, with the winners joining the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds for the semifinals and finals at a single site.

Quarterfinals are set for Halloween, Saturday, Oct. 31, with the semis on Friday, Nov. 6, and finals on Sunday, Nov. 8.

The NCAA Division II national tourney is slated to begin on Friday, Nov. 13.

For more on the team and its schedule, visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s soccer schedule.

Story contents based on a Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the season. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.