Breaking News
NMU Sports

Perfect way to start

NMU women’s soccer posts pair of 1-goal wins at home

By STEVE BROWNLEE 6 min read

MARQUETTE -- The women's soccer team at Northern Michigan University made it a perfect home-opening weekend with a 2-1 victory over Minnesota-Duluth on Sunday afternoon.

Coupled with Friday's 3-2 triumph over visiting St. Cloud State, the Wildcats begin the season at 2-0 with another week of nonconference games coming this week.

NMU travels to Cedarville, Ohio, to face Cedarville at 7 p.m. Thursday, then remains in the southeastern Ohio town to take on Northwood at noon Saturday.

After Labor Day, the Wildcats embark on an uninterrupted Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference slate of 14 straight games till the end of the regular season on Halloween afternoon.

Way before all that takes place, Northern can celebrate a pair of one-goal victories to start out.

"A win's a win, and we'll take it no matter how you come by it," Wildcats head coach Erin Egolf said in an NMU Sports Information news release on Sunday's game. "It was a scrappy game against a scrappy team that gave us everything they had, and again, we had a moment of resilience there (at the end).

"(We) let in an equalizer late, and again, our response was great -- we come back down a couple minutes (later) and find the game-winner. That's huge."

Unlike Friday's dramatic comeback win over nationally ranked St. Cloud, Northern led for a vast majority of Sunday's game, scoring just 44 seconds in.

That 1-0 lead held up for more than 80 minutes, as with 8:08 to go, the Bulldogs scored the equalizer.

But that tie didn't last long with the Wildcats retaking the lead less than 90 seconds later for what proved to be the game winner.

Goal No. 1 came when Northern senior forward Isabella Lorens, a Marquette native, assisted on sophomore Alyse Daavettila's goal less than a minute in.

Lorens was promoted to the starting 11 after doing Friday what she did in the first minute on Sunday -- assisting a goal scorer, which on Friday she actually did twice.

Fans, coaches and players had to wonder what kind of offensive fireworks they had stepped into after the Wildcats also scored three goals in eight minutes around the midpoint of the second half Friday that turned NMU's 2-0 deficit into victory.

Less than a minute went by Sunday before the scoreboard was dented. But that goal would hold up for the rest of the opening half, and then more than 35 minutes to start the second half, too.

The stats sheet showed a fairly even first half for the teams, each getting off five shots, with four of Northern's on goal as were two of Duluth's.

The Wildcats did hold a 5-2 edge in corner kicks in the opening 45 minutes while committing twice as many fouls, 6-3, with no yellow cards shown.

Still trailing 1-0, the Bulldogs came out of the locker room from halftime intending to ramp up the pressure, which they did to the tune of a huge 15-2 edge in total shots and 8-2 in shots on goal in the second half.

UMD also had four of the five corner kicks in the second half, also "winning" the foul total, 6-4.

All that pressure finally paid off for the visitors after more than half an hour of second-half play when Lauren McGough scored to tie it.

But exactly 81 seconds after they lost the lead, the Wildcats took it back with a goal scored by sophomore Addison Frantti and assisted by senior captain Madison Bilbia. NMU SI reported that Bilbia played the ball to a cutting Frantti, who took in the pass and beat Duluth goalkeeper Edy Halverson on the far side.

Halverson finished with three saves, while Northern counterpart Carly Sides came up huge with eight stops.

"It was a great feeling," Frantti said about the goal scored with 6:47 left. "We knew we had to score, and it was only a couple minutes left, so (I'm) glad we were able to get a six-point (two-win) weekend for the team.

"We went down (and had to come back) last game, and then this game they tied it up, so it's great to be able to pull off two wins like that against two quality teams."

Her coach agreed.

"They put us under a lot of pressure, in that second half especially, and that's how our conference is going to be in a lot of games," Egolf said. "You're going to have to dig results out; (it) might not always be pretty soccer, but you've gotta find a way, so I'm really proud of them for finding a way to win.

"We hadn't been out of our half for most of the second half. We had (to deal with) pressure, pressure, pressure, and then really good composure from (Bilbia) to find a good run from Addison, and the finish was class; it doesn't get better than that, especially again after you go down.

"We talked a lot about mentality on Friday, and this speaks a lot to their mentality ... we found a way to dig out a result."

Sides also had to take plenty of credit for the victory after the goalie tied for her second-most saves in a game in her career. She currently has a 1.50 goals-against average and .769 saves percentage with a nifty 2-0 record.

"I did anything to keep the ball out of the back of the net," Sides said. "I owe it a lot to my defense, and the entire starting 11 today.... We were able to connect.

"(The Bulldogs) were applying a lot of high pressure, and building around (the defense) helped give us success today.

"(The two wins this weekend) feel awesome, and we're going to keep working hard. We can't let the highs get too high or the lows too low, and we'll keep working toward two games in Ohio next weekend."

Along with Sides, a quartet of defenders -- junior captains Madalyn Nissen and Irene Kiilunen, senior Ava Buhlman and junior Riley Hill -- put in a full 90 minutes.

"It's hard to play 90 minutes, and it's hard to play 90 minutes under pressure even more," Egolf said. "The fact that they were able to hang in there and deal with a lot of pressure as (the Bulldogs) threw a lot of numbers forward, especially in that last 15 minutes to try and equalize. I thought they managed it.

"We put ourselves under a lot of pressure ... by not being able to keep the ball, but again, it's how we respond to things, and I thought our back four responded really well.

"We had a lot of communication; they covered for one another very well, and to allow one goal against a team that's putting on that much pressure (was good)."

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

Starting at /week.