As the No. 3 seed, NMU scored a 9-7 victory over No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul in the semifinals before falling to the No. 1 Lakers 15-9 in the finals that had at least an outside chance to propel the Wildcats into the NCAA Division II national tournament.

As a nationally ranked team, there’s a good chance the tourney title will help GVSU make the nationals, which only have a limited number of teams and doesn’t guarantee a spot to the GLIAC playoff champ.

The Lakers hosted all three games of the tourney, the two semifinal games and the finals, a privilege afforded the No. 1 seeded team for the tourney. In Friday’s other semi, Grand Valley prevailed 12-9 over No. 4 seed Davenport.

Northern finishes its season at 11-8 overall and was 4-4 in GLIAC regular-season games. GVSU improved to an impressive 15-3 after going a perfect 8-0 in the conference, while C-SP, from St. Paul, Minnesota, and a GLIAC member only in this sport, ends up at 9-8 and 5-3.

Northern Michigan University’s Maddie Bast, left, makes a move for the net while defended by a Davenport player during their GLIAC women’s lacrosse game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Friday, March 28, 2025. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Here are details from each of the weekend games:

NMU 9, Concordia-St. Paul 7

On Friday evening, these teams squared off in the GLIAC semifinals for the third straight season, each time also played at Grand Valley — and each time won by Northern.

This time around, the Wildcats led throughout, or at least as soon as they scored their first goal just 68 seconds in when Taylor Priestley slung in her first of two goals.

NMU’s leading scorer all season, Josie Lakosky, led Northern in a little bit different way this time around, accumulating just one goal but recording three assists in a sport where assist aren’t too common. In fact, she had Northern’s only three assists of the game as the Golden Bears also only had two.

Lakosky finished with four points, as Hannah Jabas joined Priestley with two goals as the only other Wildcats with multiple points on this night.

Lakosky also led NMU with season highs of four caused turnovers and five ground balls, marking just her second career game where she put together at least four points, four caused turnovers and five ground balls.

NMU’s scoring was rounded out with single goals from Emily Radke, Katelyn Wozney, Maddi Bast and Abby Sisson.

In the net, Lauren Esposito had one of NMU’s best games this season, making a career-high 13 saves while only allowing seven goals, a .650 saves percentage.

For Concordia, Katie Colleran was almost as good, stopping 12 shots while letting in nine.

The Northern defense also helped out Esposito, making a season-high 23 clears, while reaching double digits in caused turnovers for the sixth time this season, third consecutive game and fourth time in its last five games.

Priestley began an early quick-strike offense by the Wildcats, who scored their first three goals in a span of barely more than 3 1/2 minutes, additional ones coming from Sisson and Jabas, for a 3-0 lead five minutes in.

After C-SP’s Shelby Hansen got her team on the board later in the period, Bast and Radke scored in the final minute of the first quarter as NMU held a 5-1 advantage headed to the second period.

The Bears then put up a fight to start quarter No. 2, scoring back-to-back-to-back goals to whittle NMU’s advantage to one.

But Wozney came through on a free position shot with 2:39 left in the first half and Lakosky got her goal with just eight ticks remaining before intermission as the Wildcats reopened a more comfortable 7-4 edge at halftime.

Northern also scored first to open the second half on a shot by Jabas that made it 8-4, a cushion the Wildcats would need as the Bears responded with three goals in a row over the last five minutes of the third and first minute of the fourth quarter, trimming NMU’s lead again to a single goal.

But over the game’s final 14 minutes, Priestley was the only player on either side to score as Northern made its nine goals stand up.

Grand Valley 15, NMU 9

On Sunday afternoon, history again repeated itself, with the Wildcats falling to No. 1 seeded GVSU in the conference championship game for the third consecutive time.

It was a tough pill to swallow for NMU, which also lost twice to the Lakers during the regular season, 12-11 in overtime at home on March 30 and 11-4 in Allendale on April 11.

This marks Grand Valley’s fifth straight league tourney title and ninth overall in 13 years the GLIAC has offered the sport.

Northern opened the scoring, and while it was their only lead, the Wildcats tied it twice in the opening quarter and never trailed by more than two goals throughout the first three periods. The Lakers pulled away with a six-goal final quarter.

Wozney led the NMU offense with three goals, her first career three-goal hat trick, while Lakosky and Radke each had two and Bast and Laine Stanton added one goal apiece as Jabas had her team’s lone assist.

Lakosky ended the season with 91 points on 69 goals and 22 assists, the second most in a season in each of the three scoring categories all-time at NMU behind Minnie Bittell’s 2024 record-setting season.

GVSU’s Ashleigh Rothe led all players with four goals and two assists for six points, while teammate Ella Boose had five goals and five points.

Esposito again worked in front of the Northern goal, making 10 saves while allowing 15 goals. Lakers counterparts Kaylyn Cater and Sarah Krause split duties, combining for seven saves and nine goals allowed.

Wozney and Taylor Roberts paced NMU with three draw controls, while teammate Sophie Langsdale had two caused turnovers, and Northern’s Esposito, Norah Bates and Natalie Thomas added three ground balls apiece.

Team-wise, GVSU held a 30-23 total shots edge, including 22-12 in shots on goal, as the Lakers also led draw controls, 18-10, as turnovers were even, 14-14.

Bast gave the Wildcats their only lead 3:10 into the game, with NMU Sports Information relaying that Lakosky found Bast cutting into the goal area before she spun away from her defender and fired the ball in from close range.

Lakosky evened the score 2-2 on a free-position shot near the midpoint of the opening quarter after the Lakers scored back-to-back goals just 13 seconds apart.

GVSU added two in a row, but spaced more apart, before Lakosky and Radke answered again in the final 2 1/2 minutes of the first quarter to make it 4-4 after one.

Rothe scored consecutive goals less than three minutes apart early in the second, then Radke got one back for Northern late in the half to make it 6-5 GVSU at halftime.

Much the same happened in the third. After each team scored once in the first two minutes of the second half, the Lakers scored another two in a row only to have Stanton answer later in the quarter to give the Lakers a 9-7 advantage headed into the final 15 minutes.

But that’s when Grand Valley took control, scoring three in a row in a span of barely more than two minutes to go up 12-7.

Wozney got one back for NMU as the teams mostly traded goals down the stretch, good enough for the Lakers to secure the title.

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