It will be a relatively quick event with just four of the league’s five teams involved, both rounds taking place in Allendale at regular-season champion Grand Valley State’s field.

As the No. 3 seed, NMU plays in the second semifinal at either 7 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Friday, depending on whether you look at the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com or the GLIAC website at gliac.org.

Both are in agreement, however, that the game will be against No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul, the team the Wildcats defeated 8-7 on Saturday in the Superior Dome.

The opening semi pits nationally ranked GVSU against No. 4 Davenport at 4 p.m. or 4:30 p.m., depending on what’s said at NMU’s and the GLIAC websites.

Winners from Friday square off at noon Sunday back in Allendale, with both websites agreeing about that time.

The team not making the tourney was first-year program Saginaw Valley State, which finished last in the conference, struggling to an 0-8 league mark and 0-13 overall.

Northern finished at 10-7 overall and 4-4 in the league, while C-SP was 9-7 and 5-3. GVSU was a perfect 8-0 in league and 13-3 overall. Davenport was fourth in the conference at 9-7 and 3-5.

Grand Valley has won or shared the GLIAC regular season title every year since the sport was first offered in the league in 2013. The Lakers have also won eight of the 11 tournament championships, including the last four.

The Wildcats split with Concordia-St. Paul during the regular season, also losing 13-9 in St. Paul, Minnesota, in early April.

This marks the third straight year that NMU and the Golden Bears have met in the GLIAC semifinals, while 2024 also had the same as this year — back-to-back games between the teams to end the regular season and open the tourney.

Northern is 10-2 all-time vs. C-SP going back to 2021 and is 2-0 against the Golden Bears in the GLIAC tourney.

In the two games against the Bears this season, the Wildcats’ Josie Lakosky has seven goals and an assist for eight points. For C-SP, Susie Monson scored five goals and had six points in the game in Minnesota before Northern blanked her in Marquette.

For the season, Lakosky was easily the GLIAC’s top scorer with 66 goals and 3.88 per game, exactly one more per game than any other league player.

She was also sixth in assists with 19, 1.12 per game, and her point total was also No. 1 with 85. GVSU’s Ashleigh Rothe made a run at Lakosky in points, finishing with 79 as she had a league-leading 30 assists.

Incidentally, Lakosky also led all league players by an even wider margin in shots, taking a total of 161, or 9.47 per game, better than 2 1/2 more per game than anyone else.

The only other NMU player to show up in the top 10 in offense was Taylor Priestley, who was ninth in assists with 14 and eighth in points with 40.

In other statistics, Lakosky was second in draw controls with 75, also ranking her second per game at 4.41. In fact, the league leader comes from Friday’s opponent, C-SP, as Monson has 85 for a 5.31 per-game average.

Northern goalie Zoe Montgomery was fifth in ground balls with 37, ranking her seventh per game at 2.31, while the Wildcats’ Dayna Carlson tied for seventh in caused turnovers with 17 and 10th in the per-game average at 1.00.

For goalie stats, Montgomery and NMU teammate Lauren Esposito were both ranked in all three categories.

In goals against average, Esposito is third at 8.15 and Montgomery fourth at 8.73 per game, with the top two goalies both from GVSU, though not by a lot — Sarah Krause is at 7.06 and Kaylyn Cater at 7.53.

In saves percentage, Esposito is fourth at .496 and Montgomery sixth at .460, while for saves per game, Montgomery is fourth at 4.69 and Esposito seventh at 4.00.

There are some internet links for fans interested in traveling to the GLIAC Tournament or watching it online.

Live statistics will be available at https://gvsulakers.com/sidearmstats/wlax/summary, live online streaming is available on FloLive at http://nmuwildcats.com/services/go.ashx/d7ef5ec3-35bf-40bc-b562-e6d3783bb8b9?elinkdata=2209946, and ticket purchases can be made at https://gvsutickets.universitytickets.com/w/?cid=190.

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