Northern Michigan University’s Teun van Gansewinkel, left, gets in close to Purdue Northwest’s Mateus Baptista de Souza hoping the Pride goaltender gives up a rebound during their GLIAC game played at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Sunday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The men’s soccer team at Northern Michigan University will christen its home field, the NMU Soccer Field located adjacent to the Superior Dome, into the ways of the conference tournament this weekend.

It’s the second time the Wildcat men have ever hosted a tournament game in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but the first time at the outdoor field since the program’s inception in 2016.

The other home tourney game was played in April 2021 — officially the 2020 season following the coronavirus pandemic — and was played in the Superior Dome and resulted in a Northern loss to Davenport in penalty kicks after the teams tied 1-1 through two overtimes.

This year, NMU hosts Purdue Northwest at 1 p.m. Sunday as a matchup of No. 3 and No. 6 seeds, Northern the higher seed getting to host the match.

Fans can follow @NMU_Msoc on Instagram and @NMU_Mens_Soccer on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during the match, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the men’s soccer schedule for links to live video, live statistics, the playoff bracket and a preview.  

In the other quarterfinal, No. 4 Wisconsin-Parkside hosts No. 5 Davenport, also at 1 p.m. EST Sunday. Winners advance to the semifinals to face the top two seeds, which earned first-round byes, with that round and the finals to be hosted by No. 1 seed and GLIAC regular-season champion Saginaw Valley State at University Center between Saginaw and Bay City.

The Northern-Purdue NW winner plays No. 2 Roosevelt at 2 p.m. Friday, with the Parkside-Davenport victor going up against the host Cardinals in the day’s opening game at 11 a.m.

The tourney championship is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 16.

NMU didn’t guarantee its third-place finish — matching the 2020 team for its best ever — in the seven-team league until last weekend, when the Wildcats finished the regular season at home by sweeping Roosevelt 2-1 and the same quarterfinal opponent Purdue NW 3-0.

Northern finished with 20 points in the GLIAC — three points are awarded for a win and one for a tie — by compiling a 6-4-2 record, 7-4-5 overall. Sixth-place Purdue NW is 2-8-2 in the conference, 3-12-2 overall.

Because of his play in the final two games, Wildcats sophomore Ian Weimer was named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week, his first conference weekly award but the fifth time an NMU player has earned that kind of honor this season.

Two of the previous weekly awards were won by Luca Rosen, also as top offensive player, and the other two by goalkeeper Asaf Kristal and by Owen Rutledge as the GLIAC’s top defender.

Weimer scored the game winner in the one-goal victory last week over Roosevelt, which as defending league regular-season champion was still contending to repeat the feat, and another goal against Purdue NW.

Weimer is second on the team to Rosen with four goals, nine points and two game-winning goals.

Rosen’s totals of nine goals, 20 points and four game winners not only lead the Wildcats, but each is No. 2 in the league both in their raw numbers and on a per-game basis. Weimer is top 10 in the GLIAC in goals and game winners.

Rosen is also No. 1 in the conference in total shots with 75, a whopping 28 more than any other player, and tops in shots on goal with 31, a much closer lead of three on all others.

Kristal, in his first season at NMU, is either No. 1 or No. 2 in the GLIAC’s four major goaltending categories — No. 1 in goals against at 0.628 per game, No. 1 in saves percentage at .859, tied for No. 1 in shutouts with seven and No. 2 in saves per game with 5.31.

Additionally, out of a possible 1,440 minutes that covers the entire season, he has played all but 4 minutes, 27 seconds of that.

Northern as a team has scored 18 goals compared to 14 given up. The number scored is the same as last year and nearly double of two years ago, when the Wildcats scored only 10. Each of those seasons, including this year’s at this point, was comprised of 16 games.

Purdue NW finished with eight points, just two points ahead of the last-place St. Cloud State, which didn’t qualify for the conference tourney.

The Pride have been outscored 30-16, including 4-0 by the Wildcats in two games. Rami Zantout is fourth in the GLIAC with 22 shots on goal and 10th in goals with four.

Teammate Landon Potts has five goals and 12 points, while Mateus Baptista de Souza, who has played all but about 45 minutes for PNW in goal, is sixth or seventh in each of the netminding categories, including seventh in goals against at 1.932 per game and seventh in saves percentage at .594.

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