The junior attacker from Victoria, Minnesota, did it again on Saturday afternoon, pumping in eight goals for the fourth time in a dozen games this season as the Wildcats downed Concordia-St. Paul 16-7 in a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference game played in the Superior Dome.

With the addition of three assists, she scored 11 points in the game, also the third time she’s done that this winter and spring. And she did it in an efficient manner, taking just 11 shot attempts overall, with 10 of them being on target.

All of this led to Lakosky earning her third GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week award on Monday.

She was more than just an offensive force, however, adding in a career-best 10 draw controls to go with three caused turnovers and three ground balls.

Northern Michigan University’s Josie Lakosky, left, heads for the net while defended closely by Concordia-St. Paul's Ruby Swenson during their GLIAC lacrosse match played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Saturday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Lakosky is among the best in all of NCAA Division II as her 7.00 points per game is No. 1, 84 points is No. 2 and 62 goals is one behind the leader as Lakosky has played three fewer games.

In addition, ranking No. 2 are her 5.17 goals per game, 10.33 total shots per game and 8.83 shots on goal per game.

Not surprisingly, she leads the GLIAC by fairly healthy margins in three of the four main offensive categories — goals per game, points per game and shots per game — while ranking second in assists per game by only 0.14 a contest to C-SP’s Susie Monson.

Saturday’s victory kept Northern within a game of conference leader Grand Valley State with a date between the teams taking place at noon Sunday in the Superior Dome. Two days before that, at 5 p.m. Friday, NMU also hosts third-place Davenport as this weekend will be the Wildcats’ final home games of the regular season.

GVSU is 4-0 in the GLIAC, even while only 5-7 overall; the Wildcats are 3-1 in league and 9-3 overall; while Davenport comes in at 2-2 in conference and 7-5 overall. By the way, Concordia-St. Paul slipped to fourth at 1-3 in the GLIAC and 4-8 overall.

On Saturday, Northern’s Vanessa Carrico scored two goals in just three shots, while Hannah Jabas, Avery Lorinser, Hannah Grimm, Annabelle Johnson, Evita Weiche and Abby Sisson each had a goal and Jabas and Lorinser also had one assist apiece.

Teammate Sophie Langsdale led NMU with five caused turnovers, while Natalie Thomas joined Lakosky with three ground balls.

Lakosky scored three goals in the first 8:08 to help stake the Wildcats to a quick 4-0 lead. Though the Golden Bears scored the next two just 26 seconds apart, Northern still led 6-2 at the end of the opening quarter.

NMU also scored three more times in the final 125 seconds of the first half to take a 10-3 halftime lead. By this points, Lakosky already had six goals plus an assist.

The Wildcats put the game out of reach in the second half by twice scoring there goals in a row, the first time in the second half of the third quarter and subsequently during the middle of the fourth.

Northern netminder Lauren Esposito made seven saves, while C-SP counterpart Marge Lucio had nine as the Wildcats held advantages of 32-17 in all shots and 22-11 in shots on goal.

While NMU had a solid 17-9 advantage in draw controls, their edge was closer with 18-16 in ground balls and 20-16 in fewer turnovers.

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