From left, Grand Valley State’s Ella Boose, Northern Michigan University’s Josie Lakosky, the Lakers’ Ella Boose and the Wildcats’ Taylor Roberts vie for control after a faceoff as the ball would elude all of them and roll away during their GLIAC game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on April 12. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The women’s lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University put an early stamp as a preview of the upcoming conference postseason with a 15-7 victory at Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday afternoon.

It’s a preview because the same two teams will clash in the opening-round semifinals of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Allendale, the home of tourney No. 1 seed Grand Valley State.

NMU is the No. 2 seed as league runner-up with a record of 6-2, along with 12-5 overall, while C-SP is the No. 3 seed at 3-5 in the conference and 6-10 overall.

The other semi will see the host Lakers (8-0 GLIAC, 10-7) taking on No. 4 Davenport (3-5 GLIAC, 9-8) at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Winners clash in the league tourney championship encounter at noon Sunday, again in Allendale.

On Saturday, the Wildcats used a 5-1 second quarter to turn a 2-2 tie at the start of the period into a more dominant 7-3 halftime advantage.

Northern teammates Avery Lorinser and Josie Lakosky each scored two of their game-high five goals in the first half to help stake the Wildcats to the lead at intermission.

Despite the Golden Bears scoring the first goal of second half more than halfway through the third quarter, NMU answered with the next four goals to all but put the result out of reach at 11-4 early in the fourth.

Lakosky finished as the game’s top scorer as she added four assists to come up with nine points. Though Lorinser didn’t have an assist, her five goals was a career high.

Teammate Hannah Jabas added a three-goal hat trick of her own, while Vanessa Carrico and Annabelle Johnson had one goal each, Carrico also notching an assist for two points total.

In this fairly heavy offensive game, the Wildcats had more shots, 35-26 in total and 25-20 in shots on goal. The goaltenders made this a lower-than-average scoring game, though, with Northern’s Lauren Esposito making 13 saves for a .650 saves percentage, while C-SP counterparts Marge Lucio and Erika Holm totaled 10 saves between them.

NMU didn’t have an overall dominance in the other statistics, however. While winning the draw controls 17-7, the Wildcats were even in ground balls, 16-16, and actually had a few more turnovers, 16-14.

Lakosky led Northern in draw controls with eight as Taylor Roberts added four and Katelyn Wozney three.

Esposito, as goalie, not surprisingly had the most NMU ground balls with five, while Wozney and Natalie Thomas added three apiece.

Lakosky finished with 13 total shots, nine on goal, while Lorinser had 10 shots and also nine of them on goal.

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.