Northern Michigan University’s Avery Lorinser, center, gets off a shot while closely guarded by Davenport’s Jenna Jenkins, right, during their GLIAC game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on April 10. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — With one more game left in the regular season, the lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University got to test its mettle against one of the nation’s best on the road on Tuesday.

Unfortunately for the Wildcats, Indianapolis went wild on offense in the second half for a 20-7 victory against the regionally ranked NMU team. The Greyhounds are ranked No. 3 and No. 5 in the two major national polls.

Northern, No. 6 in the Midwest Region but unranked nationally, still sits at 11-5 overall with the loss, also standing at 5-2 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, good enough to have clinched second place in the five-team league.

NMU finishes its regular season in St. Paul, Minnesota, to face conference foe Concordia-St. Paul at 1 p.m. EDT Saturday.

After that, the Wildcats head to the GLIAC Tournament to be held May 1 and 3 at sites and exact times to be announced.

Despite its modest 9-7 overall record, Grand Valley State has wrapped up the league regular-season title with a 7-0 mark, also with one game to go. The Lakers began the season at 0-7, having played a half-dozen nationally ranked teams in that early period of the season.

C-SP is currently third in the GLIAC at 3-4, with Davenport having finished its regular season at 3-5 and Saginaw Valley State bringing up the rear at 0-6.

On Tuesday, the Wildcats traveled to Indiana to play a top team after having its originally scheduled game against the Greyhounds postponed on March 15 due to the impending major late-winter storm that socked the entire Upper Peninsula.

NMU made a real game of it in the first half, only trailing 8-6 at intermission with top-scoring attacker Josie Lakosky scoring four goals and No. 2 scorer Avery Lorinser putting in the other two.

Indy held a 15-9 shots-on-goal advantage in that time, but Northern goaltender Lauren Esposito made seven saves in the opening half, a great number in lacrosse.

But the Greyhounds caught fire coming out of the break, outscoring NMU 12-1 in the final 30 minutes to take the game going away.

The Wildcats’ only second-half goal was scored by Lakosky, and that came in the fourth quarter after Indy had already scored the first eight goals of the half to build a 16-6 edge.

Indy finished with advantages in just about all team statistics, but particularly in draw controls, finishing ahead 19-9.

In the end, the Greyhounds held a 50-21 advantage in all shots, plus 29-14 in shots on goal; adding in a 24-17 edge on ground balls while also leading 21-14 with fewer turnovers.

With Esposito finishing with 12 saves and her counterpart, Indy’s Ava Graham, having seven, Lakosky finished with five goals and five points, while Lorinser had those two first-half goals plus an assist for three points. Additionally, teammate Sophie Langsdale had an assist.

Lakosky led the way with nine shots, six on goal, while adding three draw controls and a ground ball. Taylor Roberts led Northern with five draw controls, while Payton Ross had three caused turnovers. Langsdale and Katelyn Wozney paced NMU with three ground balls apiece as Ross and Esposito each had two.

While Esposito made a save on Indy’s opening possession, a Wildcats turnover gave the Greyhounds another quick chance that they converted just 1:23 into the game. After Indy scored again 47 seconds later, Lakosky answered with her first goal with 11:38 remaining in the opening quarter.

Northern couldn’t knock in two goals in a row until the final 8 1/2 minutes of the first half, getting the last two of the second quarter to pull within two at halftime.

A major portion of the Greyhounds’ early success came on draws, with the home team controlling 12 of the 15 before intermission. In the second half, Indy’s edge was only 7-6, but its stifling defense more than made up for it.

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.