The Wildcats, seeded No. 2 in the league tourney, will face No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul in the semifinals at 7:30 p.m. in Allendale, home of No. 1 seed Grand Valley State. The host Lakers take on No. 4 Davenport in the other semifinal a few hours earlier at 4:30 p.m.

Today’s winners meet up again at noon Sunday back in Allendale to decide the tourney title.

Fans can watch all the action on Flo Live, and visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s lacrosse schedule for links to live statistics and a preview.

This marks the second time in the past week that NMU has faced C-SP, a school located in St. Paul, Minnesota, that is a single-sport member of the GLIAC. In most sports, the Golden Bears are members of the Minnesota-based Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

Northern Michigan University’s Avery Lorisner, center, makes a move toward the net to take a shot and is fouled during a GLIAC lacrosse match played against Concordia-St. Paul at the Superior Dome in Marquette on April 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

Northern traveled to Minnesota to defeat the Golden Bears 15-7 on Saturday, with a pair of Wildcats sweeping GLIAC weekly awards due to their performance in that game.

In addition, this year also marks the fourth straight spring that NMU has faced C-SP in the tourney semifinals, with each of those years — and two more years before that — the tournament being played in Allendale.

GVSU has a near-perfect record in conference women’s lacrosse history. The Lakers have either won outright or shared the GLIAC regular season title in all 13 years the league has sponsored the sport and a postseason event. Actually, they’ve only had to share it once, in 2017 with now former league member McKendree. Each outright title gave Grand Valley the right to host the tourney, too.

GVSU has “only” won the postseason tournament nine of 12 previous times, but it includes winning it the last five.

All of this goes back to C-SP and NMU being quite familiar with each other, Northern also winning their game this season in the Superior Dome in Marquette, 16-7 on April 4.

The Wildcats earned their No. 2 tourney seed with a 6-2 conference record to go with a 12-5 overall mark, while C-SP won a tiebreaker to grab the No. 3 seed from Davenport, both teams 3-5 in league encounters and the Golden Bears 6-10 overall.

NMU actually has the league’s best overall record. Though Grand Valley has a perfect 8-0 mark in league games, the Lakers are just 10-7 overall after starting the season 0-7 following a slate of six nationally ranked teams to open the season.

If the semis follow seeding form, then the Wildcats will face GVSU on Sunday. Northern has played Grand Valley 21 times in the history of the NMU program, and has yet to post a victory, being outscored 346 to 122 going back a decade.

This year, the Lakers posted a 9-4 win on March 27 in Allendale, then a narrow 9-8 victory at the Superior Dome on April 12.

Before that, though, the Wildcats have to take C-SP seriously even having beaten the Golden Bears twice this season and all three times they’ve previously met in Allendale during the conference tournament.

Head coach Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak knows the pitfalls of overconfidence, particularly when it comes to beating a team three times in one season.

“It’s odd,” she said when asked about playing Concordia-St. Paul in the final game of the regular season, then immediately turning around to open the tournament against them. “It’s hard to beat a team three times, but I do feel like beating them at (their) home is the hardest thing because of the unique home court advantages they have: they have great home crowds, they play really well because they’re used to the (Concordia Dome indoor) bubble, and their intensity was high because it was Senior Day.

“Having a fourth official and to be able to play them on neutral ground, I anticipate this to be a smoother game with more speed and strategy.

“Even though the scores weren’t as close as last year, we have more of an intense rivalry with Concordia-St. Paul this year, and so there’s more excitement and intensity, and our team cares so much more about that first game.

“I’ve been here four years in a row, and have (faced the) same team, (used the) same locker room, (played on the) same side of the bench, and you know what you’re facing, but with this year’s team and how strong that rivalry is, I am excited to see how we can empty the tank to try and earn another day with (Grand Valley).”

Majkrzak has to be comforted having Josie Lakosky on her side as the nation’s leading scorer. Among her 96 goals and 36 assists this season — the goals a program record and the assists tying for the most ever — are 13 goals and seven assists vs. C-SP in two games.

Avery Lorinser had a breakout game against the Bears on Saturday, scoring a career-high five goals, while goaltender Lauren Esposito made 13 saves for a .650 saves percentage.

The numbers were good enough to have the league cite Lakosky as GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week and Esposito the GLIAC Defensive Player of the Week. It marked Lakosky’s fifth such honor this season and Esposito’s first.

C-SP will counter with two strong athletes in the midfield, Susie Monson with 31 goals and 13 assists and Shelby Marik with 38 goals and three assists. While they total 85 points between them, that’s nearly 50 points — 47 to be exact — shy of Lakosky’s point total all by herself.

Actually, Northern’s No. 2 and 3 scorers match the top two Golden Bears. Lorinser has 40 goals and 10 assists for 50 points, Hannah Jabas 22 goals and 13 assists for 35 points, also a total of 85 points.

A secret weapon for C-SP could be Claire Flahaven leading its defense with 32 caused turnovers and 41 ground balls, numbers nearly as good as Lakosky, who also has 32 caused turnovers but 50 ground balls.

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.