Northern Michigan University’s Abby Sisson, center, takes a shot in a game against Saginaw Valley State played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on March 20. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University begins a three-game homestand, its final home games of the regular season, on Saturday afternoon in the Superior Dome.

The Wildcats host Concordia-St. Paul, a member of the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in this sport, at noon Saturday.

There is no cost for spectators to attend this indoor game, and fans can also stream the game online on FloLive, or visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s lacrosse schedule for links to live video, live statistics and a preview.

NMU took its first conference loss one week ago today at Grand Valley State, but by winning its next two games, has a chance to tie the Lakers atop the GLIAC when they have their rematch in the dome at noon on Sunday, April 12.

Before that, Northern hosts C-SP and then Davenport at 5 p.m. next Friday, also in the dome.

The Wildcats are in second place in the league at 2-1, 8-3 overall, while Concordia is in fourth at 1-2, 4-7 overall.

NMU lost 9-4 at Grand Valley, then won at Davenport 14-6 two days later on its first conference road trip.

In the loss at Grand Valley, Northern scored its fewest goals of the season as top scorer Josie Lakosky was held off the scoreboard despite taking eight total shots, five of them on goal. She did record one assist.

Instead, Avery Lorinser led the Wildcats with three goals, with Vanessa Carrico picking up the other tally.

The Lakers changed some of their basic strategies just before facing Northern, according to NMU head coach Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing this week’s game.

“Nothing we had scouted to that point was defensively relevant,” she said.

She added that the Lakers were running a zone defense to begin 2026 before reverting to a man-coverage defensive strategy that held NMU to four goals on one occasion last season, an 11-4 loss in Allendale.

“Grand Valley changed their defense right before our game, which obviously was really effective, as they held us to only four goals when we are traditionally one of the highest scoring offenses in the country.

“They switched out of the zone they were playing to start the year to then playing a basic middle-man (defense), and we didn’t know what to do with it and completely shut down.

“I’m disappointed with my own game plan for Grand Valley. We should have (prepared) that they would go back to what worked against us last year, because they were good at shutting us down with the man defense they played against us last year.”

The Lakers jumped out to a 5-1 lead at halftime, Lorinser getting Northern’s only first-half goal late in the first quarter. NMU pulled within 5-3 about halfway through the third quarter before GVSU scored four of the game’s final five goals.

Then the Wildcats were able to find their rhythm in the short drive from Allendale to Grand Rapids when facing Davenport, scoring just above their average of 13.4 goals per game.

“It was really good to see the bounce back on Sunday,” Majkrzak said to NMU SI. “For us to be able to come into that game and try to fix some of the problems we had on Friday, I don’t think we did a perfect job, but to be able to get our offense moving, get Josie and some different people scoring again, that game was a lot better for our offense.”

Lakosky had a better-than-average day with seven goals for seven points, also attaining game highs of seven ground balls, five draw controls, and being one of four Northern players with two caused turnovers.

“We also did a good job of shutting them down,” the coach said. “Once we started subbing, we gave up some transition goals, but for the most part, I think we handled them.

“That was good to see, especially after early in the Grand Valley game when we had some one-on-one mistakes that were very atypical for the people we had in the matchup.

“Seeing us play good team defense and get a conference win was good.”

In the second half, the Wildcats broke open a game they led just 6-4 at halftime, scoring the first half-dozen goals following the intermission and shutting out Davenport in the third quarter, to amass a 12-4 lead.

Lakosky remains one of the top scorers in all of NCAA Division II, tied for second in goals and third in goals per game. But with Lorinser as an example in the Grand Valley game, other players are also getting in on the scoring.

Lorinser is No. 2 for NMU with 24 goals and 29 points, putting up a hat trick in four straight games as she added three goals in the win over DU.

Majkrzak noted her emergence.

“Avery worked so hard in the offseason, and she really wanted this year to feel good and to perform at the level that she knew she could,” she told NMU SI. “Last year in the Grand Valley home game, she got really badly hurt and was out for almost the rest of the year, and it was right when she was hitting her stride.

“She got really frustrated with not being able to play, and now this year, to see her positivity, foot speed, skill, (as she is) able to be a great secondary scorer for our team. She produces every time, and she’s such a great weapon to have when we need other weapons.

“The jump she’s made from last year to this year is what she wanted, and to watch a kid put a bunch of work in and to have what she wants come to fruition is really special.”

This week’s rivalry with Concordia-St. Paul out of St. Paul, Minnesota, is more than a simple conference matchup.

Both rosters are sprinkled with student-athletes from Minnesota, where many grew up playing with or against each other. Majkrzak says that the familiarity fuels the competitive drive like no other opponent, and is always a match to look out for. 

“Concordia-St. Paul is an easy one to get excited about, because our whole team is from Minnesota and their whole team is also from Minnesota,” she said. “A lot of them played for the same club teams, played each other in the state tournament, and we have a lot of crossover of athletes who went to the same high school.

“That competitive energy is always there, but CSP is a little different because these athletes have known each other since they were really small.”

Northern’s roster shows 14 players out of 34 coming from Minnesota, while not surprisingly, the Golden Bears have 24 of their 28 coming from their home Land of 10,000 Lakes.

With just five players from Michigan, Northern’s numbers from our home state could change in the future as Michigan is seeing girls lacrosse as a growing sport.

This spring, there are 94 teams listed on the MHSAA website that will be entered in two divisions of the state tournament, the farthest north being a cooperative team from Traverse City Central and Traverse City West.

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.