Northern Michigan University’s Josie Lakosky brings the ball up field during a GLIAC game played against Grand Valley State at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Sunday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — With its leader picking up another national award this week, the lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University embarks on its final three games of the regular season on the road, including two contests in the next three days.

The Wildcats travel to struggling Saginaw Valley State at 10 a.m. Sunday before heading south to face just the opposite kind of team, NCAA Division II No. 3 Indianapolis, at noon Tuesday. The game in Indiana is a makeup from March 15, when the NMU team prudently returned to Marquette before a big late-winter storm could’ve made travel impossible.

Sunday’s game will be live streamed on Flo Live, while Tuesday’s will be through the Great Lakes Valley Conference network pay per view. Fans can also visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s lacrosse schedule for links to live video, live statistics and a preview.

“I really like their facility and their field,” Northern head coach Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak said about the SVSU facility in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the upcoming games. “It’s a really fun place to play. The field has lacrosse-specific lines, and we’ll have a ton of families there, so we should have a really good turnout.

“I’m really excited for us to go and perform, and hopefully have a little bounce back after Grand Valley (last weekend’s one-goal loss) to get the good vibes rolling again, and then have that be the start to a very strange road trip.

“I think it’ll be fun, but a little odd going from Saginaw Valley to one of the top-ranked teams in the country…. I’m excited to play UIndy, especially after how close we played Grand Valley, and I think this will be a good test for the GLIAC Tournament.”

Northern completes the regular season in St. Paul, Minnesota, to face Concordia-St. Paul next Saturday afternoon before the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament commences on May 1.

“Being able to match speed and match athletes with a high-intensity opponent (UIndy) will hopefully help us perform against Concordia, who always plays really well at home,” Majkrzak said.

Junior attacker Josie Lakosky, who already had been named GLIAC Offensive Player of the Week for the fourth time this season on Monday, added her second consecutive national award from the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association on Tuesday.

This time around, she was named National co-Offensive Player of the Week after winning the same award outright a week previous. This week’s honor was shared with St. Leo’s Sophia Wood, who totaled seven goals and three assists for 10 points, adding in six draw controls and three ground balls in two games, both against top-10 opponents.

For Lakosky, her big statistics came in the Wildcats’ 21-4 blowout of Davenport and narrow 9-8 loss to Grand Valley State, both at the Superior Dome.

In those two games together, Lakosky rolled up 14 goals and five assists for 19 points, including a nine-goal, 13-point output vs. DU, each an NMU single-game record.

And in the GVSU game, she set the Northern single-season goals record, now at 76, while surpassing 100 points — reaching 103 — and ready to take over that record, too, which currently stands at 108 by Minnie Bittell in 2024. By the way, Lakosky’s 134 shots on goal this season is also a program record, while her 44 ground balls ties that all-time season mark.

Lakosky leads Division II in goals, goals per game, points, points per game and shots on goal per game.

“It’s actually crazy,” Majkrzak said about Lakosky. “She’s doing things that have never been done before.

“I’m so impressed with her work ethic and how she’s overcome people guarding her aggressively. The way she was able to score in both the Grand Valley and Davenport (games) and was just able to dominate, it’s so impressive.

“To have that person at Northern Michigan is really special…. I’m so proud of her for everything that she’s achieved, and she’s breaking records while we still have regular-season and postseason games to go, it’s really cool (to see).”

By the way, Grand Valley goalkeeper Sarah Krause was named IWLCA National Defensive Player of the Week after she made a career-high 14 saves in a game against Concordia-St. Paul and 12 vs. the Wildcats.

Over the past two weeks in three games, Lakosky has 22 goals and eight assists for 30 points, taking 42 total shots, 38 on goal, also being credited with eight ground balls, eight caused turnovers and 24 draw controls.

NMU now stands at 10-4 overall and 4-2 in the GLIAC, two games behind leader Grand Valley (6-0) with two league games remaining. SVSU and C-SP are conference members, while UIndy is in the GLVC.

Saginaw Valley is in its second year as a varsity program and has struggled to 1-10 overall and 0-4 GLIAC marks, while Indy is 10-1 and 3-0 in the GLVC.

Northern appears in the first Division II regional rankings for the Midwest, holding sixth place. Grand Valley is second, even with a 7-7 overall record as six losses came early to nationally ranked teams, while UIndy is fourth. Another team NMU played and lost to by a single goal is Colorado-Colorado Springs, which is third in the region. On the same trip to Colorado, Northern also lost to Regis, No. 7 in the region.

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.