Northern Michigan University’s Vanessa Carrico, right, takes a shot that goes wide of Grand Valley State goaltender Sarah Krause, center, and hits a Lakers’ player coming around the net during their GLIAC lacrosse game played at the Superior Dome in Marquette on April 12. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

ALLENDALE — The agony was having a halftime lead that didn’t hold up in the second half.

That’s what happened to the lacrosse team at Northern Michigan University as the Wildcats were trying to defeat conference power Grand Valley State for the first time ever.

Playing on their home field, the Lakers turned an 8-5 deficit to NMU at intermission into a 12-9 victory to win the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament title on Sunday afternoon.

Apparently, there wasn’t an automatic berth into the NCAA Division II Tournament on the line, as this sport’s national tourney field only includes 24 teams, with 12 automatic berths. Compare that to basketball, both men’s and women’s, where the tourney field has 64 teams and an automatic berth from most conferences.

But the Lakers did earn an at-large, No. 4 seed in the Midwest Regional, that university announced on Monday morning. GVSU made the NCAA tourney for the fifth straight season and sixth overall, starting out Thursday afternoon against Ashland at regional top seed Indianapolis.

That shut out further play for the Wildcats, who finished runner-up in the GLIAC tourney for the fourth straight season and also second place in the regular season for the third time in the last four years.

GVSU ran its all-time record vs. NMU to 22-0, though the goal differential in the three matches this season was only 30-21.

In Sunday’s game, the first half was back and forth with neither team leading by more than a single goal until a late Northern outburst put NMU ahead by three at intermission.

Junior Josie Lakosky, the nation’s leading scorer, led the Wildcats with four goals and an assist, though it took her 12 total shots, with nine of them on target, to put up those numbers.

In contrast, Grand Valley’s Ella Boose finished with six goals and an assist while taking just seven shots, six of them on goal.

Lakosky helped create all her shots by totaling 12 draw controls, more than all other players on both teams combined. She also had one ground ball as netminder Lauren Esposito rolled up eight ground balls. The latter finished with six saves as Lakers goalie Sarah Krause had eight.

Team-wise, shots were quite close, GVSU holding a narrow 28-27 edge in total shots and almost as close with an 18-16 advantage in shots on goal.

NMU actually won the draw controls, 13-10, and had one fewer turnovers, 15-14, while Grand Valley had a narrow advantage in ground balls, 20-19.

Junior Avery Lorinser was Northern’s only other multi-goal scorer with two goals, while freshman Vanessa Carrico, freshman Hannah Grimm and sophomore Hannah Jabas had one apiece.

Sophomore Evita Weiche paced the Wildcats with two caused turnovers, while she, junior Sophie Langsdale and sophomore Katelyn Wozney each had two ground balls.

Lakosky scored NMU’s first two goals, giving it one-goal leads each time. The first came about 3 1/2 minutes in, with the other in the final minute of the first quarter for a 2-1 advantage after one period.

The Lakers then scored back-to-back tallies in the first 3:08 of the second quarter to take a 3-2 lead. Northern answered with six of the final eight goals of the first half for an 8-5 edge going into the break. Lorinser had two and Lakosky one in that stretch.

Neither team scored in the first eight minutes of the second half, but GVSU got its offense untracked while holding the Wildcats to no scoring for the entire third quarter to take a 9-8 lead by the end of the period.

In fact, Northern managed just one goal in the second half, by Lakosky with 10:42 remaining, while the Lakers tacked on three more goals in the final quarter.

NMU Sports Information noted in its report that the teams battled the outdoor conditions. While it remained sunny, winds whipped consistently from 30 to 40 mph with gusts reaching at least 50 mph.

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.