Local Sports

NMU women get hard-earned point at undefeated Wayne State

DETROIT -- The women's soccer team at Northern Michigan University won a hard-earned point on the road on Friday afternoon against the only undefeated team in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The Wildcats tied Wayne State 1-1 as NMU moved to 4-3-2 overall and 1-3-1 in the league, while the Warriors improved to 6-0-2 and 2-0-2.

Northern moved into a tie for seventh place in the GLIAC, while WSU, despite being unbeaten, is only in third place in the GLIAC behind Grand Valley State (6-1-2, 4-0-1) and Saginaw Valley State (6-3, 4-1).

After playing at SVSU on Sunday, the Wildcats get a week off to prepare for the first of two matchups this season against Michigan Tech. This first encounter will be at noon Sunday in Houghton, to be followed by five straight games at home, the first at 3 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 9 vs. Purdue Northwest.

On Friday in Detroit, NMU spotted the Warriors a goal barely more than 10 minutes in, then punched in the equalizer not quite 29 minutes later. The teams then played a scoreless second half, not a bad result against the team with the No. 1 Midwest ranking using the NCAA Power Index that will likely weigh heavily on selections for the NCAA Division II tournament in November.

Interestingly, this is Wayne State's first year having a varsity program and Friday was only the second time Wayne State was held to just one goal over an entire contest.

"I'm pleased with the fight from our group today," Northern head coach Erin Egolf said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the game. "Wayne is a very good side, and we knew we would have to put in a huge team effort to get a result. We'll definitely take a point on the road against a high-level opponent, a point that was well earned.

"There were spells of the game I thought our soccer quality was good, and then other times we let ourselves down a little bit. We have it in us, but it comes back to the consistency piece; we have to keep building on the positives and put more of those quality moments together."

The Warriors used sustained pressure from the outset to help get their early goal. Jess Clyde, from the right side of the box, cut in onto her left foot and sent a decisive strike to the bottom left-hand corner of the net, according to NMU SI.

That was the only goal Wildcats goalkeeper Carly Sides let in while making three saves. WSU counterpart Kate Helfen had four stops.

Wayne State held a 14-7 advantage in total shots even while Northern finished with a 5-4 edge in shots on goal.

The Warriors' lead held up until there was just over six minutes remaining in the first half. NMU's penalty kick goal was set up when the Wildcats' Cecelia Willie broke into the box after receiving a long ball, and Helfen came off her line and took down Willie, committing the foul that awarded the penalty shot.

That's when sophomore defender and NMU captain Madalyn Nissen stepped up to the spot and decisively hit the ball to the bottom left corner to beat Helfen, according to NMU SI. This was Nissen's first collegiate goal.

While the Warriors held a big 8-3 advantage in shots during the second half, each squad had two on goal over the final 45 minutes.

But the NMU defense had to come up with some major stops in the final 15 minutes, which included negating a corner kick. Sides made a save on a header, while Northern defender Ava Buhlman cleared a rebound right near the goal line.

Wayne State finished taking eight of the game's 11 corner kicks, though was whistled for one more foul, 11-10, and shown the only yellow card in the 13th minute.

Sides and Buhlman played the entire 90 minutes. Seven players took Northern's seven shots, with ones on goal by Buhlman, Nissen, Addison Frantti, Madison Bilbia

and Lily Senese.

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.