Northern women’s hoops opens this afternoon
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MARQUETTE -- The women's basketball team at Northern Michigan University will open its season at its home away from home a few hundred miles south of Marquette starting this afternoon.
The Wildcats play three games in as many days at the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association Midwest Tip-Off Challenge in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
NMU takes on Central Missouri at 12:15 p.m. EDT today at the Justagame Fieldhouse, where they've played multiple early-season games the past several years.
A dozen men's and women's teams -- including the Northern men in the associated men's tourney -- are also participating, which also includes Lake Superior State and Grand Valley State from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
But the Wildcat women won't see any conference foes, which will be reserved for that part of the season, with additional games to be played vs. Truman State (Missouri) at 2:30 p.m. EDT Saturday and Minnesota State-Mankato at 2:30 p.m. EST Sunday.
All three games will be streamed on the Justagame website at justagame.com, with Radio Results network radio stations carrying each of them, too. Today's and Sunday's will be on WUPT 100.3 FM The Point, while Saturday's is on WUPZ 94.9 FM The Bay.
Or visit the Northern athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women's basketball schedule for links to live video, live statistics and previews. Fan can also follow @NMU_WBBall on Instagram and @NMU_Wildcats on X for updates.
"We have a lot of new faces and we have people who need to step up," Wildcats head coach Casey Thousand said in an NMU Sports Information news release previewing the weekend. "We are going to lean on key returners. We play some very good teams and the competition will be very high level.
"We will learn about facing adversity and how we respond to it without having a senior on our roster. There will be a lot of learning curves, but hopefully we can learn and adapt fast."
As she said, Thousand enters her fifth season without a senior. But she's already compiled an 85-40 overall record (.680 winning percentage) and even better 53-23 (.697) in the GLIAC.
Last year's team was 25-8 overall and 15-5 in league, good for fourth place in the 11-team loop. It was a close fourth, with the Wildcats closer to No. 1 GVSU than they were to the team immediately behind them, Michigan Tech.
Four starters are gone from Northern's NCAA Division II tournament qualifiers of last year, but nine players return to join six freshman and a transfer.
The toughest shoes to fill will be last year's GLIAC First Team selections Jacy Weisbrod and Sarah Newcomer, Weisbrod in particular as the program's all-time leader in 3-pointers with 278, including last year's season-record 106.
Headlining returnees will be Sydney Whitehouse, who was last season's GLIAC Sixth Woman of the Year. The junior guard-forward was also selected to the GLIAC Preseason First Team recently after appearing in all 33 games -- and starting none -- but still averaging 9.6 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
She scored in double figures 15 times, with a career-high 25 points in the GLIAC Tournament quarterfinals vs. Michigan Tech.
Also back is junior guard Addison Pytleski after averaging 7.2 ppg and No. 2 on the team with 38.8% on 3-pointers. Also back are sophomore guard Faith Walder after averaging 5.7 ppg, junior guard Madison Schroeder at 4.5 ppg and junior guard-forward Jordyn Schmittdiel at 3.6 ppg.
Schmittdiel also was second among Wildcats with 5.3 rebounds per game while leading the team in blocked shots with 18.
Thousand also sees the potential for expanded roles for junior Ava Bates and sophomores Haddie Showen, Addison Baumgart and Elsa Bachert.
NMU has hosted a GLIAC tourney quarterfinal game each of the last four seasons and also hopes for a fourth straight appearance in the NCAAs at the end of this season.
Coaches around the GLIAC seem to think that's a real possibility for the Wildcats, as they picked Northern in second place in their preseason poll only behind back-to-back national champion Grand Valley, which finished 36-1 last spring.
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Northern Michigan University's Sydney Whitehouse, right, celebrates with teammate CJ Romero for scoring two points just before the buzzer to end the third quarter during a GLIAC Tournament quarterfinal game played against Michigan Tech at Vandament Arena in Marquette on March 4. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)