Player of the Week Frantti leads NMU women vs. Tech on Sunday
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Northern Michigan University forward Addison Frantti moves the ball while trailed by an opponent during a Wildcats game earlier this season. (Photo courtesy NMU)
That's exactly what Addison Frantti of the women's soccer team at Northern Michigan University did on Sunday.
The sophomore forward increased her season output from one goal to four after she put up a rare three-goal hat trick in the Wildcats' 4-1 victory at Saginaw Valley State, a team that finished runner-up in the conference tournament a year ago and is second in this year's standings.
Not too surprisingly, Frantti earned the Offensive Player of the Week award from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
The downstate Hartland native helped the Wildcats extend their unbeaten streak to three games, and with a win and tie in the past week, lifted them from eighth place into a tie for fifth in the GLIAC.
Records examined at the NMU athletics website, nmuwildcats.com, show only seven previous hat tricks in the program's history going back to 2009.
On Sunday, she opened the scoring in the 15th minute, and after teammate Madison Bilbia made it 2-0 barely three minutes later, Frantti got her second goal with almost 20 minutes remaining in the first half.
After the Cardinals got one back minutes later, Frantti scored the only goal of the second half in the final two minutes.
She took four shots total, with three -- the three that scored -- being shots on goal.
Two days earlier, she played 47 minutes in a 1-1 tie at Wayne State, having one shot attempt. The Warriors are the only undefeated team in the conference, despite being in third place at 3-0-2 in league encounters.
"I am delighted that Frantti was selected," Northern head coach Erin Egolf said in an NMU Sports Information news release announcing the Player of the Week award. "She deserves the recognition after her heroics on Sunday. (Addison) is fully capable of scoring goals in a variety of ways, and we saw a fantastic display of that this past weekend."
Frantti took over the Wildcats' goal-scoring lead and is tied with Bilbia for the most points as each has eight.
NMU has just one game in the next week, but it's a big one, coming against Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech in the first of their two meetings this fall at noon Sunday in Houghton.
The return match in Marquette will be exactly two weeks later on Sunday, Oct. 18.
Northern seeks to avenge its loss from last year in Marquette, a 1-0 decision that snapped NMU's eight-game unbeaten streak vs. MTU.
"There's always a little extra emotion," Egolf said in a separate NMU SI release previewing the game. "The game you have against Tech, I feel like, is always one that the girls are going to be up for on both sides.
"And so we just have to be prepared like every other game to go in and take care of our business."
Fans can stream the match through FloCollege, follow along with live statistics under the women's soccer schedule at nmuwildcats.com, and subscribe to the official NMU Women’s Soccer social media channels for match-day updates.
In these rivalry games where records usually don't mean much, that could help the Huskies, who have struggled so far at 0-9-1 overall and 0-5-1 in the GLIAC.
The Wildcats are now a solid 5-3-2 overall and 2-3-1 in the league. They've attained a ranking of eighth in the Midwest Region in the United Soccer Coaches poll, and ninth in the region in NCAA Power Index strength.
Tech's major issue has been scoring, or a lack of it. In 10 games, the Huskies have scored two goals, one coming in a GLIAC game, a 1-1 draw at second-to-last-place Roosevelt on Sept. 20. They've also given up multiple goals in every loss, though never more than four.
Despite their tough run, Egolf knows that Tech will prove a challenge, especially at home and against NMU.
"Tech is always on everyone's radar, and we've talked about not looking past any games, and now the Tech game's finally here, and we can focus on it," Egolf said. "We both have byes (no game) on Friday, so it'll be a fresh game for both of us, and really it's going to be who comes out and is willing to compete and puts their best tactical presentation on the field.
"I think while Tech's results haven't been great, they still have quality in their team. They're a hard-working team, they don't give up, and they have pieces that can break you down.
"This isn't going to be a cakewalk; we're going into enemy territory, and for us, we have to step up, and we have to establish ourselves early in the game."
Story contents based on a pair of Northern Michigan University Sports Information press releases reviewing the award and previewing the game. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee's email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.