Great Lakes Wire

Northern Michigan University’s athletics teams were active across several sports during the week of September 15-21, with a mix of results in football, volleyball, soccer, cross country, and golf.

The football team lost its homecoming game to Davenport by a score of 35-16. NMU took an early lead and saw running back Noah Dobert score two touchdowns while rushing for 156 yards. However, an injury to quarterback Duke Shovald limited the Wildcats’ passing game; they completed no passes on five attempts. The team focused on its ground game with 59 rushes for 278 yards.

In women’s volleyball, Northern Michigan faced No. 12 Ferris State in their second Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) match of the season and fell in straight sets: 19-25, 23-25, and 18-25. NMU posted a .215 hitting percentage compared to Ferris State’s .318 and was led offensively by Sydney Bartels with 11 kills. Allie Barlow contributed 31 assists while Lauren Cardwell led defensively with 16 digs.

The women’s soccer team split its matches, starting conference play with a win over Roosevelt (4-2) before falling to Parkside (1-2). In the victory against Roosevelt, NMU had goal contributions from Addison Frantti (one goal, one assist), Marena Maceroni (one goal, one assist), Madison Bilbia (one goal), Alyse Daavettila (one goal), Gretchen Ellis (one assist), and Kenna Alexander (one assist). Against Parkside, Kenna Alexander scored from a penalty kick—NMU’s first successful penalty since September 2022. Goalkeeper Carly Sides made her debut with eight saves.

On the men’s side, the soccer team lost to Parkside by a score of 3-1. Luca Rosen scored early for NMU on a penalty kick but Parkside responded with three goals over the course of the match.

The cross country team placed third out of twenty-four teams at the Roy Griak Invitational in St. Paul, Minnesota. Madi Szymanski finished fifth overall with a time of 23:15.8 while freshman Ashley Choponis finished eighth at 23:27.7. Three more Wildcats finished among the top twenty-five runners.

Men’s golf competed at the Bulldog Fall Classic and finished seventeenth out of nineteen teams after rounds of +35, +29, and +28 as a team. Arthur Ylitalo led NMU individually by finishing tied for forty-first place among over one hundred golfers.