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Lacrosse Practice
Teammates line up for a draw against each other in one of the final practices before the season begins

Women's Lacrosse Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

PREVIEW: Lacrosse Opens 2026 Campaign at Home

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- The wait is finally over, and the 2026 NMU lacrosse campaign is set to begin at home this weekend.

The Wildcats, under the leadership of Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak in her seventh season, begin the campaign against Calvin University on Friday, February 13, at 5 p.m. ET, and round out the opening weekend with a clash against Northwood on Sunday, February 15, at noon. The 'Cats also will host a neutral site game that features Calvin College and Carthage College on Saturday, February 14, at noon. 

Admittance to the Superior Dome is free for fans, who will be able to find helpful rules pamphlets and game day programs. For those unable to attend, video streaming is available on Flo Sports, and live stats will be provided. 

Hear from Head Coach Lindsey Majkrzak


The wait is finally over, and the 2026 lacrosse season has arrived. For seventh-year head coach Lindsey Majkrzak and her team, there is a lot of excitement heading into the home opener.

"I'm really excited to see this group play someone other than ourselves. We've hit that point in the preseason where everyone is moving fast, playing hard, and at a certain point, you get tired of going against your teammates. We have the game on the horizon, and now we have something to work toward; we get to start putting in scout offense and defense, we talk about other teams, and it builds intensity. I know the group is ready to see what we're made of this year."

A key returner for the 'Cats is reigning GLIAC Attacker of the Year Josie Lakosky, who had a record-breaking season with the Wildcats as a sophomore last season. When asked about her involvement in the offense and the team as a whole, Majkrzak says that the junior attacker has "big goals" for the Wildcat team this season.

"I think [all of] our team this year, but especially the junior class, have really high goals for what they want to see our team achieve, how far they want to see us go, and how well they want to see us perform. But for Josie herself, I do think it is important to recognize that she was only a sophomore last year and is just a junior this year. There are so many things that she can prove that will make a huge difference in our game... Josie was one of the best players in the region and the best attacker in our conference, but she was a little quiet in some bigger games, so I think that is a maturity/leadership thing that could be a big game changer this year as we play a difficult schedule."

A difficult schedule was something that Majkrzak says was very intentional when the veteran coach went about creating the schedule and taking into account the team's goals for the season. The GLIAC conference does not get an auto-bid into the NCAA Tournament, as a conference needs six teams, and the GLIAC has five, making every game important.

"I scheduled to try and give us the best chance to make the NCAA Tournament. That means we're playing all in-region opponents and the best in-region opponents. Even though we don't have Maryville on our schedule, we are playing U Indy, Regis, and Colorado Mesa, who are [historically] in the top three in the region, in addition to Grand Valley, who is in our conference and always builds our strength of schedule... Building the schedule overall, we wanted to test ourselves early to give ourselves the best chance at being prepared for our in-conference schedule."

The home opener features Calvin College, a powerhouse in the DII MIAA conference, which went 12-6 overall and 5-2 in conference last season. Calvin has opened its season already, winning 17-6 over Eau-Claire and 19-9 over UW-Stout, along with earning a plethora of weekly honors: Delaney Johnson was named USA Lacrosse Women's Player of the Week and MIAA Offensive Player of the Week, Natalie Scott was named MIAA Defensive Player of the Week, and Hannah Rizzo was named MIAA Specialist of the Week. 

"[Calvin] is a consistent, talented, good downstate Michigan team that gets a lot of good high school athletes that played club for teams that we get athletes from, too. I think for as far as division three opponents go, they are organized, tough, and it should be a competitive game."

There may be a lot of question marks going into the first game of the season, but the main things that Majkrzak wants to see from her team from game one to the postseason are intensity and toughness.

"That's all I care about this year. We need to come out and be animals every second of the game from start to finish. We need to take every single rep seriously because I have built a mountain in front of us with our schedule, and if we don't attack it with our teeth out from the opening second, it is going to get away from us. I want to see [that intensity and toughness] immediately this weekend."
 
2026 Season Preview

2026 GLIAC Women's Lacrosse Coaches' Preseason Poll
1. Grand Valley State          16 (4)
2. Northern Michigan        13 (1)
3. Concordia-St. Paul        10
4. Davenport                            7
5. Saginaw Valley State     4


The Wildcats begin the season with a homestand, where the Wildcats play four home games in the latter half of February before starting a long stretch that sees the 'Cats play seven of the next eight games on the road.

The Wildcats begin GLIAC conference play amid that stretch, with the lone home game in those eight coming against Saginaw Valley to kick off the conference schedule. The regular season runs through the end of April, with the conference postseason beginning May 1, 2026.

Head coach Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak returns to the helm for her seventh season as head coach of the Wildcats, holding a 53-39 record as head coach for the 'Cats. The 2023 GLIAC Coach of the Year has led the Wildcats to three consecutive conference championship game appearances and 11+ win seasons. Assistant coach Quinn Crandall also returns for the 'Cats and will embark on her fourth season.
 
The Wildcats have key returners, but none more important than junior Josie Lakosky. Lakosky was named the GLIAC Freshman of the Year in 2023 and GLIAC Attacker of the Year in 2025 to go along with first-team all-conference honors. Lakosky had a record-breaking season for the Wildcats in 2025, setting career-highs in almost every statistical category in fewer games played, and breaking the NMU single-game point record twice in a three-game stretch. The attacker earned GLIAC weekly honors four times last season and was named the IWLCA National Co-Offensive Player of the Week thanks to her 13-point outing, which ranked just two points behind the highest single-game point total in all of DII women's lacrosse that season. 
Across all competitions in 2025, Lakosky paced the conference in goals (66), goals per game (3.88), points (85), points per game (5.00), shots (161), shots per game (9.47), was second in draw controls (75) and draw controls per game (4.41), and third in total assists (19). Among conference-only statistics, Lakosky led the GLIAC in goals per game (3.63), shots (87), and shots per game (10.88). 

Katelyn Wozney, a 2025 All-GLIAC First-Team selection, was honored as the NMU Female Newcomer of the Year at the 2025 Wildcat Awards. As a freshman, Wozney was an integral part of the Wildcats' faceoff scheme; the Wildcats led the conference in draw controls a season ago, with a major part of that success running through Wozney, as she was third in the conference in individual draw controls.

A breakthrough athlete or the Wildcats a season ago, Sophie Langsdale earned her first All-GLIAC honor, earning a spot on the honorable mention team. Langsdale played a crucial role in the midfield last year, as she was one of just four Wildcats to have double digits in both ground balls and caused turnovers, and was the only other Wildcat not named Josie Lakosky to have double-digit goals and points to go along with the double-digit ground balls and caused turnovers.
 

2026 Schedule Release

The Wildcats start the season with five straight home contests, hosting Calvin University and Northwood for the first time in program history on February 13 and 15, followed by McKendree and UW-Stout on February 19 and 21, and ending with Lewis on February 22. 

The 'Cats first road games come during spring break, when the team travels to Colorado to take on Colorado Mesa, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, and Regis University. The Mavericks made it to the RMAC Championship as the number one seed in the conference last season, where they lost to nationally ranked Regis. Colorado-Springs lost to Regis in the first round of the RMAC postseason after going 9-6, including a win over GLIAC foe Davenport to open the season. Regis ended the season with the No. 14 ranking in Division II at the end of the year, in a season that included an RMAC Championship and a first-round win in the NCAA Tournament.

The team stays on the road the following weekend, competing against DII powerhouses Ashland and the University of Indianapolis. Both teams claimed their respective postseason conference championships last year and earned NCAA Tournament appearances. 

The conference schedule then begins, starting with Saginaw Valley at home on March 20. After a trip to the lower peninsula to face Grand Valley and Davenport, the Wildcats close out the regular season home schedule with three straight matches in two weeks, starting with Concordia-St. Paul on April 4 before closing out with Davenport and Grand Valley on April 10 and 12. 

The regular season ends with two games in two weeks, starting with a contest against Saginaw Valley on April 19 before ending with Concordia-St. Paul, a week later, on April 25.

The GLIAC postseason tournament is slated to begin the following weekend, starting on May 1.


 
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Players Mentioned

Josie Lakosky

#1 Josie Lakosky

A
5' 7"
Junior
Sophie Langsdale

#11 Sophie Langsdale

MF
5' 6"
Junior
Katelyn Wozney

#10 Katelyn Wozney

MF
5' 2"
Sophomore

Players Mentioned

Josie Lakosky

#1 Josie Lakosky

5' 7"
Junior
A
Sophie Langsdale

#11 Sophie Langsdale

5' 6"
Junior
MF
Katelyn Wozney

#10 Katelyn Wozney

5' 2"
Sophomore
MF