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

PREVIEW: Wildcats Host Golden Bears on Saturday

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- The NMU women's lacrosse team kicks off a three-game home stand this weekend, welcoming the Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears to the Superior Dome this Saturday.

The Wildcats (8-3, 2-1 GLIAC) are coming off its first conference road trip of the season, falling 4-9 to Grand Valley before bouncing back with a 14-6 win over Davenport. 

The Golden Bears begin the final stretch of regular-season home contests for the Wildcats, as NMU will welcome Davenport and Grand Valley to the Superior Dome the following weekend. CSP caps off a three-game road stretch with its trip to Marquette, as they dropped 6-10 and 4-7 contests against Davenport and Grand Valley last weekend. 

The 'Cats and Golden Bears are set to begin at noon on Saturday, April 4. Attendance to the game is free for fans, and you can stream the game on FloLive. 
 
Hear from Lindsey (LeMay) Majkrzak


The Wildcats opened its trip to the lower peninsula with a meeting against GLIAC powerhouse Grand Valley, dropping a 4-9 decision. The Lakers held NMU to just four goals while holding standout attacker Josie Lakosky to just one goal.

A big reason for the lack of offensive output was that the Lakers changed defensive structure before the game against NMU, and "nothing we had scouted to that point was defensively relevant," said head coach Majkrzak. The Lakers were running a zone to begin 2026, and reverted to its man-coverage defensive strategy that held NMU to four goals on a separate occasion last season, a 4-11 loss in Allendale.

"Grand Valley changed their defense right before our game, which obviously was really effective, as they held us to only four goals when we are traditionally one of the highest scoring offenses in the country… They switched out of the zone they were playing to start the year to then playing a basic middle-man [defense], and we didn't know what to do with it and completely shut down…I'm disappointed with my own game plan for Grand Valley; we should have [prepared] that they would go back to what worked against us last year, because they were good at shutting us down with the man defense they played against us last year.

The 'Cats then found its rhythm against the Panthers, as Lakosky scored seven and the 'Cats cruised to a 14-6 win.

"It was really good to see the bounce back on Sunday. For us to be able to come into that game and try to fix some of the problems we had on Friday, I don't think we did a perfect job, but to be able to get our offense moving, get Josie and some different people scoring again, that game was a lot better for our offense."

"We also did a good job of shutting them down. Once we started subbing, we gave up some transition goals, but for the most part, I think we handled them. That was good to see, especially after early in the Grand Valley game when we had some one-on-one mistakes that were very atypical for the people we had in the matchup. Seeing us play good team defense and get a conference win was good."

Josie Lakosky is one of the premier scorers in the country, as she is T2 for goals scored and third in goals per game, but the Wildcats have gotten solid secondary scoring, especially from junior Avery Lorinser. Lorinser is second on the team in goals (24) and points (29), and has a hat-trick in four consecutive games. Majkrzak noted that her emergence has been special to watch. 

"Avery worked so hard in the offseason, and she really wanted this year to feel good and to perform at the level that she knew she could. Last year in the Grand Valley home game, she got really badly hurt and was out for almost the rest of the year, and it was right when she was hitting her stride. She got really frustrated with not being able to play, and now this year, to see her positivity, foot speed, skill, and to be able to be a great secondary scorer for our team. She produces every time, and she's such a great weapon to have when we need other weapons. The jump she's made from last year to this year is what she wanted, and to watch a kid put a bunch of work in and to have what she wants come to fruition is really special."

The rivalry between NMU and CSP runs deeper than an in-conference bout. 

The Wildcat and Golden Bear roster is sprinkled with student-athletes from the Minnesota area, where they grew up playing with or against each other in some capacity or another. Majkrzak says that the familiarity fuels the competitive drive like no other opponent, and is always a match to look out for. 

"Concordia-St. Paul is an easy one to get excited about, because our whole team is from Minnesota and their whole team is also from Minnesota… A lot of them played for the same club teams, played each other in the state tournament, and we have a lot of crossover of athletes who went to the same high school. That competitive energy is always there, but CSP is a little different because these athletes have known each other since they were really small."



 
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Players Mentioned

Josie Lakosky

#1 Josie Lakosky

A
5' 7"
Junior
Avery Lorinser

#18 Avery Lorinser

A
5' 8"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Josie Lakosky

#1 Josie Lakosky

5' 7"
Junior
A
Avery Lorinser

#18 Avery Lorinser

5' 8"
Junior
A