Skip To Main Content

Northern Michigan University

The Official Website of the Northern Michigan Wildcats Northern Michigan Wildcats
Women's Soccer Team
2
Winner Saginaw Valley SVSU (4-2-0, 2-0-0)
0
Northern Mich. NMU (3-2-1, 0-2-0)
Winner
Saginaw Valley SVSU
(4-2-0, 2-0-0)
2
Final
0
Northern Mich. NMU
(3-2-1, 0-2-0)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Saginaw Valley SVSU 0 2 2
Northern Mich. NMU 0 0 0

Game Recap: Women's Soccer | | Braden Golisek - Assistant Director of Sports Information

Wildcats Fall to Cardinals on Sunday

NMU drops both games of GLIAC opening weekend to the GLIAC preseason favorites and second-place vote earners

MARQUETTE, Mich. -- The NMU women's soccer team rounded out its opening weekend of conference play with a 0-2 loss to the Saginaw Valley State Cardinals. 

The Wildcats (3-2-1, 0-2-0 GLIAC) ended its tough GLIAC opening weekend against the Cardinals (4-2-0, 2-0-0 GLIAC), who completed its Upper Peninsula road trip with wins over Michigan Tech and Northern Michigan. 

NMU faced a challenging opening to the GLIAC calendar of matches, falling to the GLIAC pre-season favorites and #5-ranked Grand Valley State Lakers 0-3 on Friday, and now the 2026 GLIAC pre-season second-place finisher, the Cardinals, 0-2.

"I thought Friday we played well for large spells of the game," added head coach Erin Egolf when speaking to the media in a post-game interview. "We played well on Friday, had a couple of chances of our own, but we knew Grand Valley was going to be a good side, and they were, but I still liked the fight from our team. 

"Today I thought we were a little bit flat. You can't miss that many chances in front of goal and expect a win, so that was disappointing."

The Wildcats generated plenty of grade-A offensive looks, matching the Cardinals in shots (16-15) and shots on target (5-4), but were unable to find the back of the net from crucial areas.

Madison Bilbia had three shots with two on target, Sole Corley had three attempts, Addison Frantti had two attempts with one on target, and both Isabella Lorens and Alyse Daavettila had one attempt. Substitutes Lily Senese and Marena Maceroni both had two attempts, and Izzy Armstrong had a shot as well. 

The 'Cats 15 shot attempts today mark the second-most this team has fired in 2026, only one attempt shy of the season-high 16 that was recorded in the 3-1 win over Northwood a week ago.

"We had so many [chances], and they fell to different people. It just seemed like today wasn't our day, but now we have a whole week to work on that before we go play again. 

"You can't let teams off the hook like that. Goals are how you win games, and when you don't score, it's hard to be in games. We certainly created enough today; we just didn't have the end product, which was disappointing, so we have to find that."

The Wildcats played the Cardinals to a very even scoreless first half, and came out confident in the second half. The 'Cats outshot and created chances to open the second half, but goals from Jaidyn Veldhouse (59:01) and Emma Bradley (65:17) would push the Cardinals two goals ahead. NMU would out-shoot SVSU 4-1 in the final 15 minutes of play, but the scoreline would remain the same as the final whistle sounded.

NMU got a full 90-minutes from goalkeeper Carly Sides, who made four saves on the evening, along with the defensive line of Ava Buhlman, Riley Hill, Irene Kiilunen, and Madalyn Nissen. Midfielders Corley (81) and Ellis (78) put in a long shift today, and forwards Bilbia (62), Frantti (53), and Daavettila (53) all recorded 50+ minutes.

NMU got eight appearances from substitutes today, including good shifts from Armstrong (22), Senese (37), Wille (37), and Maceroni (28).

The Wildcats fell 0-3 to #5 GVSU on Friday before the 0-2 loss to SVSU today. The 'Cats conceded five goals on the weekend, marking just the second time in the Egolf era that the Green and Gold have allowed five or more goals in one weekend.

"We can't concede five goals in a weekend. Again, we played two very good conference teams: Friday's results we can accept because we put in a shift, but today is a little harder to take. I thought Saginaw overran us a bit, and when you concede two goals, that's hard to come back from. We'll have to regroup quickly as we look ahead to our first conference away weekend."

The Wildcats now look ahead to a lengthy road spell, as the next three weekends of conference play will all come on the road. The 'Cats begin with a trip to Chicago, where the Green and Gold will face the Roosevelt Lakers on Friday, September 18, at 1 p.m. ET. 

NMU completes the road trip next weekend with a visit to Parkside in Kenosha, Wisconsin, with kickoff also at 1 p.m. ET. Fans can catch all the action on flocollege.com. 



 
Print Friendly Version