The Wildcats head into their final regular season matches of the season this weekend as they host the Lake Superior State University Lakers and Northwood Timberwolves.

The Wildcats defeated the Wayne State University Warriors 3-0 on Friday, Oct. 31 at Vandament Arena. On Saturday, Nov. 1 NMU fell 3-2 to the Saginaw Valley State University Cardinals also at Vandament Arena.

Freshman setter Meghan Seymour said SVSU was a tough challenge for the team.

“They were getting everything up,” Seymour said. “It was hard for us but we kept up the communication and that helped.

“I think our strengths were that we worked really well together. We just have to use our shots more, put the ball in the right spot and find a way to get kills.”

The Wildcats will face LSSU and Northwood for the second time each this season. The Wildcats had a 3-2 win over Northwood Friday, Sept. 12 in Midland, Mich.

On Saturday, Sept. 13 the ’Cats had a 3-0 win over LSSU in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.

Head coach Dominic Yoder said this weekend will have great implications for the GLIAC tournament which begins next week.

“We are expecting both LSSU and Northwood to be competitive matches,” Yoder said.

“The outcomes are really going to determine if we are going to host first round of conference play on Wednesday or be on the road.”

Coming off of the weekend, NMU is fifth out of the 16 GLIAC teams, with a 12-4 conference record and 12-13 overall. NMU is tied with SVSU for fourth in the GLIAC. Currently in conference play, the Lakers are 1-14 while the Timberwolves are 3-12.

Yoder said the team keeps working on through the season.

“We are just continuing to polish our skills and make sure our system is polished,” Yoder said. “We need to work on different components of our system so we can be more prepared.”

Junior libero Alex Berger said the team is ready to end the regular season strong.

“A lot of our families are coming up this weekend which also makes it so exciting so they can see us play together in the Vandament arena,” Berger said. “As the year has gone on, we have improved tremendously in that regard and are excited to play at our peak performance coming in this weekend and the rest of the year as well.”