The Northern Michigan University Women’s Lacrosse team dropped a pair of home matches last weekend, falling 22-3 to 18th-ranked Grand Valley State University on Friday before coming out on the wrong end of a 21-6 result against Tiffin on Sunday.
Friday’s game was a blowout from the start, with the Grand Valley Lakers scoring 10 unanswered goals to begin the game. It wasn’t until almost halfway through the first half that the Wildcats got on the board, when sophomore Graison Ringlever broke Grand Valley goalkeeper Brianna DeMilia’s shutout and made the score 10-1. The Lakers scored six more goals before the halftime break gave the Wildcats a much-needed relief from the offensive onslaught.
Grand Valley scored first in the second half, but the Wildcats answered with two goals of their own, both from freshman Tess Kostelec. NMU would fail to score again in the match. The Lakers added five more goals before the end of the match, and the final score was 22-3 in favor of Grand Valley.
On Sunday, the Wildcats again got off to a slow start, allowing Tiffin seven straight goals to start the match. NMU’s first goal came just under 10 minutes in, when Graison Ringlever was awarded a free position shot and made the most of her opportunity. Ringlever added her second goal of the night 45 seconds later, bringing the score to 7-2 with the Dragons in the lead. Two Tiffin goals in a row brought the Dragons’ lead to seven before Dvorak tallied her second of the game from a free position shot of her own. For the rest of the first half the teams traded goals back and forth, with the remaining Wildcat goals coming from junior Megan Palicio and freshman Ellie Bahr. After the first half, Tiffin led 13-6. The Wildcats came out flat in the second half and weren’t able to score again and lost 21-6.
NMU’s Lacrosse team fell to 0-3 in GLIAC play and 1-5 overall after the weekend’s games. The Wildcats will next take the field on Saturday, March 31, when they travel to Grand Rapids to take on the Davenport Panthers at noon. NMU returns home Wednesday to face Concordia St-Paul.