The Erin Egolf era at Northern Michigan finally has its first win – and it came in emphatic fashion.

The Wildcat women’s soccer team returned from their opening conference road trip with a split, highlighted by a 4-2 victory at Roosevelt and a narrow 2-1 setback at Parkside. Across the two matches, NMU showed flashes of offensive brilliance and resilience, with four different Wildcats netting their first goals of the season.

Saturday’s win in Chicago exhibited a second-half eruption. After 60 minutes of scoreless soccer, the Wildcats and Lakers combined for six goals in a frenetic half-hour stretch. The Cats, who had just one goal in their first four games of the season, quadrupled that total with a balanced attack – Marena Maceroni, Madison Bilbia, Alyse Daavettila, and Addison Frantti all found the back of the net.

For Maceroni, it was a breakout afternoon – her first career goal and assist came just 20 minutes apart. Frantti and Gretchen Ellis also picked up their first points as Wildcats, while Bilbia and Daavettila finally got on the scoresheet for 2025. The goals weren’t just well-timed – they were spectacular. Bilbia thigh-flicked home a Maceroni cross, Daavettila danced around the keeper for a calm finish, Frantti rose for a near-post header off a corner, and Maceroni curled in a left-footed strike to seal the deal. The Wildcats dominated the stat sheet, outshooting Roosevelt 22-7 and piling up 12 shots on target.

Head coach Erin Egolf said her team’s mentality fueled the breakthrough. “I told them on Thursday, if you’re not going to bed dreaming about scoring a goal, you’re not in the right head space,” Egolf said. “And we created a lot. The more you create, the more good opportunities you will have to score.”

Sunday’s matchup in Kenosha had a different script. Against a desperate Parkside unit chasing its first win, NMU battled hard but fell 2-1. The Wildcats’ lone goal came from Kenna Alexander, who buried a first-half penalty – NMU’s first PK conversion since 2022.

The real story, though, was in goal. Redshirt freshman Carly Sides made her collegiate debut and turned heads immediately, racking up eight saves – the most ever by an NMU keeper in their debut, and the program’s single-game high since October 2022. Time and again, Sides kept the Wildcats alive with sliding stops and aggressive challenges off her line.

The Wildcats created chances – Bilbia and Moreno both came within inches of scoring – but the Rangers’ Tristen Cross answered with nine saves of her own. Ultimately, second-half strikes from Parkside’s Kayden Schmidt and Lindsay Dahlinger proved too much to overcome, snapping NMU’s 10-game unbeaten streak against the Rangers.

Egolf was quick to praise her team’s creativity, while also pointing to areas for growth. “What we liked most about this weekend was our creativity,” Egolf said. “We got a lot of chances to score goals. On the downside, we gave up four goals in two games, and that’s certainly not something I’m happy with. It’s something we hope to improve upon as we go into this next weekend against good teams.”

With the first win under their belts and the offense finally clicking, NMU heads home with optimism. The Wildcats saw nine different players contribute major minutes off the bench this weekend, and six different names appear on the scoresheet. For a team that Egolf says should “dream about scoring,” the dreams are starting to look a lot more like reality.