Northern Michigan University goalie Sally Patton, facing with ball, makes a save during a GLIAC women’s soccer game played against Wisconsin-Parkside at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Nov. 1. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — The NMU Soccer Field will be busy this weekend with a trio of GLIAC Tournament games.

The Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team hopes they’ll play in two of them, and hopes even further to win both.

The Wildcats play in the second of two games today in the conference semifinals. No. 1 seed NMU hosts No. 5 seed Davenport at 2 p.m. Before that, No. 2 Grand Valley State takes on No. 3 Saginaw Valley State at 11 a.m.

Winners of today’s games advance to the GLIAC Tournament championship tilt set for Sunday afternoon. The NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com reports that game is at 1 p.m., while the GLIAC website at gliac.org says that game will be at 2 p.m. Regardless of who is in it and when it is, that will also take place at the NMU Soccer Field.

Games NMU is involved in will be broadcast on radio station WUPT 100.3 FM The Point. The event is free to attend for fans, or it can be watched livestream at FloFC.

In addition, visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s soccer schedule for links to live video, live audio, live statistics and a preview and history.

Northern earned the right to host the semis and finals by winning the GLIAC regular-season title by a single point over Grand Valley, then defeating No. 8 seed Michigan Tech 5-0 in the tourney’s opening-round quarterfinals on Tuesday afternoon.

At 12-3-4 overall, NMU was 9-2-3 in conference games compared to GVSU’s 8-1-5. Though both teams were seven games above .500 and thus had the same winning percentage of .750, because wins are worth three points and ties only one, the Wildcats finished with 30 points to the Lakers’ 29.

SVSU was third at 6-3-5 and 9-5-5, while Davenport came in fifth at 5-2-7 and 8-3-8.

This is Northern’s third meeting this year vs. DU and their first meeting in the postseason. Earlier this fall, Northern won 3-0 in Marquette on Sept. 22, then lost 1-0 in suburban Grand Rapids on Oct. 20.

Hannah Kastamo, Allison Kroll and Brooke Pietila scored for the Wildcats in the September contest.

Davenport defeated No. 4 Ferris State 1-0 in Big Rapids in their tourney quarterfinal on Tuesday, marking not only their first-ever win in the conference postseason, but also first win ever against Ferris.

Haley Diekevers scored the lone goal as netminder Elizabeth Wolter made a career-high 12 saves, doubling her next-closest career save total in a single game.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.