Northern Michigan University’s Justina L’Esperance, right, celebrates her goal with teamamte Molly Pistorius during a GLIAC women’s soccer game played against Roosevelt at the NMU Soccer Field in Marquette on Oct. 25. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

MARQUETTE — Whether they’re really spoils or not, to the Northern Michigan University champions go these spoils in the opening round of the GLIAC women’s soccer tournament.

The Wildcats clinched their second straight conference regular-season title on Saturday after playing to a draw in their second road game in three days downstate.

NMU tied Saginaw Valley State 1-1 right after doing the same — with the same score — vs. Grand Valley State on Thursday afternoon.

The Lakers were the Wildcats’ closest pursuer and could’ve taken the GLIAC title away from NMU with a win Saturday. Instead, the struggling Michigan Tech team managed a scoreless draw against GVSU on Saturday to preserve Northern’s one-point lead in the standings.

Now Tech is coming to Marquette this afternoon in a matchup of No. 1 and No. 8 seeds. The Huskies finished their regular season at 6-10-1 overall and 4-9-1 in the league, while NMU is 11-3-4 and 9-2-3.

The two Upper Peninsula rivals only met once during the regular season, a 2-0 Northern victory in Houghton on Oct. 11. On that day, Brooke Pietila and Justina L’Esperance scored and Sally Patton posted a four-save shutout in goal.

These squads last met in the conference tourney in 2021, a 2-1 win also by NMU and also in the first-round quarterfinals, though that contest was in Houghton. And L’Esperance scored the game-winner in the 56th minute that time around.

Fans can follow @NMU_wsoccer and @NMU_Wildcats on X (formerly Twitter) for updates leading up to and during the game, or visit the NMU athletics website at nmuwildcats.com and look under the women’s soccer schedule for links to live video, live statistics and a series preview and history.

Northern is 6-1 at the NMU Soccer Field this season, outscoring opponents 22-2 with five shutouts, while head coach Jon Sandoval is 34-3-7 at home during his tenure as Wildcats’ head coach.

Northern leads the GLIAC in numerous offensive categories and are also top-20 in the nation in them — shots per game, sixth in the nation; assists, seventh; shots on goal per game, eighth; assists per game, also eighth; total points, 10th; points per game, 11th; goals, 12th; and scoring offense, 17th.

Individuals players from NMU dominate the top three in points, goals, assists and points per game in the GLIAC. L’Esperance leads the league with 10 goals and 27 points, Pietila is second with nine goals and 25 points and Molly Pistorius is third with six goals and 19 points. Amazingly, all three players have seven assists to form a triumvirate at the top of that league stat.

Pietila’s game today will be her 94th for NMU, setting that school record. She also leads the conference with four game-winning goals.

Tech, meanwhile, is only 2-7-1 in its last 10 games, being shutout in seven of them. They’re also 3-6-1 on the road this season and winless in their last five, but coming off the 0-0 tie at No. 19 Grand Valley.

Julia Pietila leads the MTU offense, where she is third with six goals and fifth with 14 points as she also had two assists.

Netminder Bri Barrows has a 1.03 goals-against average and .832 saves percentage and backstopped the scoreless tie in Allendale on Saturday.

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