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

ASHLAND, Ohio — The Northern Michigan University women’s soccer team was eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Division II national tournament on Friday afternoon, losing to Drury 4-1 in Ashland, Ohio.

The Wildcats averted a shutout with an early second-half goal scored by Molly Pistorius that made the score 3-1 at the time.

NMU entered the game as the No. 4 seed in the NCAA tourney’s Midwest Region, while Drury was No. 5. The Panthers will go on to play No. 1 seed and Midwest host Ashland at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Northern ends its season at 14-4-4 after capturing both the GLIAC regular-season and tournament titles in the past few weeks. The Wildcats ran through the conference tournament outscoring its opponents 12-1 over three games, including a 3-0 victory over Saginaw Valley State at the NMU Soccer Field in the tourney championship game in Marquette on Sunday.

Friday marked Northern’s third consecutive year in the NCAA tournament and fourth time in program history, with these past three all under the direction of head coach Jon Sandoval.

The past two years, the Wildcats were also eliminated in their first NCAA game, each time to another Missouri school, Maryville. Last year’s result was 2-1 in a game played in Marquette.

Despite a fairly lopsided score Friday, most match statistics were quite even — the Wildcats were only outshot 17-16, including 9-7 in shots on goal, and they actually held a 5-4 advantage in corner kicks while being called for one more foul, 7-6. No yellow or red cards were issued.

But Drury (14-1-4), located in Springfield, Missouri, and a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference, put most of its offense together in a three-goal first half, taking 14 shots by the halftime intermission and only three after. By comparison, NMU’s shots were eight in each half.

The Panthers opened the scoring in the 28th minute when Andrea Camargo scored her first of the season with an assist going to Elena Perez.

Drury would add two more over the next 15 minutes to take a serious 3-0 lead. Keira Love also pumped in her first goal in the 41st minute, while barely a minute and a half later, Audrey Camargo, not to be confused with Drury’s first scorer Andrea Camargo, notched her third goal this season with an assist going to Ines Villanueva Casal.

With the Missouri team still up three at intermission, Pistorius needed less than five minutes of play in the second half to get the Wildcats on the board. She scored her eighth of this season at the 49:34 mark with assists going to GLIAC First Team defensive players Maria Storm and Hannah Kastamo.

NMU couldn’t draw any closer, though, and instead Drury added a final goal in the 82nd minute from Mel Schneider, her fourth of the season, with an assist credited to Elsa Gonzalez.

GLIAC Rookie of the Year Sally Patton worked in the Northern net and made five saves, while Katy Fitzler, who leads the nation with 13 shutouts, made six stops.

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