Author: Mark Privratsky

​This week in the NSIC has Mankato ranked nationally, Bemidji finding a bit of form, and Winona, St Cloud and Duluth are fighting to be in the playoff chase. There is plenty of intrigue in the final 5 conference games. As you can see from the standings, both the #1 seed and final 8 Tourney spots are fully in play. At the top of the table it's a bit of same story different chapter, with the top 5 finishers from '21 still holding their own in slightly new hierarchy. Even though the same squads are leading the standings, the middle of the table is much closer to the top and that challenge is a grind. Occasionally you face a team that makes a day easy for you, but more often than not, the big teams can't take that for granted. Two teams outside the playoff field were able to take draws off of last year's Tourney Finalists, with St Cloud taking a 0-0 home shutout against Bemidji, and UMD taking a 1-1 home draw with Mankato. The race for the NSIC Tourney is on!

Remember August? Leaves on the trees were green, we were running air conditioners, and that was also the last time that Mankato lost, in a early non conference tilt with Central Oklahoma. They've taken one of the countries best offenses (#9 in goals per game) and lit up the bottom of the NSIC table for the most part. It's a balanced attack, with Jenny Vetter (10g/3a), Maile Mathis (5g/4a), Brynn Desen (5g/3a), Allie Williams (4g/1a) and Nadia Lowry (1g/3a) all taking decent points. Perhaps most notable is that 7 different players have multiple assists after 13 games. Head Coach Brian Bahl has a squad where anyone can make the big play, which is a good thing in a league where almost anyone can also trip you up. Credit to UMD for snagging a tie at home against the nationally ranked Mavericks. Next up for Mankato is a HUGE home game with Minot State on Friday at 3pm (stream via msumavericks.com). They end the Conference slate with Mary, Sioux Falls, SW MN State and then Concordia St Paul at home in a game that should have serious seeding implications. 

As we've seen since our predictions earlier this fall the fight in the middle of the NSIC table is as interesting as the race at the top. Winona, St Cloud and UMD are in a true scrap to make the top 8, with Winona holding a slight edge for the time being. Each had confidence building moments against a contender, Winona beating Concordia on Sept 30, UMD snagging a draw against Mankato, and St Cloud holding Bemidji to a draw at home. Those are points you have to get if you want to scrape the top 8 Tourney spots. Keep an eye out for the season closer between St Cloud and UMD in Duluth on October 27. It could be a must win for both teams. 

Until their matchup with Duluth on September 30, Bemidji had only scored multiple goals in a game once. Their stout defense has held them through tight games, but they know it will be difficult to make it back to the NCAAs without a little more juice. They took a 2-1 away win at UMD along with a nice 3-0 Senior Day win over Upper Iowa since then, to continue a 6 game unbeaten streak. Credit the Bemidji State defense (.77 goals against per game) lead by Super Senior Meghan Dahl who has been NSIC Defensive Player of the week for 2 weeks running. Alyssa Stumbaugh also has shut out half of the teams she has faced in goal this year. BSU closes their season with a lot of potential points, highlighted by a huge Oct 23 matchup vs Minot State at Noon (stream via bsubeavers.com). 

Friday, September 30
SW MN State 1-1 Wayne State
Mankato State 4-0 Upper Iowa
U Mary 1-0 MSU Moorhead
Concordia St Paul 1-2 Winona State
Bemidji State 2-1 UMD

Sunday, October 2
Minot State 3-0 MSU Moorhead
Concordia St Paul 5-1 Upper Iowa
SW MN State 1-4 Augustana
Bemidji State 0-0 St Cloud St
Mankato State 3-1 Winona State
UM Crookston 0-4 UMD

Friday, October 7
SW MN State 1-3 MSU Moorhead
Upper Iowa 1-2 UM Crookston
Mankato State 2-1 St Cloud State
Concordia St Paul 2-1 UMD
Winona State 0-1 Bemidji State

Sunday, October 9
Sioux Falls 0-0 MSU Moorhead
Upper Iowa 0-3 Bemidji State
Winona State 3-0 UM Crookston
SW MN State 2-2 Northern State
Concordia St Paul 0-0 St Cloud State
​Mankato State 1-1 UMD

Friday October 14
Minot St at Mankato State
Kickoff: 3pm
Stream: nsicnetwork.com

Sunday, October 16
Northern State at Winona State
Kickoff: 1pm
Stream: nsicnetwork.com

Friday, October 21
St Cloud St at Northern State
Kickoff: 5:30pm
Stream: nsicnetwork.com

Sunday, October 23
Minot State at Bemidji State
Kickoff: Noon
Stream: nsicnetwork.com

Thursday, October 27
Concordia St Paul at Mankato State
Kickoff: 1pm
Stream: nsicnetwork.com

6 games into the Northern Sun Conference season is about all it took for teams to shake into their typical tiers, with a couple of exceptions. Typical postseason participants Mankato, Concordia and Bemidji are challenging for the top of the table. Mankato is running up goals on some of the teams lower in the standings, while Concordia is looking to challenge at the top after knocking off Bemidji. University of Mary is a surprise undefeated team in third and as expected, Winona, UMD and St Cloud are fighting out the middle of the conference to prove they can take a step up. Dig into the NSIC standouts, the past two weeks of game recaps, and stay til the end to find upcoming games to watch!

After a tough 1-0 loss at home to Augustana to start the NSIC season, Concordia is undefeated in their last 5, scoring wins over Bemidji, Wayne State, Moorhead State and Crookston, while tying Northern. One reason for the run: Katie Anderson has been on fire. She was last week's Offensive Player of the week after a game winning goal at Bemidji and another at Crookston. She bagged another 3 goals last week against Moorhead and Northern State to take her total to 6 on the year (watch out Jenny Vetter!). Concordia have a run of winnable games the next few weeks, but they're all on the road. If the Golden Bears can take a good chunk of points off Winona, Upper Iowa, UMD and St Cloud, they'll be sitting pretty for a more difficult end of the NSIC slate. 

Two weeks ago we covered the big early season matchup between Mankato and Bemidji. Bemidji were up 1-0 with a minute left in the game when Jenny Vetter headed a bounced ball over the Bemidji keeper to steal a point away from home (See below). It could appear to be a sign of the teams resiliency, that even in a game they struggled to create, they found a way to salvage a result. Mankato has not been light on goals since then, feasting on some lower tabled squads. 6-0 on Wayne State, 4-2 over Augustana, 7-0 at Crookston and 6-0 at Moorhead. Opposing coaches will try to focus on the way Bemidji held them to a late goal and the fact that Northern State were able to snag a 0-0 draw in Mankato. The Mavericks goe to Upper Iowa and Winona this week, followed by tripes to St Cloud and UMD.

Don't look now but Winona State has already matched their win total from '21 and have lost just once in their first 6 NSIC games. They're coming off a solid weekend of draws against Minot and U Mary, who're both very competitive this year. The challenge for this team appears to be finding ways to put goals in the back of the net, but they've certainly decided that nothing will come easy for their opposition. In 6 conference games (4 away), they've only given up 5 goals. Winona currently sits in 8th place, the final spot for a postseason birth, but UMD and St Cloud sit right behind them in the standings, each at 2-2-2 in NSIC play. If the Warriors want to keep their spot, they'll have to find something out of two tough games this weekend as they host Concordia and Mankato, before going to Bemidji next friday. After that they could find an easier end of the schedule to wrap up NSIC play. 

Friday, September 16
Mankato State 1-1 Bemidji State
Concordia St Paul 2-0 UM Crookston
Augustana 4-3 Moorhead State
Winona State 0-2 St Cloud State
Upper Iowa 1-3 UMD
Southwest MN State 0-1 Minot State

Sunday, September 18
Wayne State 2-2 Moorhead State
Concordia St Paul 1-0 Bemidji State
Mankato State 7-0 UM Crookston
Southwest MN State 0-1 U Mary
Winona State 3-1 UMD

Friday, September 23
UMD 0-0 Sioux Falls
St Cloud State 2-2 Southwest MN State
Moorhead State 0-6 Mankato State
UM Crookston 0-3 Wayne State
Bemidji State 1-0 Augustana
Minot State 1-1 Winona State
Northern State 1-1 Concordia St Paul
​
Sunday, September 25
U Mary 0-0 Winona State
Bemidji State 1-1 Wayne State
Northern State 0-0 Mankato State
UMD 0-2 Southwest MN State
Moorhead State 1-4 Concordia St Paul
St Cloud State 2-0 Sioux Falls
UM Crookston 0-5 Augustana

Concordia St Paul at Winona State
Friday, September 30, 5pm
STREAM: NSICNetwork.com

Mankato State at Winona State
Sunday, October 2, 1pm
STREAM: NSICNetwork.com 

Bemidji at St Cloud State
Sunday, October 2, 1pm
STREAM: NSIC Network

Concordia St Paul at St Cloud
Sunday, October 9, 1pm
STREAM: NSICNetwork.com

Graphic Credit: NSIC
​​
We are 3 weeks into the '22 season and some of the Northern Sun players decided to make a few headlines for you. In the past two weeks we saw Mankato State travel to Michigan to beat the #1 team in the country, Grand Valley State. We saw the UMD Bulldogs travel 16 hours round trip to snag a huge upset at Minot, and Moorhead and Crookston battle for the Highway 75 Rivalry Rock (the Kopietz Cup?). Get caught up on the past few weeks because looking forward we've got a doozy of a matchup  as Bemidji and Mankato face off in an early season heat check. 

Photo Credit: MSU Maverick Athletics

In the last NSIC in MN edition, I spotlighted this match as a huge non conference challenge for Mankato. Challenge accepted! Mankato travelled to Allendale Michigan on September 4th and knocked off National #1 Grand Valley State 1-0. Credit must go to the Maverick defense for shutting out Grand Valley at home, starting in the back with Mackenzie Rath. The winning goal came from Jenny Vetter on a pass from Olivia Thoen. The Mavs clearly left the game with confidence as they proceeded to start the NSIC season off with a 6-0 win over Wayne State and an impressive 4-2 win over Augustana at the Pitch in Mankato. For their efforts Mankato moved up to #11 in the National Coaches Poll.

Photo Credit: MSUM Dragons

Allow us to introduce you to the Highway 75 Rivalry Rock. We don't have enough rivalry trophies in College Soccer, but we cannot blame Moorhead and Crookston for that. Last week they played for the Highway 75 Rivalry Rock, which is a legitimately cool trophy seen with this years champs above^. Last year the Golden Eagles won a 1-0 nailbiter and this year the Dragons took it back in similar fashion. Senior Callyn Johnson scored the games only goal on a penalty in the 32nd minute. Freshmen Keeper Quinn Carter had 7 saves and her first collegiate shutout in goal for the Dragons. Hats off to Moorhead Head Coach Christie Kopietz, who was a hall of fame player at Crookston before having a long run as Head Coach at Moorhead. She takes the "Kopietz" Cup this year. Moorhead took some momentum into their next game and fought a tough 1-0 loss at Bemidji State, so let's see if they can take some momentum into NSIC games this week at home vs. Augustana and Wayne State. 

Photo Credit, UMD Bulldogs

How much do you remember about 2013? Some UMD Bulldogs who were in middle school then just wiped out a losing streak that had existed for nearly 10 years. in '21 Minot was living at the top of the NSIC table, while UMD won just 3 conference games. We have to credit a great defensive effort by Duluth, who held Minot back until they found their one chance. Sarah Strange took the only goal that UMD would need in the 64th minute after a corner kick and the Bulldogs took a huge bounceback win after a tough 1-4 loss at St Cloud. UMD followed that up with a solid draw at Mary in Bismark to cap a 4 point North Dakota road trip. They've got two winnable games against Upper Iowa and Winona at home this weekend.

Last week we sat down with BSU scoring chart climber Sara Wendt! We talked about their NCAA run last year, how BSU was her only (!?) scholarship offer, and where she likes playing in the NSIC. 

Friday September 2
Concordia St Paul 0-2 Wisconsin Parkside
Bemidji State 3-3 Northern Michigan
UM Crookston 0-1 Michigan Tech
SW MN State 0-0 Missouris Western
UMD 1-4 St Cloud St

Sunday September 4
UM Crookston 0-6 Northern Michigan
BSU 1-0 Michigan Tech
Mankato State 1-0 Grand Valley State
MSU Moorhead 0-3 Tampa
Winona St 0-1 Wisconsin Parkside

Friday September 9
Winona St 1-0 Sioux Falls
Upper Iowa 1-0 SW MN State
Northern State 0-1 BSU
Wayne State 0-6 Mankato State
St Cloud St 0-1 U Mary
MSU Moorhead 1-0 UM Crookston
UMD 1-0 Minot State
​Augustana 1-0 Concordia

Sunday September 11
St Cloud St 0-1 Minot State
UMD 1-1 U Mary
MSU Moorhead 0-1 BSU
Wayne State 1-3 Concordia St Paul
Northern State 4-0 UM Crookston
Winona St 1-1 SW MN State
Augustana 2-4 Mankato State

​Bemidji State vs Mankato State
​Friday, September 16, 3pm
A huge early NSIC season matchup between the two NCAA Tourney teams from last year. Mankato is coming off of 3 big wins, while BSU has been winning but in closer fashion than you might expect. They'll be up for this one. Tune in to Equal Time for coverage of this game on Friday, and use the link below for a free stream of the game
STREAM: https://nsicnetwork.com/

UMD vs Winona State
Sunday, September 18, 1pm
UMD is at home following an impressive 4 point swing through North Dakota. Winona is off to a hot start and still unbeaten in NSIC play. Winona could start a real run with an away win, UMD could signal a new type of season with a strong weekend at home. 
STREAM: https://nsicnetwork.com/

SW MN State vs St Cloud State
Friday, September 23, 3pm
Both squads went winless in their opening weekend of Conference games, but each team's goal is likely still a postseason birth, meaning a top 8 finish. Mid table matchups like this could go a long way to determining if either of these teams can make the Conference tourney. 
STREAM: https://nsicnetwork.com/