Erin Egolf starts her first season as the Wildcats’ Head Coach
MARQUETTE, Mich. – The NMU women’s soccer team has been selected to finish 4th in the GLIAC in 2025, as voted on by the coaches.
2025 GLIAC Women’s Soccer Preseason Coaches’ Poll
1. Grand Valley State 62 (6)
2. Saginaw Valley State 51 (1)
3. Ferris State 48 (1)
4. Northern Michigan 46
5. Davenport 41 (1)
6T. Michigan Tech 24
6T. Purdue Northwest 24
8. Parkside 19
9. Roosevelt 9
After back-to-back regular and postseason conference championships and a third consecutive trip to the NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats experienced their fair share of roster turnover, including the hiring of Erin Egolf as the program’s eighth coach in program history.
“We are looking forward to the season ahead. While there has been a lot of change within the program, the goals remain the same, and those are to compete for conference championships, be a top contender in the Midwest region, and perform on the national stage. Between the mix of returning players who are ready to build on the success of recent seasons and new players eager to get into the team and contribute right away, our team will be prepared to battle. The season is here, and we are all ready to get to work!”
Egolf joined the Wildcats after spending the 2024 season as an assistant coach at Division I Illinois State, where she played for the Redbirds in 2009 as a starting central midfielder and a 2009 MVC All-Freshman Team member. Before joining the Redbirds, Egolf had a remarkable career as the head coach of the University of Springfield women’s soccer program. In her nine seasons as head coach, Egolf became the winningest coach in UIS program history while taking the team to three GLVC tournament berths in 2017, 2022, and 2023.
“The level of accountability is high, the standards that the [student-athletes] have for themselves is really high, and I don’t have to do a lot in terms of motivation; they bring a lot of effort every day… We have to control what we can, and that’s something I’m big on. No matter how good of a soccer team you are, we can always control our effort and our attitude within the organization.”
Egolf hired her assistant, Nathan Phillips, who joined the Wildcats after three seasons as an assistant coach with Millikin University. After Phillips joined Millikin in 2022, the Big Blue saw improvements each season, posting records of 5-7-3 in his inaugural season, 7-6-4 in his second, then making a jump to 14-4-1 and earning the three seed in the CCIW tournament and the right to host a playoff game for the first time in program history.
The Wildcats return a key piece to its success over the last handful of seasons in Hannah Kastamo, who returns to the roster for her senior campaign. Kastamo had a breakout season in 2024, including earning All-America First Team distinction, Scholar All-America second team distinction, an All-Region First Team selection, GLIAC Defensive Player of the Year, GLIAC Fall Commissioner’s Award recipient, All-GLIAC First Team selection, and All-GLIAC Tournament Team selection.
Junior forward/midfielder Madison Bilbia returns for her third season with the ‘Cats after doubling her production from her first season in her sophomore campaign, finishing fifth on the team in both goals (4) and points (12) last season.
“[Coach Egolf’s] impact has been bringing a sense of calmness,” adds Bilbia, who acknowledged the nerves around the hiring of a new coach. “On the first day she came in, she had everything together and we stepped into practice like it was completely normal… A big part of it is not looking at the season as a whole, but taking it day by day. We start with the first day of preseason, we take that day as hard as we can, and then each day is a new day that we’re focusing on.”
Other key pieces include senior defender Kenna Alexander, who logged the fourth most minutes of playing time among the team, played in all 22 contests, and scored two goals with an assist last year. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Jillian Thompson is also returning, a netminder who in her first season as the starter set a program record and led the nation with 14 shutouts to go with her record-setting 0.36 goals against average.
“I’m super excited to embrace the change,” adds senior defender Addison Wargo, who returns for her fourth campaign in the green and gold after posting career highs in games played, games started, and minutes played last season. “We had a stellar season last year, and [we’re] excited to see what we can do [this year]. We have our standards, and we keep to them.”
The Wildcats roster is broken down into four seniors and nine upperclassmen, while introducing 14 freshmen. The Wildcats open the season with a handful of exhibitions in Marquette, starting with UW-Stevens Point today, August 22, at 2 p.m., then finishing with Carroll University on Sunday, August 24, at noon.
“I would encourage anyone to come out and see us,” adds Egolf, who will be making her Wildcat coaching debut just hours from now. “It’s going to be high-level soccer, and our team is going to walk away from every game proud of the effort we put out… We’ve got a lot of home games this fall, and we would appreciate anyone who came out and showed their support. Go ‘Cats!”
