Everything the NIU soccer team worked for, up until this point in the season, fell like a house of cards last Friday at Huskie Soccer Field with a 2-1 double-overtime loss to Akron.

But, the Huskies (7-3-1) have already begun reparations with a 3-2 win over Cleveland State yesterday on freshman Andy Lane’s team-leading fifth goal of the year with 12:38 left in the first half.

Akron (8-3-1) handed NIU its first setback since receiving votes for the Top-25 last week on Corin Holness’ winning goal 13:39 left in the second 15-minute OT period.

“I guess it’s back to square one,” Roy sighed.

Just 42 seconds into the match, Kenny Pryor punished the Huskies by driving past three sleeping NIU defenders to put the Zips up 1-0.

“After each goal Akron scored, we started to play well,” Roy said.

The Huskies kept pressuring the Zips and finally tied the match on Lane’s 3-yard chip shot with an assist from John Lechner with 16:43 left in regulation.

“I thought we had the momentum,” Roy said. “But it seemed like our guys were satisfied with just tying the game. We didn’t start playing well until they took the lead in the overtime.”

The Huskies had three shots on goal in the last 12 minutes of the match, but the Zips survived the onslaught.

At Cleveland State, the Huskies again surrendered an early goal, but tied the match just nine minutes later on Jay Konrad’s goal. Karsten Roy picked up the assist.

Cleveland State took the lead four minutes later on a corner kick goal by Frank Zupano, but Karsten Roy added his third penalty kick of the year to tie the match.