Within a week’s time, the NIU women’s basketball team has gone from top-dog to underdog.

Prior to the DePaul tip-off, the Huskies were seemingly in the driver’s seat, as far as the North Star Conference was concerned. NIU checked in with a perfect 12-0 mark against NSC foes, not to mention a 26-game NSC winning streak.

DePaul notched a 79-74 victory over the Huskies. Then, with the regular-season conference title on the line, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay handed NIU its second conference setback (91-79) in a row.

With the loss, the Huskies surrendered their No. 1 seed for this weekend’s annual NSC Championship Tournament. Simply meaning that NIU, seeded second, will take the more arduous route to the trophy and the NCAA automatic bid that comes with it.

Thursday at noon, the Huskies take on Cleveland State. Granted DePaul beats Wright State in its first-round game, another DePaul-NIU match-up is on the horizon—except this time, the loser won’t get another chance at redemption.

“I don’t think we’ll have to worry about looking past Cleveland State,” NIU senior standout Lisa Foss said. “This is what we’ve worked for all season long, so this will show what we’re made of.”

In the meantime, the host team and No. 1 seed, UW-GB, will be looking towards its first appearance in the championship game of the NSC. Green Bay plays Akron first, then the winner of UIC-Valparaiso match-up.

If the top two seeds live up to their expectations, NIU and UW-GB will battle for the crown on Saturday. Simply meaning NIU must get by DePaul and Green Bay again.

NIU coach Jane Albright cited that the Huskies’ biggest problem against both teams was NIU’s inability to break its pressure defenses.

“Green Bay’s pressure defense and DePaul’s pressure defense really broke our offense down,” Albright admitted. “So we’ve worked really hard on breaking that defense down.

“We should be confident. It’s not a fake confidence, we’re still 23-7 and had some big, big wins. We just have to be confident, but at the same time know we have to outwork these teams in the three days.”