Things went from bad to worse for NIU’s field hockey team which was plagued with an abundance of mistakes in its 0-2 showing in the weekend’s Temple University Field Hockey Invitational.

Host Temple scored four unanswered second-half goals to upend NIU 5-1 in Saturday’s first round game. Sunday, defending NCAA champion University of North Carolina handed NIU its second shutout of the young season, a 4-0 loss in the tournament’s consolation game. Temple won the invitational title, besting Providence, 4-1.

“All weekend we had opportunities not taken and a lot of mistakes across the field,” NIU head coach Laurie Bell said after her squad slipped to 1-3. “We are playing slow ball, not the speedy play we should be up to with the personnel on our roster.”

In Saturday’s game, NIU drew first blood when Pam Snavely tallied on a corner rush and knocked in NIU’s lone score 15 minutes into the game. The lead lasted just 13 minutes, and then it was all Temple. Owls senior Jane Catanzaro put her team on the board with the first of her two penalty corner goals. Temple scored four times in the second half to finish out the scoring.

“Statistically, we played Temple an even game. In reality, we dominated the first half while Temple came on strong in the second half,” Bell said. “We had a lot of little things go wrong for us today. I am still looking for our overall game to gell.”

obbin Shreve scored the game-winner for Temple with 30:54 left. Monique Scalley slapped in an unassisted goal two minutes later and combined for an assist with Lori Warneka on Catanzaro’s goal. Toni Bynard added an unassisted goal and Catanzaro added her second tally with 9:13 left.

NIU and Temple each took nine shots on goal with the Huskies getting eight penalty corners to Temple’s seven. Owls goalie Jill Marple was credited with the win and eight saves. Jenny Van Delft notched six saves as NIU’s goalie before relinquishing duties to Lori Casinghino late in the game.

Things just went from bad to worse the next day when the Huskies ran into a tough North Carolina defense.

North Carolina toyed with NIU early in both halves, before scoring twice near the end of each period.

Nancy Lang made it 1-0 on a three-way play from Laurel Hershey and Peggy Anthron with 4:02 left. As NIU prepared to be down just 1-0 at the half, North Carolina’s Jennifer Clark sneaked in a goal with :09 left. Lang came through again for the Tarheels with an unassisted goal, and Beth Taterosian took a feed from Clark to score the final goal with 2:15 left.