Ambitious, not suicidal, is the way Huskies field hockey coach Lauri Bell described her team’s 1990 schedule.

NIT faces off against the Ball State Cardinals today at 1 p.m. at Huskie Stadium to embark on that ambitious journey. The front line for the Huskies, although speedy, could make or break NIU’s season.

The Cardinals, the Mid-American Conference defending champions, boast 12 returners from last year’s championship team, but Bell expects her turf squad to beat the grass dwellers from Indiana. “We should win. If we don’t, I’ll be dissappointed,” she said.

Bell said one of the keys for the Huskies is to play aggressive in the opponent’s circle. “When you get the ball in the circle you want to either create a shot or a corner play,” Bell said. We want to convert on our corner plays this year. It’s something we had trouble with last year.”

Theexperienced Huskie mid-fielders and defenders will be looking to shut out the CardInal attack and keep the pressure off the attackers. But Bell expects her squad to score at least two or three goals.

“I have no doubts that we can score goals. It’s just a matter of concentration and getting everybody doing the right things at the same time,” Bell said.

That ambitious schedule will vault Bell and her squad to Evanston Saturday, where the Huskies take on NCAA runner-up Old Dominion at 2:30 p.m. Bell said the Huskies are not intimidaded by Old Dominion’s tradition of success.

“They’re one of the top programs in the country. But we’re not going to be intimidated by anybody. Our kids are past being intimidated. We expect to go in there and play our type of game and we’re not going to worry about what Old Dominion does,” Bell said.

One question the Huskies will need to settle is the goaltending situation. Bell has two freshmen goalkeepers and neither has come forward to take the starting role.

“I’m looking for a lot of desire (from the goalies). We’re only three weeks into the season and everything is new for these people. I think they’re really strong in different areas,” Bell said.