A sour second half for the women’s soccer team featured a gassed out Huskies squad in a 3-1 defeat to the University of Northern Iowa Panthers.

“The biggest thing is the disappointing result,” Head Coach Julie Colhoff said. “I think it was a tale of two halves.”

NIU was first on the scoresheet with a stunning Olympic goal by first year forward Trudy Quidzinski at the 37-minute mark. Quidzinski notched her second goal of the year and the team’s third.

The Huskies took three shots, two on goal, forcing one save from the Panthers’ senior goalkeeper Jami Reichenberger. Reichenberger finished the match with two saves.

NIU’s first half clean sheet was aided by sophomore goalkeeper Megan Donnally’s three saves. Donnally finished the game with eight saves, matching her performance against Eastern Illinois.

“When you look at the first half, I saw some things that I really liked,” Colhoff said. “I thought our back line was more organized than it was all season. In the second half, I don’t think we responded well to some of the adversity of the game.”

Junior forward Maddie DePrenger was quick to level for the Panthers at the 56-minute mark with a second chance effort from an initial save from NIU’s Donnally. DePrenger came on as a substitute in the first half and notched her first of the year.

Northern Iowa took the lead with a left foot dagger from outside the 18-yard-box from senior midfielder Hannah McDevitt.

The Panthers were able to score a third and final goal four minutes later when a loose ball from Donnally’s initial save landed at the feet of redshirt first year Genevieve Cruz who tapped the ball in.

“We talk a lot about staying with our runners and making sure we’re shielding them off when the keeper is able to make that initial save,” Colhoff said. “I think that’s just something we need to continue to not only preach, but every day at practice work on it.”