Soccer teams begin tournaments after losing weekend

By Christopher Loggins

Men’s soccer (1-1-0, 0-0-0 MAC) will begin the NIU Adidas Invitational this week, facing off against Florida Atlantic and Stetson.

Men’s soccer

The Huskies will go up first against Florida Atlantic at 7 p.m. Friday at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex and will finish the weekend with a game against Stetson at 1:30 p.m. Sunday. The team is coming off a 3-1 loss to the College of Charleston and will be playing in its second and third home games of the young season.

Florida Atlantic is winless, scoring just two goals on the season thus far. The Owls have struggled over the last few seasons and won just one game in 2014. The team’s last .500 finish was in 2013 when they went 7-7-2 and it hasn’t had a winning record since the 2007 season.

Senior Ramon Whittaker ranked second on the Owls in goals in 2014 with three and has already scored his first goal through three games on the year. Whittaker has an opportunity to be big for Florida Atlantic as they continue to search for their first win on the campaign.

Stetson has failed to pick up a win since Aug. 30 when it defeated UAB 3-0. The team is coming off a 2014 where it went 8-7-2.

In 16 games in 2014, senior midfielder Lucas Diniz led the Hatters in points with 23, shots with 49, assists with nine, and tied for the team lead in goals with seven.

Women’s soccer

Women’s soccer will travel to Waco, Texas this weekend to begin the Baylor Tournament. They will go head-to-head with Baylor (1-4-1, 0-0-0 Big 12) and Louisiana-Lafayette (4-2-0, 0-0-0 SBC)

The first game will take place at 7 p.m. Friday against Baylor, and the second will take place at 1 p.m. Sunday against Louisiana-Lafayette.

The Huskies have lost four in a row and have yet to win a game on the road. The team has only finished over .500 on the road once in its last five seasons.

Louisiana-Lafayette is coming off a 2014 season in which they went 9-8-2, ending with a loss to Troy in the SBC Tournament.

Baylor finished 2014 with a record of 9-8-3, but has only managed to pick up one win through six games.