A bumpy ride of a weekend ended with women’s soccer securing a trip to the MAC semifinals for the first time since 2007.

The Huskies fell to the Western Michigan Broncos, 2-0, in Friday’s regular season finale in Kalamazoo, Mich. The loss placed the Huskies as the seventh seed. In the MAC tournament opener, the Huskies downed the No. 2 seed Miami (Ohio) RedHawks, 4-3, in penalty kicks to advance to the semifinals.

This was the Huskies’ third-straight season as the seventh seed and second-straight first-round match with Miami.

“It feels good,” said head coach John Ross. “This program hasn’t gotten this far … since 2007. That’s a long time. We definitely have the talent, and this is what we expected from them.”

The Huskies will have a rematch with the Broncos in the MAC semifinals 6 p.m. Friday in Buffalo, N.Y.

Western Michigan

The Huskies played the Broncos evenly in the first half, with neither team getting many strong chances. NIU took three of its four shots in the opening 30 minutes but was only able to get one shot in the second half.

Freshman Lauren Gierman’s shot was sent out by a WMU defender, but the Huskies failed to capitalize on the resulting pair of corner kicks.

Western Michigan took the lead when Rachel Chaney buried a shot in the top right corner of the goal. The Huskies weren’t able to respond, as the Broncos began to press the NIU defense.

“They were connecting passes very well in the second half,” said junior Emily Nulty. “They just ran up on us.”

Liz Abro put the game away on a penalty kick goal in the 78th minute, giving Western Michigan a 2-0 lead.

“There were some good moments, but Western Michigan was a good team. They played well,” Ross said. “We just needed to be sharper.

“All the players need to play better. We created some opportunities, but we didn’t capitalize. We weren’t as composed as we needed to be in the final third.”

Miami

It took 110 minutes and penalty kicks to decide a winner between Miami and NIU, but a goal from senior Ashley Neubeck sent the Huskies to the second round.

“It’s unbelievable,” Neubeck said. “In my four years here we never got this far. Getting that winning goal in penalty kicks was awesome. We’re super pumped. No one expected us to beat Miami.”

Freshman goalkeeper Amy Annala made a pair of huge saves to open up penalty kicks after Maggie Scott and Kelsey Dinges went left. Senior Allie McBride and Gierman scored to give NIU an early 2-0 advantage. Miami came roaring back with two-straight goals to tie the game at 2-2, but the Huskies maintained their advantage and set up Neubeck’s game-winner.

The RedHawks kept up an aggressive attack on the Huskies, but the defense held through 110 minutes.

“The team played great,” Ross said. “This is one of our better games, offensively and defensively. It’s just about being focused and being ready to play.”