Women’s soccer has one last chance to put itself in position to secure its first home MAC tournament game since 2007.

The Huskies (5-9-2, 3-3-2 MAC) will face the Eastern Michigan Eagles (9-5-1, 5-3 MAC) 7 p.m. Friday at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex. They will then host the Bowling Green Falcons (4-11, 3-5) 1 p.m. Sunday. NIU is tied with Kent State for the fifth seed in the MAC. The top four seeds get a home playoff game.

The Huskies are trying to stave off a possible four-game losing streak, which could negate their hot start to conference play. Senior midfielder/defender Allie McBride said she expects the Huskies to be able to pull out of their nosedive and get back to where they were before their three-game losing streak began.

“I know we’re making some changes, and we [worked] really hard this week,” McBride said. “I expect us to be back where we were before. We’re at home right now for this weekend, so we’re back at our comfortable turf and everything. I expect us to do really well this weekend.”

The Huskies will recognize their senior class before their last regular season home game Sunday against Bowling Green. Senior Ashley Neubeck said the seniors are looking at Senior Day as a reminder of the little time they have left to be in a position to make a run in the MAC tournament.

“It just kind of emphasizes that it’s getting close to the end of the season,” Neubeck said. “Especially for our seniors, we want to make the season extend as far as possible. It’s important that we do well this weekend and get some W’s.”

Eastern Michigan

Eastern Michigan is the fourth seed in the conference and is seated directly ahead of the Huskies in the MAC West standings. A win over Eastern Michigan would help put the Huskies in a good position to slide back into the fourth seed position.

“I think the urgency needs to be there,” McBride said. “We need to have the urgency to win, but it needs to be like that every game, anyway. If we do beat Eastern Michigan that would definitely help us points-wise and standings-wise.”

The Eagles are tied with Kent State with 22 goals scored, good for third best in the conference. They also play a very clean game, only getting tagged for 106 fouls. This won’t mesh well with the Huskies’ penchant for aggression. They lead the MAC with 177 fouls. NIU will need to play a cleaner game than usual.

The Eagles have a pair of strong goal-scoring threats. Angela Vultaggio and Bianca Rossi are two of the MAC’s top goal scorers, with seven and five goals, respectively. Even with those two covered on the pitch, NIU will have to be careful because the Eagles boast a strong passing game as indicated by their 23 assists.

Bowling Green

Bowling Green, like NIU, was expected to finish last in the conference, but the Falcons have exceeded expectations since MAC play began. They’re locked in a three-way battle for the seventh seed.

“The MAC is a weird conference,” Neubeck said. “Every year, it’s a different team on top, and this year is no different. Every time is super close with points, so whether it’s Eastern Michigan on Friday or Bowling Green Sunday, we have to come hard no matter the record. Every team is different each game.”

Defense hasn’t been the Falcons’ strong suit this season. They’re averaging a conference-worst 1.91 goals per game, but that doesn’t mean Bowling Green has poor goalkeeping.

Goalkeeper Lauren Cadel leads the MAC with 119 saves. She’s coming off a weekend where she made 24 saves and was recognized as the MAC Defensive Player of the Week.

As good as Cadel has been recently, she can’t stop everything. A high-volume attack — something NIU has struggled with — will be the best way for the Huskies to beat the Falcons. Head coach John Ross said he thinks the answer to the Huskies’ offensive struggles is in smaller changes.

“We look at changes each practice and see who’s doing well,” Ross said. “We’ll kind of look at some people in maybe some different positions. What we’ve done in conference, that’s pretty much what you’re going to see. We just have to tweak some things, maybe getting some matchups that are favoring us and maybe move a player here or there to get some favorable matchups and see what we can get out of that.”