Women’s soccer will look to regain home-field dominance after being shut out in its last two home games.

The Huskies (4-6, 2-0 MAC) will face the Kent State Golden Flashes (6-3-1, 1-1 MAC) 7 p.m. Friday and the Ohio Bobcats (4-6, 1-1 MAC) 1 p.m. Sunday at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

NIU got a pair of overtime wins against Central Michigan and Toledo last weekend to jump-start its conference slate. The defense held strong against the aggressive attacks, with the Huskies getting outshot in both games. Head coach John Ross said he expects the team to continue its strong play into this homestand.

“Just being confident and knowing that what we’re doing is working, that goes a long way with the players,” Ross said. “Just the confidence out on the field, to understand that they’ve got an extra second to get their head up, they’re a little more relaxed and not worried about making mistakes.

“They’re more worried about how can we make something happen out there, and they’re looking to be more aggressive on the offensive end and just real comfortable on the defensive end.”

Kent State

The Golden Flashes are coming off mixed results. On Friday, they were shut out by Buffalo, 2-0, before recovering Sunday to blow away Akron, 3-0. That’s been the trend for Kent State: Whenever an opponent puts pressure on the Golden Flashes’ defense, the offense fails to manufacture points.

Kent State has a lot of shooters, but not much in the way of goal scorers. Kent State sophomore Jenna Hellstrom leads the conference with 36 shots and is a big contributor to the team’s MAC-high 162 shots.

Junior Kate Wirthlin said the Huskies’ backline will be ready for whatever Kent State throws at them.

“I think we just mainly focused on playing together, and we talked,” Wirthlin said. “Communication was huge back there and we were all on the same page. If we keep that up, we remember what we did last weekend, that will be a huge thing for us being consistent throughout the season and this weekend.”

Ohio

The Bobcats also had mixed results in their last two matches, but they held up better in their loss. Ohio pushed Buffalo into double overtime before allowing the game-winner in the 109th minute.

Ohio matches up evenly with NIU. In every team statistical category, either the Huskies or the Bobcats have a slim edge, but neither team runs away in a category.

Defensively, Ohio is led by senior Nicole Amari, who is second in the MAC in saves. She ranks just two saves behind Amy Annala’s 63.

The key for the Huskies in both games will be to continue to take advantage of their opportunities. Senior defender Gwen Sabo’s long kicks helped facilitate the offense on the road trip, but the offense will need to figure how to make its own luck. In the Huskies’ last homestand, the offense couldn’t catch a break.

Junior Nicole Gobbo said the Huskies have picked up enough momentum and confidence to stand out at home.

“I think that, overall, we just had awesome performance on offense and defense,” Gobbo said. “Getting two wins on the road is huge and it obviously hasn’t happened for us in such a long time. So, we’re feeling a lot of momentum and a lot confidence from this past weekend, but we just have to take what happened … and grow from it and continue it to towards this home weekend.”