With the non-conference season over, women’s soccer is headed to MAC play, where it’ll face an uphill battle.

The preseason MAC coaches’ poll picked NIU to finish last in the MAC West Division. If the Huskies are going to flip that around, they’ll need to go through the predicted top-ranked teams in the conference: Miami (Ohio), Kent State, Eastern Michigan and Western Michigan, which are all living up to the hype.

Against those teams, NIU went 1-3 last year. This year, the Huskies will need to be at least .500 if they want a better seed for the MAC Tournament. Wins against the top teams will put NIU in a great position to win tiebreakers and move up in the seeding. What will the Huskies have to look for with each team?

Eastern Michigan

Last year, the Eastern Michigan Eagles were the MAC’s regular season champion.

This season, the Eagles are just as good. They rank fourth in the MAC with 1.57 goals scored per game. EMU’s only losses came against No. 9 Texas Tech and Michigan State.

More importantly for the Eagles, they return the reigning MAC Offensive Player of the Year, senior Angela Vultaggio. Vultaggio has scored four goals in non-conference play.

NIU vs. Eastern Michigan: 7 p.m. Oct. 24 in DeKalb

Western Michigan

The Western Michigan Broncos, last season’s MAC Tournament champion, are coming off a second-round knockout by Notre Dame in the 2013 NCAA Tournament.

The Broncos are already looking like the MAC favorites. They’ve lost to Michigan State and Illinois State, but against Michigan State the Broncos pushed the Spartans into a double-overtime match.

Western Michigan has established itself as one of the MAC’s most prolific goal-scoring teams with eight players scoring at least one of the team’s MAC-leading 14 goals. This can be attributed to the sheer volume of shots the Broncos fire off against opponents. They average 15.12 shots per game.

There’s a slight goalie controversy for WMU: The spot has been switching between junior Kaitlyn Collin and redshirt freshman Stephanie Heber. The duo has combined to allow a MAC-leading four goals.

NIU at Western Michigan: 3 p.m. Oct. 30 in Kalamazoo, Mich.

Miami (Ohio)

The No. 21 Miami (Ohio) Redhawks (6-1) got off to a slow start offensively.

In its first three games, Miami only totaled three goals, going 2-1 in those games. Since then, the Redhawks are averaging 2.5 goals scored per game. Their recent offensive output has them ranked second in the MAC for goals scored with 13.

Senior Kelsey Dinges and sophomore Rachel Marble have combined to jump-start Miami’s attack. The duo has contributed six goals and four assists. Dinges leads the team in scoring with five goals. In their last game, the Redhawks knocked off Illinois State, 3-2, behind Dinges’ game-winner.

NIU at Miami (Ohio): 3 p.m. Oct. 17 in Oxford, Ohio

Kent State

The Kent State Golden Flashes are the only team of the predicted top four that’s struggled recently.

The Golden Flashes are a prolific shooting team, averaging 15 shots per game, second only to the Broncos. They also rank third in goals scored with 12. The offense is there, but the defense is exploitable.

When opposing teams put a lot of pressure on Kent State’s defense, its aggressive attack tends to fall off. The Golden Flashes have played in five games where the score was two goals or less. In four of the five games, the opponent has put up at least nine shots. Kent State continued to have its typical high-shooting attack, but the opposing counter-attacks get Kent State off its game.

NIU vs. Kent State: 7 p.m. Oct. 3 in DeKalb