Women’s soccer looked like a shadow of its former self as its offense dominated Friday and was nowhere to be found Sunday.

The Huskies (2-5) beat the Chicago State Cougars, 5-0, Friday in Naperville. Sunday, they were blanked 1-0 by the Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville Cougars despite spending a good portion of the second half parked by SIUE’s box.

Junior Maggie Renfro said the team was disappointed with its offensive play, especially with conference games starting soon.

“It’s a little bit frustrating,” Renfro said. “I definitely think we played a lot better in the second half rather than the first half. Hopefully, this week we can pick it up because we [have] a big game on Thursday against Green Bay, the last game before conference” play.

Chicago State

The Huskies got a strong showing from their freshman class Friday. Four of the five goals came from freshmen. Head coach John Ross said this freshman class can continue to contribute at this level throughout the season.

“All of [the freshmen] have a lot of talent,” Ross said. “They’ve been close many times. I think they’re going to be more confident going forward.”

The first goal came in the fifth minute when freshman Marisa Knott drilled a long shot into the back of the net. Not wanting to be left out of the action, freshman Lauren Gierman scored a goal a few minutes later. With only a few seconds left in the first half, Sammy O’Brien put the Huskies up 3-0 off a cross from junior Emily Nulty.

Knott’s strong game continued in the second half. Junior Nicole Gobbo headed Knott’s cross past Chicago State’s goalkeeper to make it 4-0. NIU wrapped up the game in the 93rd minute when freshman Allie Ingham danced around the goalkeeper and put a shot into an empty net.

Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville

The Huskies’ offense couldn’t buy a goal in Sunday’s game. They managed to get 11 corner kicks, including six in the second half. In the second half, they maintained pressure on the Cougars’ defense, especially inside the box, but couldn’t find the equalizer.

“You [have] to ball hunt in there,” Ross said. “You can’t react; you have to be on the prowl early. And you’ve got to expect that ball to pop out there for you. I think there’s times where we’re waiting and not expecting that to happen.”

The Cougars got out to an early lead when Caroline Hoefert put a shot off the right post in the ninth minute. Hoefert got her shot off after Michelle Auer’s drive into the box sent the ball and freshman Amy Annala left of the net. Annala made four saves, including a big save in the 18th minute when she stopped SIUE’s Emily Grahl in a one-on-one situation.

NIU got off three shots in the first half and only one in the second half despite significantly increasing its pressure on the SIUE defense. Cougars’ goalkeeper Jennifer Pelley prevented several NIU corners and crosses from taking shape. Even when Pelley wasn’t a factor, the Huskies failed to finish.

“We had a rough start to the beginning of the [first] half,” O’Brien said. “The first half was rough for us. We didn’t come out with as much intensity as we needed to and we struggled with talking, communicating. We stepped it up in the second half, but there were a lot of chances we should have finished.”