With only one game left in the regular season, the women’s soccer team can’t start looking ahead to the playoffs just yet.

The Huskies (6-9-3, 4-4-2 MAC) will face the Toledo Rockets (5-12-1, 2-7-1 MAC) at 2 p.m. Thursday at the NIU Soccer and Track and Field Complex. Their next game in the first round of the MAC tournament will be on Sunday with the opponent and location still up in the air.

The Rockets will hope to upset on Thursday. A loss for the Huskies will drop them to the eighth seed, which would mean a matchup with the MAC regular season champion. Toledo features the conference’s top goal scorer in Rachel MacLeod. MacLeod has 12 goals on the year and is the Rockets’ number option on the attack. MacLeod is a heavy volume shooter with 71 shots on the season, leading the MAC. Freshman midfielder Kate Wirthlin believes the team’s defensive preparations will allow the Huskies to limit MacLeod’s chances.

“We’ve been testing out different formations,” Wirthlin said. “We adjust to the other team. Whatever they are going to do, we have to be ready for it. I think going over different formations in practice will make us ready.”

The team is looking at the match as a must-win. Despite the Rockets being out of playoff contention, head coach John Ross believes Toledo is a more dangerous team than its record suggests.

“They have a lot of talent,” Ross said. “They’ll want to finish their season strong.”

The key for the matchup with Toledo will be to score in the first half. Toledo is a weak first-half team, and usually increases its offensive firepower in the second half. The Huskies haven’t scored a first-half goal since their game against Akron on Oct. 6. Sophomore forward Nicole Gobbo, who scored the last first-half goal, said the team will have to come into the game motivated.

“We just have to come ready to go right away,” Gobbo said. “We always have late starts. If we happen to get an early goal, we’ll be able to use it to our advantage.”

The Huskies haven’t been able to look forward to the first round of the playoffs. NIU is sitting in the seventh spot with a projected matchup against Eastern Michigan University. Ohio, ranked eighth, could leapfrog the Huskies for the seventh seed. The best scenario for the NIU is a win against Toledo with a Ball State loss, which will move NIU to the sixth seed. Ross said the team isn’t worried about who they’ll face yet.

“We’re just sticking to our routines,” Ross said. “We just want to keep it the same as it’s been all year. We’re just going to go into the game doing what is best for our team. There are so many different scenarios; you just don’t want to worry about that.”