Women’s soccer’s season came to an end Sunday in the quarterfinals of the MAC conference tournament after a 2-0 loss to Central Michigan (14-5-1, 9-2-0 MAC). This was the first time the Huskies had qualified for the MAC postseason tournament since 2010.

Thursday, the Huskies (8-9-2, 4-5-2 MAC) needed a win to ensure a spot and they got it with a 2-1 victory over Toledo (7-11-1, MAC 5-5-1).

The match opened up in the second half with both teams having opportunities to attack and Toledo up 1-0.

In the 69th minute, NIU got a game-tying goal from an unlikely source, as junior defender/midfielder Kayra Thompson scored her first goal of the season on an assist from junior defender/midfielder Courtney Ksiazek

Less than 10 minutes later, NIU freshman forward Nicole Gobbo scored her second goal of the season to put the Huskies ahead for good in the 77th minute.

NIU had seven more shots after halftime. Gobbo said the team knew they had to come out shooting more.

“I think [in] the second half, we knew we had to keep taking shots, and once Kayra took her shot, I think that gave us a lot of momentum and we all just fed off of it,” Gobbo said.

Sunday, the Huskies could not get anything going offensively against the Chippewas, who came out on the attack. They forced backup goalkeeper redshirt sophomore Deanna Libricz to make four key saves in the early stages of the first half. Libricz was filling in for injured junior goalkeeper Amy Carr.

Coach John Ross said he thought Libricz gained some confidence with those early saves, having not played in a long time.

“I think she stepped up, you know, to be put in that situation,” Ross said. “You know, not playing for a while and then stepping up and the first play of the game she came out strong, stopped a good opportunity for them and once you get to that point, you know, she got confidence right away and…from there she got rolling and she got comfortable.”

In the 73rd minute, the Chippewas were finally able to get on the board when sophomore forward Laura Gosse headed in her fourth goal of the season off of a cross from freshman midfielder Josie Seebeck.

CMU got some insurance in the 84th minute when senior forward Laura Twidle scored from 15 yards out.

The Chippewas outshot NIU 18-4 for the game and the Huskies were unable to get a shot on goal during all 90 minutes.

Ross said Central Michigan’s ball possession limited what his team could do against them.

“They were able to keep the ball and they didn’t turn the ball over needlessly and that’s kinda one of our ways that we get our offense is just being opportunistic a lot of times and they were pretty clean with the ball all day,” Ross said.