This weekend, NIU women’s soccer begins a three-game road trip to conclude MAC conference play. It will go up against Kent State and Ohio.

The Huskies (6-7-2, MAC 2-4-2) have lost three consecutive games, including a 3-2 decision against conference leader Miami (OH) and a 1-0 loss against Ball State last weekend.

NIU currently sits seventh in the MAC standings with two weeks of conference play remaining. The top eight teams qualify for the conference tournament at the end of the regular season.

Senior midfielder/forward Shelbi Johnson said the losses last weekend put more importance on the remaining three games.

“It puts a little bit of pressure on us because we definitely need points in order to get into the tournament,” Johnson said. “And in order to continue playing into November. So, it’s something that we definitely need to look into and focus on for the upcoming away games.”

The first of those away games is Friday against the Kent State Golden Flashes (10-3-2, 5-2-1 MAC), who have won four straight games. They earned two shutout victories last weekend, 1-0 over Western Michigan and a 3-0 win over Eastern Michigan.

Coach John Ross said his team will have to control the Golden flashes offense if they want to earn some points Friday.

“Well, I think obviously they’ve been playing well,” Ross said. “But I think also they’ve been scoring goals and, you know, we have to make sure we’re strong defensively. [We have to] stay in the game and take advantage of the chances that we create and hopefully we can get the ball to bounce our way.”

Sunday, the Huskies will travel to Athens, Ohio, to take on the Bobcats (7-7-1, 2-4-1 MAC). The Bobcats have lost two consecutive games, losing 1-0 against Buffalo and 2-1 to Eastern Michigan.

Junior goalkeeper Amy Carr said the Huskies have to do certain things well if they want to come away with some points this weekend.

“I think we have to go back to route one,” Carr said. “I think we need to be physical, we need to outplay our opponents, we need to keep the ball more. Just do the simple things well and I think we’ll find success from that.”