Six games into the season, NIU’s women’s soccer has done something it didn’t do all of last year: win three games.

NIU earned its third consecutive weekend split with a loss at Northwestern and a win against Eastern Illinois.

One key statistical category stood out in Friday night’s game between NIU and Northwestern: shots on frame.

The Huskies (3-3-0) only had two for the entire game while the Wildcats (3-2-1) registered five in the match. The Wildcats also had the edge in total shots as they were 10-9 over the Huskies.

The Wildcats got two of those shots by NIU’s junior goalkeeper Amy Carr in their 2-0 victory over the Huskies.

Northwestern got on the board in the 35th minute when sophomore mid-fielder KK Barr received a cross from junior forward Kate Allen to put the Wildcats up 1-0.

Freshman mid-fielder/forward Emily Nulty, who led the Huskies with two shots taken in the match, said her team has to put more shots on the opposing goalkeeper.

“I think we need to try and push the ball more to get more open shots,” Nulty said. “That’s one thing we’ve been struggling with, is just getting the ball from one side of the field to the other. So, I think if we can do that then we can get more shots on goal and more open shots.”

The Huskies used an early offensive barrage to help secure a 1-0 over the Panthers (2-5).

NIU registered six shots in the match’s first 10 minutes against EIU.

In the fourth minute, junior forward Cori Frankenberg scored her third goal of the season off a rebound of a blocked shot from 5 yards out.

Head coach John Ross talked about what was working for his team offensively in the first 10 minutes.

“I think we moved the ball really well and we took what they gave us,” Ross said. “The kids did a real good job of making decisions on the ball and that gave us good opportunities to get quality chances and we put away the first one that we got and that was big and we are able to control the tempo from their.”

NIU outshot the Panthers 13-2 in the first 45 minutes and 17-7 for the game.

Frankenberg said it’s good to see that the team’s hard work in practice is paying off in the games.

“Oh yes, definitely it’s good to see that we’ve already come so far and we still have so much season left,” Frankenberg said. “It’s rather early so we can only get better from here. We’re going take everything we learn from this weekend and put it into action.”