After spending two weekends at home, women’s soccer returns to the road for a pair of games against Akron and Buffalo.

The Huskies (4-4-1, 0-1-1 MAC) are coming off a weekend where they earned one out of four possible points. They were defeated by Eastern Michigan, 1-0, and played a scoreless draw against Western Michigan.

Sophomore defender/mid-fielder Lauren Noonan said the Huskies have to get more quality scoring chances this weekend against the Zips and the Bulls.

“We definitely need to make sure that we were taking quality chances,” Noonan said. “So we’ve been working on that. We have to ask ourselves is this a quality shot, is it gonna be a chance of a goal, and we need to make sure that we finish on our dead balls, which are corner kicks or free kicks, ’cause that’ll be key to our success, and I definitely think shooting is the main component. We can’t score if we don’t shoot and we need to make sure we have those quality scoring opportunities.”.

Friday’s opponent, the Akron Zips (4-5-0,0-2 MAC), have lost three games in a row.

Sunday, NIU will travel to Buffalo to take on the Bulls (2-7-1, 0-2 MAC). The Bulls have also lost three in a row.

NIU Coach John Ross says playing in an environment like Akron’s will be a challenge for the Huskies.

“One’s going to be the crowd and just that environment out there,” Ross said. “From what I heard, it’s a good crowd and a great facility. So just kind of understanding that we’ve got a job to do and were just going to go in there and do it. I think, you know, soccer-wise they’re a position-oriented team and that’s something that we have to take advantage of. When we have opportunities to win the ball, we need to win it because otherwise, if they maintain possession, that’ll lend itself to a lot of chasing the ball.”