The MAC conference season opened with mixed results for NIU’s women’s soccer this weekend. The Huskies (4-4-1 ,0-1-1 MAC) lost to Eastern Michigan and drew Western Michigan, 0-0.

Friday’s MAC women’s soccer opener between NIU and Eastern Michigan was a hard fought and physical contest, with Eastern Michigan (4-3-1, 1-0 MAC) prevailing 1-0 over the Huskies.

In the first 45 minutes, neither the Huskies nor Eagles were able to dent the scoreboard. NIU did, however, outshoot EMU 6-0 in the first half.

Junior forward/mid-fielder Cori Frankenberg continued her strong offensive start to the season, registering four of the six Huskie shots.

“I honestly think that since it was our first MAC game, we’re home, I think we were overly excited,” said sophomore Lauren Noonan. “We just couldn’t channel that into, ‘OK, we really just got to concentrate that excitement into energy and make sure that we possess the ball.’ That creates our opportunities on goal, and I think in the beginning we were just a little too hectic.”

The Eagles built a little momentum after halftime. This culminated with the lone goal of the match in the 64th minute, when sophomore forward Bianca Rossi scored her fourth goal of the season.

The Huskies went into attack mode after the goal was scored, trying for an equalizer, but NIU ran out of time.

NIU salvaged a point out of the first weekend of MAC play with a scoreless draw against Western Michigan (4-4-2,0-0-2 MAC).

The Broncos carried the play in the first 20 minutes of the match, forcing NIU goalkeeper Amy Carr to make two key saves.

“It was big,” Ross said. “It just lets us get situated and gives us the opportunity to kind of settle into the game and have a better understanding of what they’re doing and then close up the opportunities that they had.”

The Broncos had the edge in shots 6-4 in the first half and an edge of 3-2 in shots on goal.

Not much changed in the second half and the 20-minute overtime period. NIU and Western Michigan continued attacking the goal, but both Carr and Western Michigan junior goalkeeper Michelle Watson were up to the task. Watson stopped six shots for the match while Carr stopped five.

“I think it works all through the team,” Carr said. ”I think offensively from the top back, we worked well as a team to get everyone behind the ball, and we defended as a team rather than just a back four and myself, but we were organized and managed to get everyone behind the ball and defend as a team.”