After a 3-2 road trip that tallied 45 runs, the Huskies could not spot one in a 7-0 loss to UIC on Wednesday afternoon at Mary M. Bell Field.

In the Huskies’ (16-18 overall, 6-2 MAC) first at-bat, freshman Stephanie Tofft extended her hitting streak to 24 games on the first pitch. Tofft had been batting from the third spot, but head coach Lindsay Chouinard decided to move her up to the leadoff position.

“[Tofft] has been consistent, and she’s been hitting for us every game, so why not have her in the leadoff spot?” Chouinard said. “[We] tried to shake some things up today and see how they worked for us. The cards didn’t fall the way we wanted them to.”

With two outs in the second, the Huskie defense could not get out of the inning. UIC (16-17, 6-5 Horizon) freshman Courtney Heeley took the ball over the fence for a solo shot before NIU pitcher Whitney Owens allowed two singles and a walk to load the bases. Carly DeMarco then ripped the ball to right center for a base-clearing triple to put the Flames up 4-0.

“A lot of our kids hit the ball well today,” said UIC head coach Michelle Venturella. “Courtney was one that really broke it open, along with Carly DeMarco, who cleared the bases. That combination was nice.”

Owens (5-6) came out of the game after the second, but would later return for the seventh inning. Catcher Adriana Sanchez said Owens’ pitches were coming in looking good, but the Flames’ batters were just getting on top of them.

“She had pretty good spin on her ball,” Sanchez said. “You can’t really do anything if she’s hitting her spot and they’re hitting them.”

Tofft pitched four innings, allowing another three runs, which included another solo home run by Heeley. Overall, both Chouinard and Sanchez were pleased by Tofft’s ability to step in when needed.

“She has really good movement on her balls,” Sanchez said. “It cuts batters off because you kind of don’t where it’s going.”