Dropping a 2-1 decision to Central Michigan in the first round of the MAC tournament; the NIU women’s soccer team’s season came to an end on Sunday.

Participating in their first MAC tournament game since 2008, the Huskies (9-9-1 overall, 5-6-1 MAC) needed to be on top of their game to beat a CMU team undefeated in its last 22 home contests.

Prior to the game, defender Mo Smunt believed the Huskies could beat the Chippewas’ (14-4-1, 11-1-0 MAC) but knew it would be tough considering her team’s disappointing play on the road in 2010. NIU finished the season 2-8-0 on the road.

“We can play against anyone,” Smunt said. “But we just played so much better at home this year, I don’t understand why, but we really struggled on the road for some reason.”

The Huskies kept the game scoreless until CMU midfielder Claire Horton knocked in a rebound in the 33rd minute to give CMU a 1-0 edge.

In the second half, looking to put the game out of reach, the Chippewas’ Laura Twidle buried a shot in the 59th minute to put CMU up by two.

Exactly one minute after the Twidle goal, though, NIU got the spark it needed when Shannon Renner cut the Chippewas’ lead in half; eluding the CMU goalkeeper with a header.

For the remainder of the second half the Huskies kept the pressure on CMU, but were unable to come up with the equalizer needed to save their season.

Horton saw her team scrambling in the second half to keep the Huskies from tying the score.

“I was really glad to be able to contribute with that goal, and I’m glad we got it because NIU was coming at us hard there in the second half,” Horton said. “After they scored their first goal, we had to really concentrate on matching their intensity through the rest of the game.”

Ending the year with another disappointing finish, NIU head coach Carrie Barker continued to preach the importance of playing well early.

“Our set pieces were off there in the first half and that hurt us,” Barker said. “We were a little off and we gave up that first goal and the second in the second half. We were just unable to keep the season going today.”