With seeding for the MAC tournament on the line, the NIU women’s soccer team fell to Western Michigan 2-1 in Kalamazoo on Thursday afternoon.

Going into the Huskies’ final regular season contest, they and WMU (9-6-4 overall, 5-2-4 MAC) were tied for the fifth seed in the upcoming tournament.

Knowing the games pending implications, the Broncos had their offense working early; scoring two first half goals. WMU forward Megan Matula scored the first goal in the 19th minute when she booted a ball off the right post and in.

15 minutes later, the Broncos’ Stephanie Skowneski scored the insurance marker; ripping a shot from 25-feet out over NIU goalkeeper Amy Carr’s head.

NIU attempted to mount a comeback in the second half but could only get one goal back; a Mo Smunt marker in the 78th minute.

“We gave up two soft goals there in the first half,” said NIU head coach Carrie Barker. “Our play picked up in the second, but we have to start better if we want to compete in the tournament.”

NIU goalkeeper Meaghan Bennett wanted to end the regular season on a winning note, but can still take some positives away from Kalamazoo.

“While we would have liked to have played better,” Bennett said. “We at least know what we can’t do in the postseason if we want to win any games.”

With the loss, NIU (9-8-1, 5-5-1 MAC) is now slotted in the sixth seed and will take on the three seed Central Michigan Chippewas in the first round of the MAC tournament on Sunday; with the game time yet to be determined.

The Halloween contest will fall exactly two weeks after Central Michigan thumped the Huskies 3-0 in Mount Pleasant, MI. Smunt, though, doesn’t see any reason to be intimidated by the Chippewas.

“They did beat us pretty good last time,” Smunt said. “But now it’s like we have nothing to lose, because everyone is expecting us to lose again. Now we can just go out there and play and have fun.”