Huskies split weekend matches, end home unbeaten streak

By DERRICK SMITH

DeKALB | Normally coaches want their players to play with fire, but sometimes too much emotion isn’t always a good thing.

The NIU women’s soccer team split its matches over the weekend, defeating Bowling Green 2-1 Friday and falling 1-0 to Toledo Sunday afternoon. The loss at the hands of the Rockets ended the Huskies’ (5-2-3, 1-1) nine-game home unbeaten streak.

NIU played a very physical match Sunday, but could not recover from a first half goal. UT’s Rachel White scored off a corner kick in the game’s 41st minute. The Huskies out-shot the Rockets (6-3, 1-1) 12-11, but committed 16 fouls to Toledo’s eight.

“Today our emotions got the best of us, and I think that took us out of the game a little bit,” said NIU head coach Carrie Barker. “Obviously there is history between these two teams and I think that we had a game. We got caught up in the heat of the moment and had a lot of silly fouls.”

NIU has not beaten the two-time defending MAC champions since 2003 and have been bumped from the MAC tournament by the Rockets for the last two seasons.

“We just didn’t come out here and finish it off,” said sophomore Annie Wyer. “We need to not make it as personal as it is, but we’re not going to lose to them again. We’ll see them again.”

Wyer played a factor in the Huskies’ victory over BGSU (6-3-2 overall, 1-1 MAC) Friday as the midfielder scored her first career goal in the game’s 12th minute. Senior Thea Johnson headed in a corner kick less than three minutes later to get NIU off to a quick 2-0 lead.

“We had a great game on Friday, we played well,” Barker said. “We stayed composed and we fought as a team and ended up getting a great result.”

BGSU got on the board in the game’s 67th minute, but it was not enough. The Huskies out-shot the Falcons 11-6 in the contest while goalkeeper Lindsey Curnock preserved the victory recording three saves.