It’s the last weekend before conference, which means it’s time to start working out the kinks.

The NIU women’s soccer team (3-0-3) plays its final non-conference matches this weekend. The Huskies host Southeast Missouri State (1-2) at 4 p.m. Friday and travel to Omaha, Neb. to tackle Creighton (5-3) at 1 p.m Sunday.

NIU has played in three consecutive overtimes and hopes to have enough energy to finish up the non-conference season strong over the Redhawks of SEMO and the defending Missouri Valley Conference Blue Jays.

“We have a split weekend again but we’re glad to be back competing on our home field,” said NIU head coach Carrie Barker. “It’s going to be drier conditions than last weekend and I think that will allow us to get back into our rhythm of play.”

According to Barker, the Huskies are scrappy and refuse to lose. They’ve shown it throughout the season with four overtime matches.

But there are a couple of issues that NIU would like to address before MAC play begins next weekend.

“We need to work on finishing,” said senior forward Jestina Orlando. “In our first two games, we got three easy goals, but now it’s starting to slow down like it was last year.”

While the Huskies aren’t as strong as they would like to be offensively, the defense still remains a dominating factor. NIU ranks second in the MAC and 22nd nationally in goals against average at .44.

Offensive issues were addressed in practice.

“This week we have been working on finishing and crossing and just getting on the end of the ball,” Orlando said. “Our team, some days, needs to realize that even though it’s a sloppy ball, sloppy balls score goals too.”

Improvement, however, continues to come each week for the team.

“Each game we have learned a little bit about ourselves and each game has challenged us in different ways,” Barker said. “We are improving and have yet to peak.”