The NIU women’s basketball team starts off a six-game set with the MAC East tonight at 6 p.m. when it travels to Akron. NIU enters with a record of 6-10 and a 2-3 record in MAC play.

Akron (3-13, 0-5) is still in pursuit of its first MAC win, and will look to take advantage of an NIU club that has struggled in the MAC.

NIU coach Carol Owens has a simple focus for her team.

“Always defense, that is what has gotten us to this point,” Owens said. “Especially after Christmas, that is when we started to play defense very well.”

NIU caught Ball State off guard several times when they turned to a zone defense immediately following a timeout. Senior center Jennifer Uptmor said that the change in strategy pays instant dividends in the form of rushed shots and shot clock violations.

“That takes time off the other team’s shot clock,” Uptmor said. “Sometimes teams will yell out ‘man,’ and we are in a 2-3 match up, which throws them off, and takes at least five seconds off the clock.”

Despite being 11th in the conference in scoring at 59.8 points per game, NIU will take on an Akron squad that has even more trouble scoring points. Akron ranks dead last in MAC offense with a paltry 54.5 ppg; the Zips’ average margin of defeat is 12 points – worst in the MAC.

Stephanie Raymond will look to improve on a 7-of-21 shooting performance in Sunday’s loss to Ball State. The junior guard leads NIU in scoring with 17.1 ppg, and has scored at least 10 points in 23-straight games dating back to last season.

To pick up its second road win of the season, NIU will need to shoot better than Sunday’s 1-19 performance from three point range.

Teams have countered the perimeter attack of NIU with an array of trapping zone defenses. In addition to concentrating on its defense, Owens said her team will need to focus on executing its offensive counterattack against teams that switch into zone defenses.