Women’s soccer action returns to DeKalb

By LIZ GERNAND

Looking to better their record to the .500 mark with two wins this weekend, the Huskies will be taking on Oral Roberts University at 3 p.m. Saturday afternoon in their second home game of the season.

“I’m expecting us to have a pretty successful day against Oral Roberts,” said head coach Frank Horvat.

Horvat has looked at the Huskie’s schedule and is expecting them to be a weaker team than Detroit-Mercy, who the team faces on Sunday.

“I’ve looked at their schedule and the games they’ve played don’t seem (to indicate that) they’re a very strong team. They’ve played five games and allowed 38 goals,” added Horvat.

Oral Roberts has not only allowed 38 goals and they have not scored in their first five games.

“They’ll be a good warm-up this weekend and I’m looking for us to really work on doing things that we’ve been practicing,” Horvat said.

Sunday’s game against Detroit-Mercy should be a tough game because they are the best team that NIU has faced this season.

Horvat is constantly looking for his team to improve their performance from game to game. This weekend is no exception.

“Basically playing a little smarter, offensively spreading the field out, using our wing attacks, and making sure people make their runs,” is what Horvat said he expects to see from his team this weekend.

One of the Huskie’s overall goals for the season is to go all out and make the other teams play their style.

“We need 100 percent effort the whole game and we need people to make sure when they’re tired to get a rest on the bench and not pace themselves on the field like they did a couple of weekends ago (in Wisconsin),” said Horvat. “This will be important this weekend for the team to come out with the wins.”

A win against Detroit-Mercy would be satisfying, but would not as big of a win as it would be to beat some other teams on NIU’s schedule, such as Creighton University or University of Minnesota.

“It’s going to be a good game. It’ll be a good taste for us,” Horvat said.

Saturday, Huskies meet head-to-head with Oral Roberts at the Huskie Soccer Field. Game time is 3:00 p.m. Sunday the team heads to Detroit-Mercy for a 4:00 p.m. game.