A free-kick goal from Elaine Eliadis with 15 seconds left in overtime Sunday gave NIU a thrilling 1-0 victory over Akron. Eliadis stood 25 yards out, with only one thought on her mind when she readied to kick.

“Just get it on the frame,” Eliadis said. “Even if the goalie doesn’t catch it, you hope someone can get a rebound.”

NIU shook off a sluggish start and improved its overall record to 4-5-2, but more importantly pulled even at 2-2 in the MAC. Coach Marci Miller was concerned with the way her team came out of the gate.

“I felt like we came out pretty flat,” Miller said. “We weren’t winning the first or second balls in the beginning, and I was mad at the effort at half time. But then they turned it around in the second half and picked it up.”

The majority of the regulation was played as a pitch possession battle in the midfield. NIU turned it up in overtime and peppered the Akron goal. Carrie Dvorak was strong between the pipes and notched her second shut out on the year.

On Friday Miller rolled the dice with her half-time adjustments and received a 3-2 win over Ohio.

Miller moved defensive anchor Alexis Terry to offense, and it paid immediate dividends, as the senior scored a goal and used her speed to wear out Ohio (3-6-0, 1-2-0) defenders. A gusty wind out of the south also aided goal kicks for NIU.

“I told [asst. coach] Paul [Jobson], ‘Hey, we’ve got the wind, and we need this win.’” Miller said. “It was an even game the first half, and in the second half we started playing direct and got through their line.”

Terry’s move to offense was made easier by the return of defender Danielle Anders from injury and contributions from seldom-used senior Kelly Kelso.

“Kelso has amazed me as a person,” Miller said. “She is a senior who hasn’t got any playing time, but she leads the team in fitness every week. She has an awesome attitude and works her butt off. She had a great week of practice, so we gave her a shot and she ran with it.”

A pair of freshman, Thea Johnson and Jenna Clausen hooked up for the game winning goal in the 79th minute. Johnson won a heads up ball at midfield and slipped a pass behind two defenders to Clausen, who beat Ohio goalie Melissa Parra one-on-one from just outside the penalty box.

“I’ve got two goals called back this year,” Clausen said. “Today I wanted a goal that would count.”

NIU started the day with an aggressive offensive attack. “Go forward” was the refrain Miller constantly yelled from the sideline all game.

Maddie Lehman, Megan Kolkay and Eliadis pieced together consistent scoring chances, but it was leading scored Karen Enockson who got NIU on the board first at 21:08.

The speedy sophomore forward fought through a hard-slide tackle from an Ohio defender on the right side of the penalty box, and gave NIU its first lead in 5 games.