The NIU women’s soccer team failed to record its first winning season since 1998 after suffering a 2-0 defeat at Wisconsin Saturday.

The Huskies finished out the season with a record of 6-7-5, which is a 5 1/2 game improvement from last year. It was also their best finish since the 1998 campaign when they went 14-7.

Wisconsin struck with a goal off of a rebound from senior Sarah Capel just 10 minutes into the game.

“The first goal they scored really got us unorganized,” NIU coach Frank Horvat said. “We had a really good chance to tie the game up, but unfortunately we couldn’t finish it up.”

Senior midfielder Molly Meuer tacked on the second goal off of a corner kick to put Wisconsin ahead 2-0 and forced the Huskies to tighten up their defense.

“This was the most competitive and best team we’ve played all year, and they just caused confusion we couldn’t handle,” Horvat said.

NIU junior goalkeeper Carrie Dvorak, who played every second of the season, made nine saves to keep the game close. But the Huskies’ offense only managed 11 shots, compared to Wisconsin’s 25, which was tied for a season high for Huskies opponents.

Saturday’s loss was the Huskies’ fourth in a row and capped off the worst finish to a season since 2001.

Horvat said the team will work in the future to make sure they finish seasons stronger.

“It’s clear to all of us that we didn’t finish the season the way we would’ve liked,” Horvat said. “We are going to work toward closing the gap, and we are going to need to finish like we start.”

Wisconsin finished its non-conference a perfect 10-0 while NIU finished its 3-3-1.