In a two-week span, the NIU women’s soccer team has dropped three of its last four games and has fallen from third to a tie for eighth place in the MAC.

The Huskies (4-3-4 overall, 1-2-4 MAC) will try to use the comforts of home this weekend in order to get back on the winning track.

They play Kent State (7-2-3, 3-2-1) at 2:30 p.m. today at Huskie Soccer Field and will cap off the home stand with a game against Buffalo (3-9-0, 2-4-0) at 1 p.m. Sunday.

The Huskies hope the home-field advantage will pay off after last year’s road games with the two MAC foes. The Huskies lost 4-0 last year at Buffalo and fell 3-0 at Kent State.

“We really need to win our next three MAC games,” NIU coach Frank Horvat said. “We are excited to be home. It’s just a matter of being on and working hard.”

The NIU offense has tallied only four goals in the last six contests, putting added pressure on NIU goalkeeper Carrie Dvorak.

“We have been working on our scoring opportunities,” Dvorak said. “We just need to take advantage of the opportunities we get.”

With five MAC games left, the Huskies will need to retain at least eighth place in the MAC to move on to the conference championships.

“I think that we turned this thing around on Sunday,” said Horvat, whose team tied Eastern Michigan 1-1 after losing its previous three games. “We just need to keep games close with our defense and win games 1-0 and 2-1.”

NIU will have to tighten its defense to win this weekend. The Huskies have allowed nine goals in their last three games, and Kent State leads the MAC with 22 goals this season.

“Our defense is really working hard as a team,” Dvorak said. “We just need to go out there and play our game.”