The NIU women’s soccer team knew how important its MAC games were this weekend.

The Huskies (5-3-5 overall, 2-2-5 MAC) tied Kent State 2-2 on Friday and beat Buffalo 2-1 on Sunday to gain a total of four points in the conference standings and move closer to their goal of reaching the MAC tournament.

“They were big games for us,” said NIU freshman midfielder Beth Matus, whose team could clinch a tournament spot with wins in its three remaining games.

“Three wins will get us in and we know we can do it we just have to get it done,” Matus said.

The Huskies jumped out of the gate against Buffalo (3-10-1, 2-5-1) with a goal by junior midfielder Christie Ehrhardt just 7:18 into the match, but were equaled by the Bulls just before halftime.

Freshman forward Marisa Oriente put the Huskies up for good with her first career goal with 4:49 remaining.

The win over Buffalo gave NIU only its second MAC victory of the season and keeps them in eighth position in the MAC with three conference matches remaining.

“We haven’t done anything different than we have been doing,” NIU coach Frank Horvat said. “They’re [Buffalo] struggling lately and we knew we needed to take care of business at home and we did.”

The Huskies fell behind early against Kent State (7-2-4, 3-2-2) on Friday after Nikkie Lichtenfeld netted a goal off a corner kick 7:08 into the match to put the score at 1-0.

NIU retaliated, however, with a goal by junior midfielder Becky Hott and took the lead on a goal by junior forward Audra Gordon.

“For us, while you want to win, a tie is better than a loss,” Horvat said. “Obviously, we’re back, and we’re playing like we did early in the season.”