Defense was a strength for the NIU women’s soccer team in both games this weekend, said coach Frank Horvat.

However, with a 1-0 loss to Western Michigan (7-7-1, 6-4-0 MAC) on Friday, the offense was missing.

“We played our best defense we’ve played all year today,” Horvat said. “We were very good in the back. WMU took a lot of shots but both of our goalkeepers played very well. It was just a matter of which team scored first today, and we didn’t get enough going offensively.”

NIU (3-12-1, 1-8-1 MAC) came home to Huskie Soccer Field on Sunday to shut out Southern Utah (1-15-0) 1-0, for its third win of the season.

“I think at times we play down to the level of the other team,” Horvat said after Sunday’s game. “I don’t want to take anything away from the other team, but I felt we definitely dominated and controlled the game. By us not finishing the really good chances we have, we allow that team to build confidence and stay in the game.”

Audra Gordon scored a late goal with 15:54 remaining in the second half to put the Huskies on top. Katie Klaas fed the ball to Gordon, who landed a goal in the top of the net.

The Huskies had seen a similar lead disappear late in last Sunday’s game against Bowling Green.

“I really wasn’t nervous,” Horvat said. “I felt like we were in control. The goal just made us more relaxed. I might have been more on my toes had we not scored the goal and it was getting late in the game with them having more opportunities.”

Horvat thought his team could have capitalized more on its opportunities.

“If we’d have played a team that was better today, we would have really struggled because we put a lot of pressure on our defense to not make mistakes,” Horvat said. “We should have scored more goals.”

Horvat said the team’s third overall win was a step forward.

“We scored a goal,” he said, “we won the game, and we need to build off of that in this week of training.”