A battered and bruised NIU women’s soccer team takes the field together for the last time today.

The team has battled injury all year. At one point, 16 of the team’s 32 players were nursing some sort of injury.

“We were really beat up,” coach Frank Horvat said, “but we’re a lot better now, with only about three sitting out. We’ve recovered a bit more. We’re beat up now, but not as beat up as we had been.”

An already unhealthy team has felt the pain of a substitution rule new to the MAC this year.

The rule states that if a player is substituted out of the game, that player can not return within the half from which they left. For a team that has half its players unhealthy, the rule is difficult to overcome.

“My feeling on the rule is leaning more towards ‘it’s not the best thing for collegiate soccer,’” Horvat said. “It isn’t in the spirit of the college game. Just about every team in the country plays a Friday-Saturday match, and soccer isn’t meant to be played other than maybe one in every fifth day.”

On average, America’s Major League Soccer and England’s Premier League play every six or seven days. The NIU women’s team played last Friday, Sunday, and today – three games in six days.

“We’re cramming two games in less than 48 hours, sometimes three games in less than six days,” Horvat said. “This rule at times prevents you from subbing players in because the other player is out.”

Horvat said the rule would apply better if the season were split between the fall and winter.

NIU men’s soccer coach Steve Simmons and Horvat both agreed the rule favors larger squads who have the luxury of having more players to put on the field.

“It is a rule that came from some soccer purists who don’t like subbing,” Simmons said. “Has it hurt us? I don’t really think it has. However, we play two games a weekend and it becomes unsafe at times because you’re killing our players.”

In international soccer, a player that is substituted out of the game may not return.

Two years ago, a player substituted out of the game in the first half could not re-enter until the second half. The player, however, could re-enter once if substituted out in the second half. Last season, substitutions were unlimited.

“We’ve been all over the board, and right now we need to stick to one rule,” Horvat said. “Whether I agree with the rule or not, I think it’s important for my colleagues and I to be consistent. Changing every year is not productive.”

Elaine Eliadis, who is tied for the NIU women’s points lead, doesn’t think the rule affects her team that much.

“It’s kind of inconvenient when you only need a sip of water or to stop for a minute,” she said, “but I don’t think it’s that bad to come in only once a half.”

Eliadis and the Huskies (3-14-1) face a Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-7-1) team that has won five of its last eight matches.

The game will mark the last time several seniors will play together. Horvat hopes to give seniors Jill Heikkila and Tiffany Anderson playing time if their injuries allow it. Both have been out for the second half of the season.

“It’s an emotional game for the seniors, and for me,” coach Frank Horvat said. “It’ll be the last time I’m really going to be coaching them”