With a 5-2 lead, the NIU men’s soccer team was running away from Marshall.

However, three different Thundering Herd players scored in the last 29 minutes, and a loose ball in front of the net happened to find its way past NIU netminder Steve Goletz.

Marshall had just erased the Huskies’ chances of putting together their first three-game winning streak of the season.

NIU, the No. 6 seed, has a chance for redemption when they travel to Huntington, Va., to take on the No. 3-seeded host team, Marshall, in the first round of the MAC championship tournament. The game will begin today at 4:30 p.m.

“The tournament is wide open this year,” head coach Willy Roy said.

Every team in the MAC lost at least one conference game, and the best overall record in the MAC was held by fifth place Kentucky, which finished 9-8-0.

Bernhard Hagevik has been on a hot streak as of late, recording a hat trick against the Thundering Herd and netting one goal in a 2-1 loss to Kentucky in NIU’s last game of the regular season.

Hagevik’s late offensive surge gave him 11 points on the year, tying him for fifth in the MAC in points at season’s end. Hagevik also finished fourth in the MAC in goals scored, netting five.

Rasih Pala’s move to offense also has benefited the Huskies as he has tallied three goals and two assists, tying him with Thomas Meiner for second place on the team in goals scored.

“Rasih Pala is helping create some good scoring chances,” Roy said. “He’s working very well with Bernhard right now, so we want to keep him in the field rather than put him in goal.”

In Pala’s place at goalie, Goletz has 39 saves in his 11 games, and is seventh in the MAC with a 1.62 goals against average.

Goletz also recorded his first career shutout against Western Michigan, earning him MAC Player of the Week honors.

Goletz and the NIU defense, which is back to full strength with the return of Greg Cryns and Brandon Smick, will need to put forth their best effort to stop the highest scoring offense in the MAC.

The Huskies’ defense held the MAC’s all-time scoring leader, Marshall’s Byron Carmichael, to one goal in their last meeting, but will need to play the whole game this time around if they are to pull off an upset.

The winner of this match will take on the victor of the Akron-Western Michigan game.