After its first shutout victory in nearly three years, the NIU women’s soccer team will travel east this weekend to begin MAC play.

The Huskies (2-3, 0-1) will first battle Ohio University on Friday in Athens, Ohio. The Bobcats (4-1, 1-0) who were picked second in a preseason poll by the MAC coaches, have scored 19 goals in five games.

In Ohio’s last contest on Sunday versus Akron, they blanked the Zips 5-0. The Bobcats were led by reigning MAC Player of the Week Christel Schiering who scored three goals. In five games this season Schiering has amassed eight goals.

“She’s someone we’ve got to stop,” NIU coach Frank Horvat said. “We also have to keep the pressure up and not do things to cause bad turnovers in our defensive zone.”

Although Horvat knows that stopping Schiering is a key to winning the game, he knows Ohio is not just a one woman team.

“We can’t just focus on one player,” Horvat said. “They have many other players that can step in and cause problems even if you shut [Schiering] down.”

The Huskies will once again look to junior goalkeeper Leigh Steigerwald to keep them in the game. Steigerwald has a .086 goals against average and a .919 save percentage, and has allowed three goals in 315 minutes.

However, the Huskies now have some offense to turn to after ending their three-scoreless game streak with a goal by junior Denise Papke on Sunday against Southwest Missouri State.

“It feels good that we’ve improved over last year, but we still have not accomplished all our goals,” Horvat said. “We have some very tough games coming up because of the travel. The pressure is not off but [scoring] sure helps the morale.”

After Ohio, the Huskies will travel to Huntington, W. Va. to take on Marshall (2-2-1, 0-0-1).

The Huskies will need to play sound defense early, as the Thundering Herd have tallied six of their eight goals in the first half.

The Huskies not only have two conference games, but have a long bus ride ahead of them, travelling over 1,000 miles on this weekend’s road trip.

“We’re going out there to win, especially going on a trip like this,” Horvat said. “This is a brutal trip for us and would be for just about anybody in the nation, but we’re looking forward to the challenge.”