After starting the season off with an impressive 2-1 victory Friday over host Wright State, the NIU women’s soccer team struggled Monday, leaving them 1-1 after the opening weekend.

The Huskie freshmen made an impact right from the start as Christie Ehrhardt netted not only her first goal, but the first Huskie goal of the season 7:35 into the game to gain the early advantage.

Junior Katie Klaas set it up with a corner kick for the assist. Freshman goalkeeper Carrie Dvorak, starting for the sick Leigh Steigerwald, made 11 saves to keep the Huskies in the game.

Although only posting five shots on goal the Huskies managed to defeat Wright State 2-1 with freshman Chanelle Crosby netting the game-winner from eight yards out with an assist from fellow newcomer Angeline Impelido. The win put the Huskies over .500 for the first time in four years.

“The freshmen stepped up today for us,” coach Frank Horvat said. “Carrie made several big-time saves for us. She did an outstanding job in goal. We toughed out the last 10 minutes and got a victory we were looking for which shows a lot about our character.”

Against Wisconsin-Green Bay on Monday it was a different tune as the Huskies managed only three shots on goal and Dvorak allowed two first-half goals in a 2-0 defeat.

Aided by a 30 mile-per-hour wind the Phoenix defense didn’t allow a major scoring threat until Ehrhardt was denied by Darci White 10 minutes into the second half.

Steigerwald, a junior, made her debut in the second half and saved four shots to keep the Huskies in the game.

“We broke down defensively a couple of times and they took advantage,” Horvat said. “We had a couple of scoring chances in the first half and Christie had about three chances in the second half, but they played better than us today.”