Coach Frank Horvat and the NIU women’s soccer team ended their winless and scoreless streaks with a 5-3 victory over the Akron Zips Friday night.

But the Huskies (1-5-1, 1-2 in MAC) had to settle for a weekend split after a 2-0 loss to Kent State Sunday.

Sophomore forward Katie Klaas scored the Huskies’ first goal of the season three minutes and 33 seconds into the Akron game, giving NIU an early 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Akron’s Jeannie Stuckey tied the game for the Zips 1-1. Huskie senior forward Becca Bleyer scored the next two goals to give the Huskies a 3-1 halftime lead.

Klaas and Courtney Lewis scored goals in the second half to give the Huskies a 5-1 lead. The Zips added two goals after Horvat removed his starters, one by Stuckey, the other by Samantha Lytle.

“I’m excited because we finally finished some of our scoring opportunities,” Horvat said. “Katie and Becca scored two goals apiece and Jane (Mucci) played a solid match in the midfield. We did a lot of good things offensively. Defensively, our starters did a very good job.”

The Huskies loss to Kent State was the first in school history. Jaclyn Pecjak scored both goals for the Golden Flashes as they ended a six-game losing streak of their own.

“We were all over them early, but we turned the ball over and (Pecjak) hit a nice shot,” Horvat said. “Just before that, we had a great opportunity to score but couldn’t take advantage. Then they scored right at the start of the second half and that hurt. The positive part, though, was that we didn’t disappear and fall into old habits like we did at the start of the season.”