NIU women’s soccer coach Frank Horvat hopes the Huskies can rebound from a 4-14-1 record last season.

Horvat said last year’s team was slowed by injuries, which forced him to play several freshmen. But with a healthy team to start the season and a solid offseason in the books, Horvat thinks the team will be better.

“I feel that the spring went extremely well,” Horvat said. “We did a lot of good things. We built a lot of positive feelings on what we were accomplishing and what we were doing.”

Leading the way for the Huskies will be forwards Jane Mucci, Katie Klass and Becca Bleyer as well as defenders Sarah Dickinson and Maggie Nowicki.

Mucci, who redshirted last season, returns for her fifth season, and is the only player who played on two conference championship teams in 1997 and 1998. In her last full season, Mucci had seven goals and 17 points during the 1999 season.

Klass had six goals and 19 points to lead the team last season. Bleyer had six goals and 17 points and was a second-team All-MAC selection. The team voted Dickinson most improved player last season.

Since winning back-to-back MAC championships, the team has struggled, going 9-28-1 the past two seasons. Expectations aren’t high for the team this year as they are ranked 12th of 13 teams in a preseason MAC poll.

Dickinson doesn’t agree with the poll results.

“There’s no way we’re going to come in 12th of 13 teams,” she said. “We’ve been working really hard. We have the team. We have the talent.”

The Huskies will open the season with four straight non-conference games starting with a home game against Loyola Friday. They begin their 12-game conference schedule with a home game against Central Michigan Sept. 16. They wrap up the season hosting Big Ten opponents Northwestern Oct. 31 and Illinois Nov. 2.

The Huskies conference record was 2-8-1 last year. Dickinson thinks the team can improve on that.

“Our goal is to get sixth in the MAC and I think that’s something we can achieve,” she said.

Horvat says the team has a lot of work ahead of them this season.

“I don’t foresee the season being anything easy for us,” Horvat said. “We’ve lost a lot of momentum from the past. We probably lost a lot of respect amongst the teams in our region and our conference.”

After hosting Loyola Friday, the Huskies travel to Illinois State to play the Redbirds Sunday.

The Huskies have not played the Ramblers (6-13 last season) since 1996, when they both were in the Midwestern Collegiate Conference (now called the Horizon League). Horvat says there are some similarities between the teams.

“They’re probably as beat up as we are and as young as we are,” he said. “I’m expecting whoever comes out, makes the least amount of mistakes and takes advantage of their opportunities is going to come out on top.”

The Huskies have won all four meetings they’ve played against the Ramblers.

Illinois State (14-4 last season) will be a much tougher challenge.

“They’re a much much more experienced and mature team than we are at this present time,” Horvat said. “It’s going to be a tough game.”

The Redbirds defeated the Huskies 6-0 last year, a game in which Horvat said the team didn’t perform well. The Huskies lead the all-time series 3-2.