When a team plays poorly and loses, it has to accept it, deal with it and move on.

When a team plays good and loses, it leaves them with a feeling of ‘why us.’ That is the way the NIU men’s soccer team feels right now.

At the beginning of the season, the Huskies were playing bad soccer and were losing. Fine, they practiced hard and fought hard and are now playing good soccer—but still losing. Why?

“We’re just not clicking,” said junior Mike Defort. “We were playing bad” at the beginning of the season, “but now we are playing good.”

In Saturday’s match against the Warriors of Marquette, NIU “dominated,” according to senior tri-capitan Dave Weichman. Marquette scored on “two total mishaps, but we had plenty of chances,” Weichman added.

The Huskies had six shots on goal, yet only connected on one—a breakaway header by Defort, assisted by Andy Lane.

The 2-1 score was no indication on how well NIU played. “We keep making mental mistakes,” said senior tri-capitan Todd Moore. “We played well throughout the game. Sometimes we break down” in the backfield.

The loss was a heartbreaker for the Huskies as they were hoping to put together a little win streak before heading back into Mid-Continent Conference play on Friday after a match at Northwestern.

“Frustrating” was the word used by Moore, Weichman and Defort to describe the last few matches. They figured after the first few weeks of hard matches, they would get back on track, but not so, as they continue to slide.

It is easy to see why Moore and Weichman would be frustrated. They played three years on excellent Huskie teams and are in no hurry to end their careers like this.

Weichman watched the match from the bench because of an ankle injury sustained last Wednesday against Wisconsin. He should be ready to play this Wednesday against Northwestern and is in a hurry to turn around this season and “finish it with pride.”

NIU has not lost to the Wildcats in recent years but as Moore put it, “It won’t be a walkover.”