Box Score

KENT, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University women’s soccer team played its highest scoring match in more than 20 years on Sunday afternoon as the Huskies offense contributed to a 10-goal shootout against Kent State. However, the Golden Flashes pulled away late as NIU fell to a 7-3 defeat in Mid-American Conference play at Zoeller Field in Kent, Ohio.

Taylor Sarver (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) gave the Huskies (2-9-0, 1-3-0 MAC) the lead with the opening goal of an unprecedented scoring fest with the second tally of the season for the freshman forward. NIU also received goals from senior forward Nicole Gobbo (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) and sophomore midfielder Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) early in the second half.

The Golden Flashes (7-3-2, 3-1-0 MAC) took a 4-1 lead into the halftime break and, when the Huskies fought back with two early goals in the second half, the hosts were lifted by a second-half hat trick by Doni Capeheart.

The three-goal outburst was NIU’s best offensive display of the season and the most goals by the Huskies since they scored three against Eastern Michigan on Oct. 24, 2014. For Gobbo, it was her fourth tally of the season and the 15th of her collegiate career. For Gierman, her penalty kick also was her fourth goal of the season – with all four coming in the opening four matches of MAC play – and marked the first PK scored by a Huskie since Allie McBride netted against Toledo on Sept. 28, 2014.

The result leaves NIU tied for ninth in the MAC standings on three points, just out of the eighth-place spot that guarantees a berth to the conference tournament at the end of the regular season.

While pleased with his team’s offensive output, NIU women’s soccer head coach John Ross talked about the need to play well at both ends of the pitch to be successful in the MAC each game.

“We need to do better in all areas,” Ross said after the game. “We did score some goals today, but we struggled to defend. We need to combine the two in order to be successful, and we all know that. We’ll be very focused at practice this week with that in mind.”

With another pair of MAC matches coming up for the NIU women’s soccer team next weekend, including a key Friday night home match versus Akron – a team tied with NIU in the league standings – at the NIU Soccer Complex in DeKalb at 7 p.m., Ross knows the Huskies can’t dwell on Sunday’s defeat and must immediately begin preparing for upcoming contests.

“We’ve got seven games left. Today was just one game, and we know we have to get ready for Friday, which will be a challenging test,” Ross said. “There’s so much left to play for this season, and Friday’s game will be big for us.”

--NIU--