DEKALB – The NIU women's soccer team (5-5-1, 2-2 MAC) dropped their second-straight match by a score of 2-1 to Bowling Green (7-4-0, 2-2 MAC) Sunday afternoon. The Falcons scored the first two goals of the game in the second half and the Huskies mounted a late comeback but could only get one goal back.
"It was a tough day today," Head Coach
John Ross said. "We needed to have a better performance overall, we woke up during the last 20 minutes and took it to them but we have to do that from the get-go and it's disappointing that we didn't."
Freshman defender
Haley Hoppe (Austin, Texas/Rouse) scored her second goal of the season in the 73
rd minute to give the Huskies their only goal of the day. Both of Hoppe's goals this season have come on headers from corner kicks by junior
Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey).
Both Bowling Green goals were scored about a minute and a half apart as Madison Schupbach scored in the 63
rd minute on a shot from the left side of the 18-yard box before assisting on Erica Hubert's goal in the 64
th minute. The Falcons took 15 shots to NIU's nine with Bowling Green also putting seven on target with NIU keeper
Amy Annala (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) making five saves.
This continues a trend for the Huskies as they have dropped every game where their opponents score more than one goal in a game in 2017.
"When we get away from what we do best, that's when we typically struggle," Ross said. "Today we were mainly solid defensively until they scored their goals. We stopped them at what they're normally good at, we just left ourselves exposed at the wrong times."
NIU women's soccer will have one more home match as they host Miami (Ohio) this Thursday before hitting the road to face Ball State next Sunday. The Huskies are still in search for their first win at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex in 2017.
