DEKALB – The NIU women's soccer team (8-9-1, 5-6 MAC) will begin the Mid-American Conference Tournament as the seventh seed to take on the two-seed Ball State (10-6-3, 8-1-2 MAC) in Muncie, Ind. on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. CT. These two teams met in this round of the MAC Tournament last season that resulted in the Huskies upsetting the top-seeded Cardinals in a penalty kick shootout.
 
This year, NIU traveled to Muncie to face Ball State on Oct. 8 and won 3-2 in overtime after trailing two different times during the game. The Huskies got goals from Sammy O'Brien (Aurora, Ill./West Aurora), Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) and Kyleigh Dominguez (Geneva, Ill./Cincinnati). O'Brien's goal came in the 17^th minute to tie the game 1-1, Gierman sent the game into overtime with her free kick goal in the 87^th minute and Dominguez got the golden goal in the overtime's 94^th minute.
 
The Huskies are currently in a stretch where they have played five-straight 1-0 games in the five games since winning at Ball State. That stretch of games resulted in NIU only winning one of those five matches to move from third place to seventh in the MAC standings.
 
NIU women's soccer finished the 18-game regular season with 20 goals and 21 assists after finishing 2016's season, that included three MAC Tournament games, with only 15 goals and 14 assists. The goalies also allowed fewer goals per game than last season as well dropping to 1.09 goals per game after have an average of 1.16 last season.
 
The other match-ups in the MAC quarterfinals are No. 1 Kent State hosting No. 8 Ohio, No. 4 Bowling Green hosting No. 5 Buffalo and No. 3 Toledo hosting No. 6 Western Michigan. With a win, the Huskies will continue the MAC Tournament at the location of the highest remaining seed next week on Friday Nov. 3 with the Championship game scheduled for Sunday Nov. 5.