AKRON, Ohio – The NIU women's soccer team (4-3-1, 1-0 MAC) won their Mid-American Conference opener over Akron (1-7-1, 0-1 MAC) by a score of 2-1. Both of the NIU goals were scored in the first half as Haley Hoppe (Austin, Texas/Rosue) and Kyleigh Dominguez (Geneva, Ill./Cincinnati) scored their first goals as Huskies.
 
"We played well tonight and it was nice to see this kind of quality in our first MAC game," Head Coach John Ross said.
 
Hoppe's goal came off a corner kick in the 22^nd minute when she headed home the feed from Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) for Gierman's fourth assist of the season to lead the way for NIU. Dominguez scored unassisted in the 37^th minute as she fired a shot from just outside the box that beat the Akron keeper to the right side of the goal.
 
"It speaks to the kind of depth we have on this team, we can bring anyone off the bench and the level doesn't drop," Ross said. "Goals come from everyone doing their job and people take advantage of their opportunities. All of our goal scorers have multi-goal potential, and I think we'll see that going forward."
 
Ross and the Huskies continue to use their depth to keep players fresh as eight players came off the bench for NIU. Only two outfield players played the full 90 minutes and they were the two central defenders in Hoppe and Delaney Loprieno (Algonquin, Ill./Huntley).
 
Akron's goal came in the 55^th minute of the second half when Erica Schrader scored on a free kick following an NIU foul. The goal was scored moments after Allie Ingham's (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) penalty kick attempt was saved by the Akron keeper.
 
"We didn't necessarily get down after missing a PK we had a little bit of a letdown moment because they scored right after that," Ross said.
 
Huskies' goalkeeper Amy Annala (Oswego, Ill./Oswego) made two saves on total shots from the Zips so her career save total is now at 298 saves as she nears the 300-mark to become the third NIU women's soccer player to make 300 saves in their career.
 
"Some of our kids are getting their first taste of conference games," Ross said. "They're starting to understand that playing a full team game is what it takes to win these MAC games and we were definitely solid on both sides of the ball today."
 
The Huskies will now head to Buffalo to take on the Bulls Sunday at 11:00 a.m. CT before returning home to play three-straight matches at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.