DEKALB, Ill. – First half goals from junior Abby Gregg (Brookfield, Wis./Brookfield East)) and sophomore Amanda Czerniak (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North) helped lead the Northern Illinois University women's soccer team to a 2-1 Senior Day victory over Central Michigan on Sunday afternoon at the NIU Soccer Complex. 

"It was our last home game for the seniors, last home game of the season, and the biggest challenge was to come out and have a performance we could be proud of," said NIU head coach Julie Colhoff. "We definitely executed and could walk off the field saying we did that."

"We showed the ability to fight though some adversity. The team trusted the game plan, we told them to stay disciplined defensively, I think in the first half we dove in and bailed them out a little bit. In the second half, we did a better job executing on those details which helped us hold on to that win." 

NIU (2-14, 1-7 MAC) created an early opportunity as senior Emilie Furuseth Haugan (Hlavstad, Norway/National Sports Academy) fired a shot just wide in the eighth minute. Four minutes later, Central Michigan had its first chance of the match as Lexi Pelafas forced NIU senior goalkeeper MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) into an outstanding save at full stretch diving to her right. 

Just past the quarter-hour mark the Huskies nearly opened the scoring as freshman Trudy Quidzinski (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) rattled a shot off the crossbar. 

A minute later, the Huskies were in front as Furuseth Haugan played a ball into space behind the Central Michigan defense. Gregg won a challenge with Central Michigan goalkeeper Morgan Britain at the top of the box and then tucked the ball into the open goal to give NIU a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute. 

On the half-hour mark NIU doubled its lead as Czerniak unleashed a dipping shot from about 25 yards that curled past Britain to give the Huskies a 2-0 advantage. 

In the final minute of the opening half the Huskies nearly added a third as Gregg's shot was fought off by Britain for a NIU corner kick. Sophomore Haley Hoppe (Austin, Texas/Rouse) rose highest to meet the corner but put her header wide. 

Less than 30 seconds into the second half, Central Michigan (6-10, 4-4 MAC) nearly scored as Katie Coleman hit the post and the Huskies were able to scramble the ball away. 

In the 67th minute, Lee made an outstanding kick save on a volley by Abby Willerer as the Huskie goalkeeper saw the shot late but was able to react quickly to make the stop. 

Lee made seven saves in the contest for the Huskies. 

With 15 minutes to play the Chippewas pulled a goal by through Pelafas. Coleman played the ball into the box to the CMU forward who turned and fired a shot inside the far post to cut the Huskie lead in half. 

In the final quarter-hour, the NIU defense contained Central Michigan as it pushed for an equalizer, not allowing a shot until the final minute when Mary Carlson sent a harmless shot well high as the Huskies claimed the 2-1 Senior Day victory. 

"I think this is the first time that they have played two games, consistently, in a row in terms of execution and doing what we ask of them," said Colhoff. "I told them Friday that was our challenge for today, could we build off that performance, and I thought they did that well. Now it is about can we build off of this going into a week of practice and then into next weekend."

Next week, the Huskies will travel to Ohio University on Thursday, Oct. 18, and Kent State on Sunday, Oct. 21.