DEKALB, Ill. -- Junior Jennie Nailor (Hoffman Estates, Ill./Hoffman Estates) scored in the 13th minute but the Northern Illinois University women's soccer team fell to Creighton, 3-1, on Friday afternoon in its lone exhibition at the NIU Soccer Complex. 

"Today is a good benchmark for us," said NIU head coach Julie Colhoff. "This is the first time that we are going 11-v-11, so it is good to have them out there and realizing that these are the demands of the game. It was good to see our team implementing some of our defensive tactics, technically, we need to work on the discipline of executing consistently. 

"I have challenged them from spring to now to get comfortable with the ball at their foot, playing in tight spaces, and it was good to see them a little more composed on the ball. Now, technically, working on the accuracy of our passes consistently throughout the game because that hurt us a little bit. Those are some of the bigger things we will be looking at this week."

Creighton opened the scoring just five minutes into the contest. Kaira Houser was fouled inside the box and the referee pointed to the spot for a penalty. Taryn Jakubowski stepped up and slotted the penalty into the back of the net to give the Bluejays the early lead. 

NIU was level just seven minutes later. With the box near the end line to the right of the Creighton goal, Nailor was able to finish from a tight angle past Creighton goalkeeper Katie Sullivan to even the match at 1-1. 

The Bluejays regained the lead before halftime on a goal from Houser. Juelle Love played the ball into the feet of Houser who moved into the box and fired a shot across goal and just inside the back post to give Creighton a 2-1 lead in the 27th minute. 

Creighton took that one-goal lead into the intermission before doubling its advantage in the 57th minute. Keelie Fothergill came down the right wing and sent a cross inside the six-yard box that found its way over the goal line off of NIU goalkeeper Julia Lentz (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook). 

All three goalkeepers saw time in the exhibition, with Lentz and senior MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) each making two saves, 16 field players also saw action in the contest for the Huskies. 

NIU will now turn its attention toward its regular season opener at Milwaukee on Friday, Aug. 17. Game time against the Panthers is slated for 7 p.m.