DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team will host its 2018 regular season home opener on Thursday, Aug. 23, as the Huskies welcome Western Illinois to DeKalb. Game time against the Leathernecks is scheduled for 7 p.m., at the NIU Soccer Complex.
In preparation for NIU Move-In Day on Friday, all fans attending Thursday's game should park in Convocation Center Lot C2, on the west side of the NIU Soccer Complex. Parking lot PS, just north of the NIU Soccer Complex, will be closed.
"We are definitely excited to finally get to showcase ourselves on our home field in an official match," said NIU head coach
Julie Colhoff. "It is always an exciting time for the coaches, but more so for the players.
"What I am most looking for is that we come out with the energy that we lacked in the first half of our last game and to make sure that we grew from that experience. I think we will, we have had a good week of practice and we are looking forward to tomorrow."
The Huskies opened the 2018 season with a 3-0 setback at Milwaukee last Friday (Aug. 17). The preseason favorite in the Horizon League scored three times in the opening 45 minutes before the Huskies played the Panthers even over the second 45 minutes. Senior
MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) made eight saves in goal for NIU in the first half while sophomore
Megan Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield) made a pair of stops after coming on for the second half.
Western Illinois comes to DeKalb also looking for its first victory of the season after opening with a 1-0 loss at Missouri State last Thursday (Aug. 16), in a match that was called due to weather in the 82nd minute.
Last season, NIU earned a 1-0 victory over Western Illinois in Macomb (Aug. 18).
Delaney Loprieno (Algonquin, Ill./Huntley) scored the lone goal in the 45th minute, just eight seconds before halftime, off an assist from
Lauren Gierman (Prospect Heights, Ill./John Hersey) to lift the Huskies to the win.
The Huskies have won each of the last two meetings against Western Illinois, including last season's contest, and have a 3-2-3 all-time record against the Leathernecks.
Following Thursday's contest, the Huskies will travel to Champaign to meet Illinois on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 26). The Fighting Illini split a pair of games last weekend to open the season, falling at sixth-ranked North Carolina, 3-1, before claiming a 2-1 victory over third-ranked Duke in Durham, N.C.
