BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team dropped a 3-0 decision to Bowling Green on Friday night in its Mid-American Conference road opener at Cochrane Field. The Falcons scored twice in the opening 16 minutes of the contest to remain perfect in conference play. 

NIU senior goalkeeper MacKenzie Lee (Yorkville, Ill./Yorkville) was called into action early in the contest as she made a good save on an attempt by Bowling Green's Erica Hubert in just the second minute of the match. 

Bowling Green (5-3-2, 3-0-0 MAC) opened the scoring in the 13th minute. A corner kick from Hubert found Mackenzie Reuber who fired a shot high into the back of the net to give the Falcons a 1-0 advantage. 

The Falcons doubled their advantage just three minutes later. A Bowling Green corner was played into the six-yard box to Chelsee Washington and her shot deflected off of Maureen Kennedy into the net to give the Falcons a second goal. 

A minute later, a shot from Nikki Cox rang off the crossbar as Bowling Green continued to push forward. 

NIU (1-10, 0-3 MAC) had a look at goal in the 23rd minute as junior Kelsey Chope (San Jose, Calif./Leland) sent a shot on goal that was held by Bowling Green goalkeeper Kathleen Duwve. 

In the 39th minute, Lee came up with another good save as a ball was knocked down into the feet of Kristin Tveit, but the Huskie goalkeeper was able to make the stop. 

The Falcons added a third just a minute before halftime as an attempted clearance went to Sarah Allen for Bowling Green whose low shot to the far post beat Lee to give the Falcons a 3-0 lead at the intermission. 

Five minutes into the second half, a terrific shot from long-distance by freshman Trudy Quidzinski (Green Bay, Wis./Notre Dame Academy) was tipped over the crossbar by Bowling Green reserve goalkeeper Victoria Cope for a NIU corner kick. Off the corner, sophomore Haley Hoppe (Austin, Texas/Rouse) had a chance knocked away by Cope and sophomore Amanda Czerniak (South Elgin, Ill./St. Charles North) collected the rebound and hit the crossbar. 

Bowling Green's first good opportunity of the second half came in the 61st minute as Hubert collected a ball near the top of the box and whistled a shot just side of the left post. 

Quidzinski made a move around a Falcon defender in the 77th minute to create space and sent a shot on goal that was held by Cope. NIU had a trio of corners late in the contest but couldn't unlock the Falcon defense as Bowling Green claimed the 3-0 victory.

The Huskies will close the weekend at Toledo on Sunday, Sept. 30, game time against the Rockets is scheduled for 12 p.m. CT and will be available on ESPN3.