DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team hosts Loyola Chicago on Sunday, September 15, at 6 p.m. in its lone match of the weekend. The match is a doubleheader with the NIU men's soccer team who will face Bradley at 2 p.m., admission for all NIU Soccer matches is free of charge. 

Sunday is Youth Soccer Club Day and will feature an appearance by Victor E. Huskie, inflatables and the opportunity to participate in a scrimmage at halftime.

NIU (1-2-1) is coming off a 1-0 victory at Western Illinois last Sunday (Sept. 8) as freshman Julia Neary's (Vernon Hills, Ill./Vernon Hills) first career goal lifted the Huskies past the Leathernecks. Sophomore goalkeeper Julia Lentz (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) posted seven saves to record her first collegiate victory. 

"The biggest point of emphasis for us right now is consistency," said NIU head coach Julie Colhoff. "How much can we build off our last result, are we stringing together good (practice) sessions, building on our successes and minimizing our weaknesses to make sure that we are going into gameday we are a better version of ourselves than we were last week. Every week that has to be the goal."

Loyola brings a 2-4-1 mark into Sunday's contest following a 2-0 setback against DePaul on Thursday night (Sept. 12). Megan Nemec and Aleksa Tataryn have each scored three goals this season to lead the way for the Ramblers while Grace Droessler and Maddie Hausmann have split time in goal. Droessler has played in five matches with a 2.33 goals against average and a .694 save percentage while Hausmann has a 2.00 goals against average and a .545 save percentage. 

The Ramblers are coming off an 11-win season in 2018 that included Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships and a trip to the NCAA Tournament, where they fell to eventual national champion Florida State.  

NIU head coach Julie Colhoff played at Loyola for four seasons from 2006-09, captaining the Ramblers during her senior season. Sunday's meeting is the first between NIU and Loyola since 2013 when the Ramblers picked up a 1-0 victory over the Huskies in Chicago. 

Next weekend the Huskies will play their final two non-conference games of the season as they travel to Marquette on Friday, September 20, and host South Dakota State on Sunday, September 22.