DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team will start Mid-American Conference play this weekend as the Huskies host Ohio and Kent State. The Bobcats come to NIU for the league opener on Friday, September 27, at 7 p.m., and the Huskies will close their current three-game homestand on Sunday afternoon, September 29, as they host the Golden Flashes at 2 p.m.

NIU will be hosting a canned food drive at Friday night's conference opener, magnets will be given away to the first 50 fans and free pizza will be provided to NIU students with a OneCard. Sunday afternoon is Kick Cancer Day in support of Pediatric Cancer Awareness and "Beat Cancer" t-shirts will be provided to the first 75 fans. 

"We are excited to start conference play on Friday," said NIU head coach Julie Colhoff. "Nothing changes in terms of the preparation; we are still striving for consistency and that has been our biggest thing. The weeks where we are consistent, we perform well, the weeks where we have dropped some practices, we have done the same thing in games. What I am excited about is this week has been a good week in practice, so I am looking forward to seeing Friday's matchup and seeing how our team does."

The Huskies enter MAC play with a 2-4-1 record after posting a weekend split last week, winning at Marquette in overtime (Sept. 20) before falling to South Dakota State (Sept. 22). Junior Madison Kaufmann (St. Charles, Ill./St. Charles North) scored her first career goal in the 102nd minute to lift the Huskies past Marquette, junior Haley Hoppe (Austin, Texas/Rouse) scored the opening goal in the contest and junior goalkeeper Megan Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) made seven saves in the contest. 

Ohio opens conference play with a 5-3 overall record, starting the season with five consecutive victories before falling in each of its last three, including last time out at Georgetown, 7-0, on September 20. Alivia Milesky has three goals and eight points to lead the way offensively for the Bobcats. Sydney Malham has seen the majority of the time in goal for Ohio, posting a 2.06 goals against average and a .658 save percentage. 

Kent State brings a 2-4-1 record into league play and will visit Western Michigan in its conference opener on Friday (Sept. 27) before coming to NIU. Comeron Shedenhelm and Karly Hellstrom each have two goals to pace the attack for the Golden Flashes. Faith O'Neill has played all seven matches in goal for Kent State and has a 1.11 goals against average with a .778 save percentage. 

Next weekend, NIU will hit the road for the first time in league play, traveling to Eastern Michigan on Friday, October 4 and Central Michigan on Sunday, October 6.