MADISON, Wis. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team played its second, and final, exhibition of the fall on Friday evening (August 12) as it travelled north to face Wisconsin. The preseason contest was another opportunity for first-year head coach Michael O'Neill to see his team in live game action. 

"It was another great workout for us against a really, really good team," said O'Neill. "They played a bit of a different style, so it causes different problems, which is great, to see different styles from Iowa and Wisconsin. Relatively speaking, we competed, we were in the game, we showed that the work we have put in the last two weeks, in particular this week, was in place. 

"We got a lot of good things out of it again; we got a lot of players on the field and lots of good minutes. Hopefully that bodes well for us preparing for the season in six days."

After meeting Iowa on Sunday (Aug. 7), O'Neill and the Huskies had four days of training to build upon that initial exhibition before meeting the Badgers. O'Neill saw positive carryover in the two friendlies against Big Ten opposition.  

"There was definitely a consistency from game one to game two in terms of what we want our DNA to be which is great," said O'Neill. "We were challenged in different areas and that was great because no two teams play exactly the same way, so we will be challenged in different ways throughout the season. We definitely brought the intensity, the energy and the organization from game one to game two. We learned a ton about ourselves and now we will build on that as we prepare for Eastern Kentucky."

Friday's matchup marked the transition from preseason camp toward the opening week of the regular season, which will also bring a change of emphasis with some aspects of practice this coming week for the Huskies. 

"There will be more emphasis on game scenarios, being down a goal, being up a goal, set pieces, things of that nature," said O'Neill. "We have been working on our brand of soccer and how we are going to play but some of those details will be focused on more now that we are into the regular season. Which is not to say that we have ignored them (up to now) but we'll definitely do some fine tuning with scenarios and set pieces."
 
NIU will take to the road for the first two contests of the regular season as the Huskies visit Eastern Kentucky on Thursday, Aug. 18, in the season opener before facing Indiana State on Sunday, Aug. 21, in Terre Haute, Ind.