DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team will play at home for the first time this fall on Friday afternoon, Aug. 26, at 4 p.m. when it welcomes Lindenwood to the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex. The Huskies will also host Southern Indiana on Sunday (Aug. 28) at 1 p.m. Admission to all NIU Soccer games is free of charge.
Friday's contest is NIU's Bark in the Park game as fans are welcomed to bring their dogs, who will receive a treat. Friday is also Victor E. Huskie's birthday and the NIU mascot will be in attendance. Sunday is kids day, featuring a bounce house and the team will sign autographs postgame.
"We are excited to get going on the new turf for the home opener," said NIU head coach
Michael O'Neill. "We are looking to build from a good performance last week against Eastern Kentucky. It seems like a long time ago now after the cancelation with Indiana State, but we have had a good week of practice. We were able to work on some additional things with the time we gained from the postponed game, looking to build and put on another good performance as we face a tough team in Lindenwood. They will pose some different kind of problems from Eastern Kentucky and it's another good challenge for us."
NIU opened the season with a 2-1 victory at Eastern Kentucky last Thursday (Aug. 28).
Reegan Kingpavong (Rockford, Ill./Guilford) opened the scoring less than two minutes into the contest and
Lea Gruennagel (Homburg, Germany/Intergrierte Gesamtschule Contwig) netted the game-winning goal in the 62nd minute.
Deighton Wamer (Oregon, Ohio/Clay) started in goal for the Huskies, making three saves while picking up the victory.
Each of NIU's two goal scorers, as well as its goalkeeper, were making their Huskie debut.
Jordyn King (Menifee, Calif./Paloma) was the fourth Huskie starter playing her first game at NIU while four additional Huskies,
Amber Best (Southfield, Mich./Mercy),
Madison Looby (Saginaw, Mich./Nouvel Catholic Central),
Aubrey Robertson (Fishers, Ind./Fisher) and
Jalyn Tse (Queens, N.Y./St. Francis Prep), also saw their first career action in the contest.
The win over Eastern Kentucky marked the first time the Huskies have won a season opener since 2015 when they topped Lewis, 2-1. The last time NIU started a season 2-0 came during the 2008 campaign when the Huskies began 3-0 with victories over Eastern Illinois, Georgia Southern and Northern Iowa.
Lindenwood and Southern Indiana are both in their first year as Division I programs. The Lions of Lindenwood split a pair of matches last weekend to open the season, defeating Southern Illinois, 2-0, in their season opener before falling to Omaha, 1-0.
Southern Indiana also comes into the weekend with a 1-1 record after falling at North Dakota, 1-0, to open the season before picking up a victory at Winona State, 1-0. The Screaming Eagles will host Rose-Hulman on Thursday (Aug. 25) before coming to NIU on Sunday.
Following this weekend's home contests, the Huskies will head back on the road as they travel to Eastern Illinois on Sunday, Sept. 4.
