Mt. Pleasant, Mich – The Northern Illinois university women's soccer team won for the third time in a row and the sixth time in the teams' last seven matches, defeating Central Michigan 1-0 in Mount Pleasant. With the win, NIU officially clinched its first MAC tournament berth since 2017.

"I'm delighted with the result," head coach Michael O'Neill said. "This game secures our spot in the postseason for the first time in a long time and it has been a hard season. This game was a great representation of the season as a whole, it was back and forth and up and down. We knew Central Michigan would be dangerous as they played with freedom and had a strong attack throughout the match."

Senior Kierah Meier (Sycamore, Ill. / Sycamore) found the back of the net for the Huskies, scoring the match winner in the 67th minute. The Huskies' Aubrey Robertson (Fishers, Ind. / Fishers) sent a long ball down field, Meier took the ball between two Chippewa defenders, gaining possession outside the box, then ran into the center of the box before sending a shot into the bottom right corner of the goal for her first goal of 2023.

"Kierah stepped up and pushed forward and had a great finish to get us over the line today," O'Neill said. "That's where we are as a team, if we aren't playing well, we still have found a way to find wins."

Goalkeeper Sadie McGill (Fort Worth, Texas / L.D Bell) picked up her eighth clean sheet of the season and moved into a tie for third most in Huskie program history.

"Sadie has been huge and was again today," O'Neill said. "I felt like she kept us in the game multiple times today and she's been fantastic this year. She is a big part of the reason why we are where we are and our back line is great in front of her and really helped protect her. When Sadie has been called upon time and time again, she's stepped up and kept us in games and allowed us to win, we're super proud of that achievement."

NIU (8-6-3, 6-3-1 MAC) and CMU (2-7-6, 1-6-3 MAC) finished the match even with six shots on goal each.

Both teams had their chances in the first half as NIU had nine shots while CMU had 13. Neither team was able to score before the break. 

In the second half both teams continued to get chances deep in the opposite half until Meier's goal at 66:32 broke the scoreless tie.

The Huskies regular season comes to an end on Thursday, October 26 at Bowling Green. NIU will then prepare for its first conference tournament game in six seasons.  First round tournament games will be played Sunday, October 29 with the No. 3 and 4 seeds hosting the No. 5 and 6 seeds.

- NIU -