Women's Soccer | October 30
DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team will head on the road to take on Western Michigan in the regular season finale on Thursday, Oct. 21. Kickoff against the Broncos is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT.
NIU is undefeated in its last five matches with a record of 3-0-2 and has fought its way up from 10
th place into the standings to sixth. Western Michigan clinched the MAC regular season championship on Sunday and is undefeated (7-0-3) in MAC play.
"We have to be great," NIU head coach
Michael O'Neill said. "We will create a game plan but won't deviate too much from the NIU soccer that we have played all year. We look forward to Thursday and will be ready for the challenge that Thursday brings."
In the Huskies' last match
Abby Zipse (Batavia, Ill./Batavia) scored directly from a corner kick to secure a 1-1 draw with Toledo on Senior Day.
Zipse has scored three goals across a record 86 matches in her career with all three coming in the last three matches. Zipse scored for the first time with the game winning goal against Eastern Michigan on Friday, Oct. 18. She then scored at Ball State on Thursday, Oct. 24 in the same match that she set the NIU program record with her 85
th match played. The direct corner kick goal against Toledo pushed the Huskies into the sixth-place spot in the MAC standings with just one match to play.
The Huskies are led in scoring by
Tyra King (Menifee, Calif./Matea Valley) with eight goals and five assists.
Kelsi McLaughlin (Greenfield, Ind./Illinois State) has scored four and recorded four assists on the season.
Ary Purifoy (Machesney Park, Ill./Oklahoma State) has started in 17-of-19 games in goal and has earned seven wins and five ties while preserving four clean sheets.
The Huskies currently sit in a tie for the sixth and final spot in the MAC standings with Miami on 13 points. NIU holds the tiebreaker over the RedHawks by virtue of its better goal differential. Central Michigan, Toledo and Eastern Michigan are all within two points of NIU and Miami, all three are still within reach of qualifying for the conference tournament.
-- NIU --
