Sept. 18, 2011

Box Score

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DEKALB, Ill. - Northern Illinois women's soccer (1-5-2) slammed the door of its non-conference season today with emphasis, celebrating senior day, and earning its first victory of the season, 2-0, over Loyola (3-5-1). Sophomore Frances Boukidis scored both of the Huskies goal's off second chance efforts from Kelsey Passaglia shots.

Pregame festivities occurred before the match as the team recognized seniors Meaghan Bennett, Becca Ford, Megan Harry and Passaglia, along with their parents for their contributions to the Northern Illinois program.

NIU opened the first half of play with gusto, with the offense only resembling a shell of its former self. The Huskies took high-percentage shots, creating flow with their passes and threading the ball to empty areas of the field for open shots on net. NIU posted eight shots in the opening stanza, five on frame.

The Ramblers only put up one shot in that time and did not test the starting goalkeeper Bennett. In the closing seconds of the first half, Bennett punched away a Rambler attack in the zone to prevent a shot from being taken.

The Huskies flow continued in the second half and quickly ended the team's two-match scoreless drought, when Passaglia took a slide for the ball into the box for the shot. The LU keeper was unable to grab the loose ball and Boukidis fired the shot into the net for her first score of the season.

"Kelsey pretty much did all the work for it" laughed Boukidis after the match, "I was just there to follow up with it. She charged the goalkeeper, the ball popped out and I was just focused on placing it."

The second goal was in similar fashion, as Passaglia rifled a shot that bounced off the inside of the right post to the middle of the box, where Boukidis collected and swept the ball in for the Huskies second goal of the match in the 74th minute.

Head Coach Carrie Barker after the contest said "We were taking a lot more high-percentage shots and I think that made a big difference in the result this afternoon. Loyola is a very good team and it was a big win for us to close the non-conference schedule the way we did today."

NIU extended its scoreless streak to 200-minutes with the effort from Bennett and sophomore Amy Carr.

The Huskies are now finished with their non-conference register and will begin Mid-American Conference play, hosting Toledo and playing at Ball State Sept. 23 and 25. The contest against rival Toledo will begin at 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.