BETTENDORF, Iowa – The Northern Illinois University women's soccer team played its first 90 minutes of the season on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 8) as it was edged, 1-0, by Northern Iowa on a final minute goal in an exhibition contest at TBK Sports Complex.
The Huskies and Panthers nearly played to a draw before, in the final 30 seconds, Northern Iowa scored off a back post on the second ball from a late corner.
"We were able to play everyone that was healthy and that was out most important objective," said NIU head coach Julie Colhoff. "Having an exhibition game this early, we wanted to put together the things that we have worked on the first few days of training, while also evaluating our new squad. It was good to see everybody in a couple different positions and that was the biggest takeaway, the experience and being able to evaluate ourselves."
Sunday's exhibition came after just four days of training as the Huskies took to the field for their first practice of the year on Wednesday (Aug. 4) and it provided the staff an important opportunity to see the early building blocks for the new season.
"It was good to see our newer players step up and show their caliber early, that was definitely a positive," said Colhoff. "We were definitely moving the ball better than we have in previous seasons, there is still work to be done but that was a step in the right direction. Our versatility, in general, from a personnel standpoint was a really big positive. All three of our goalkeepers were strong today, which is a great thing to have.
"We wanted to have an early preseason game, we knew we wouldn't be our most prepared selves going into this game, but that was by design so that we could collect data to prep for our first official game. Overall, it will be a huge benefit going forward to have that film to be able to work on things in practice."
Along with the many positive that the Huskies could take from Sunday's exhibition, the contest allowed Colhoff the opportunity to see things that will become an emphasis as they return to the training field.
"We were able to generate a couple of good opportunities but that is something we will still be working on," said Colhoff. "One, how to capitalize on those opportunities but, two, how do we generate even more, so on the attacking side that will be an emphasis moving forward. On the defensive side, working on our organization and communication to make sure that we are consistently on the same page as a unit."
The matchup with Northern Iowa was the lone exhibition for the Huskies this fall, NIU will now turn its attention toward the regular season opener on Thursday, August 19, at Milwaukee.
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August 09, 2021 at 08:38AM
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Huskies Get Season Underway with Exhibition Against Northern Iowa - Northern Illinois University Athletics
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