All a coach can ask of his or her team is to constantly improve on its mistakes.

The NIU women’s soccer team did just that last weekend after falling 2-0 to Central Michigan Friday by bouncing back to play to a scoreless tie with Eastern Michigan Sunday afternoon.

Central Michigan (8-2 overall, 3-0 MAC) scored two second half goals to put away the Huskies (5-3-4, 1-2-1). The Chippewas got on the board in the game’s 51st minute and controlled the game from there on.

“We had some good moments but once they scored the first goal, we panicked,” said NIU head coach Carrie Barker. “It was disappointing how we let the goal affect how we played.”

CMU added its second goal at the 81:53 mark off a corner kick. NIU was outshot 8-2 in the contest.

“Everyone’s body language showed that we already let them beat us,” said senior Thea Johnson. “Friday was frustrating. We just let them dominate the second half.”

The Huskies turned everything around by playing 110 minutes of scoreless soccer at EMU (7-3-3, 2-1-1) Sunday. Each team tallied six shots in the match.

“We showed a lot of character today [Sunday],” Barker said. “We did everything right but unfortunately we couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Goalkeeper Lindsey Curnock made six saves to preserve her sixth shutout of the season, while junior Lisa Maier led NIU with three shots on goal. EMU’s goalkeeper matched Curnock with six saves of her own to keep the Huskies off the board.

“[After Friday’s loss], we all met as a team and all got on the same page to battle for the tie,” Johnson said. “We’re pretty happy with this weekend’s results. Everyone worked really hard and got back to playing how we know we can play.”

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