By Coner Nevins

Last week seemed like a good indication the Northeastern women’s soccer team had finally arrived. With a two-game home-stand against the University of Maine and the Univesity of New Hampshire, the Huskies took care of business by securing six points from two 2-1 wins.

After breaking out for three goals against the University of Vermont, the team’s leading scorer, sophomore forward Kristin Kowalik, showed no signs of slowing down her pace as she opened the scoring against Maine 20 minutes into the game off a pass from senior Jen North. Kowalik would put the game out of reach with less than 10 minutes to play, firing home a pass from junior Jackie Spellman.

Maine would score with under a minute to play but it was too little too late as the Huskies prevailed 2-1.

Sunday’s match-up against the UNH Wildcats proved to be a more difficult task for NU, but a challenge they were eager to undertake.

The Wildcats ended the Huskies’ season last year in the America East tourney’s first round. NU would fall behind midway through the first half as Wildcats’ forward Adrianna Medina-Gonzalez fired her own rebound past junior goalkeeper Mariel Wilner to put UNH ahead 1-0. Kowalik would come to the Huskies’ rescue again, however, as she leveled the score in the 63rd minute with a goal from just outside the penalty box. With both teams deadlocked at 1-1, the game headed to overtime when junior Jess Haidamaka displayed her knack for game-winning finishes as she put home the game winner after 100 minutes of action, keeping the Huskies undefeated in conference play. It was Haidamaka’s third goal of the season, all of which have been game winners.

Kowalik, who was recently named America East player of the week, felt her team deserved to remain undefeated after two close games.

“It was awesome to get revenge on UNH after last year,” Kowalik said. “We know that every conference game is going to be competitive but we just have to play our game. If we do that we know we’ll be fine.”

Standing atop the America East with a record of 3-0-1, the Huskies now turn to cross-city rivals Boston University in their next game. It is an unfamiliar position for Matz’s team as they now sit in the driver’s seat of their own destiny, knowing that a couple more wins could secure home field advantage in the America East Championships. But they know they’ve got a ways to go.

“This team’s done a good job only looking ahead as far as one game,” Matz said. “We’re feeling confident right now but we know that we can’t get too high or too low. We just have to go out each game looking to get three points, one game at a time.”