By Max Lederman

After starting their season with a 1-0 overtime win over St. John’s at the Comfort Suites/URI Invitational on August 30, the Northeastern women’s soccer team dropped their next two contests to fall to 1-2 on the season. In their home opener Friday night against Long Island, the Huskies seemed to be in control until their foes scored on just their third shot of the game in the 77th minute — handing the Huskies a hard-to-swallow 1-0 defeat. The Huskies out-shot the Blackbirds 9-6 but were unable to squeak anything past keeper Stephanie Kansky as she recorded her first shutout of the season. In the final game of the Comfort Suites/URI Invitational on Aug. 31, the Huskies were blown out 4-0 by Rhode Island. The Rams out shot the Huskies 12-8 on their way to an easy victory. Husky net minder Cynthia Slowik recorded four saves before being replaced by freshman goalie Elissa Harrison, who played the final 5:35 of the game. NU entered the second half down by only one score, but the Rams added three more in the last half of action to put the game out of reach. Despite being out shot 22-10 in their first game of the season the Huskies rallied behind a strong defensive effort to get a thrilling overtime victory against St. John’s, 1-0. Northeastern junior Jennifer North scored the overtime game-winning goal in the 97th minute. The shot, that came from 18 yards out, was just the fifth to make it on net all game for Matz’s squad. The young Husky squad is solid on defense but is still searching for the right offensive rotation needed to put some points on the board. The Huskies have scored just one goal in their first three games and have been out shot 40-27 combined. “Our defense is pretty solid, we’re just having problems finding the right offense combinations needed to put some more shots in the net,” said Husky head coach Ed Matz. In 2002 the squad made it to the America East playoffs for the first time in school history. Matz, who also coaches the Men’s crew, seems to have the team going in the right direction and is confident that this year’s team can stay the path that last year’s squad started to pave. With just one senior on the roster, the Dogs will be counting heavily on younger players to step up to the challenge, something Matz thinks can definitely be done. “We have a very, very talented team,” said Matz. “We’re still pretty young, but I’m confident we have the right personnel to get back to the America East playoffs.” The Huskies return to action on Wednesday when they host Iona at 3 p.m. at Parsons Field.