By Sarah Metcalf

In a little more than a week, the NU women’s soccer team has grown from an under .500 team to a force to be reckoned with, picking up strong home wins against Holy Cross on Wednesday and Manhattan College on Saturday, and improving their overall record to 5-3.

The Huskies dominated both contests, winning 4-0 against Holy Cross and 3-0 against Manhattan. Redshirt freshman Kristin Kowalik exploded, racking up a total of eight points with two goals in the Holy Cross game and a goal and two assists in the Manhattan game, earning her the honor of being named the America East Player of the Week. Sophomore Jess Pheifer scored the winning goal in both games, and NU Goalie Cynthia Slowick posted her third shutout of the season.

In both contests, first half offense was somewhat slow for the Huskies. In the Holy Cross game, despite the consistent barrage of shots on Holy Cross goalkeeper Eileen Geoghegan, it took until the 55th minute for Northeastern to get on the scoreboard, with Junior Jen North sending a nice pass up the middle for Pheifer to put away. This put the offense into motion, with Kowalik netting goals at the 66:29 and 82:64 marks off of passes from sophomore Filippa Petruccelli and North, respectively. Freshman Siobhan Howard topped off the scoring for the Huskies on Wednesday, picking up her first collegiate goal with 1:12 left to play.

“In the Holy Cross game, we came out strong, but we weren’t finishing our shots,” said Head Coach Ed Matz. “We’ve never beaten Holy Cross in the past, and it’s always been because of a small mistake or lack of finishing on our part. So it was a good effort to finish the shots in the second half. Also, Holy Cross played an offside trap on us, and we have a tremendous amount of speed up front, which caused for some offside calls. But it was only a matter of time before we started beating the trap.”

On Saturday, NU looked to continue its winning streak by beating the winless Manhattan Jaspers. They achieved their goal by dominating the flow of play for much of the game. Once again, in the first half the offense appeared to be slow on both sides of the ball, until Pheifer again capitalized for the Huskies, scoring the winner on a low pass from Kowalik right in front of the net with 5:51 remaining in the first half.

“For some reason, we’re able to finish our chances later in the game,” Matz said. “I don’t know why. We always have a good warm-up and I think we’re ready to play, but I think it’s a confidence thing. As the game develops, the team gains more confidence in themselves and their play and starts finishing shots better.”

With 30 seconds left to play in the half, junior Liz Dyjak would send the Huskies into halftime with a 2-0 lead by converting a pass from Kowalik that, once again, made its way to right in front of the net, just begging to be nailed. Dyjak did just that, and NU would take over from there. They outshot the Jaspers 21-3, with Kowalik sealing the victory in the 61st minute by sending a feed from freshman Kristen Blake into the top right corner of the net.

“I thought that we dominated, but Manhattan was more difficult to play than expected,” Matz said. “They like to put a lot of numbers in front of their goal and that can get a bit frustrating. The goal we scored before halftime, though, was a really important one and helped our play a lot.”

The Huskies are riding a three-game winning streak into Thursday, when they are pitted against Binghamton University in the America East conference opener. In the past three games, they have outscored their opponents 11-1 and outshot their opponents 63-13.

“Going into the America East game, I think the main thing is that we have upperclassmen who remember how much fun it was to be in the playoffs, and I think that those upperclassmen are really determined to get back there,” Matz said. “Basically, we need to play consistent soccer. I believe that we need to play strong defense as a team. Our offense is very strong, so if we play team defense and give them a chance to win than we can win the game. Also, I think we’re healthy and shooting well. I told the girls it gets a lot harder in the America East conference and it’s very competitive. But coming out of the non-America East part of the schedule with a 5-3 record is not too bad at all.”

The action picks up on Thursday against Binghamton, at 3 p.m. at Parsons Field.