Entering the season, Northern Kentucky University women’s soccer coach Bob Sheehan knew his team’s No. 1 mission was going to be to defend all over the field.
Through three exhibition games and seven regular season games…mission accomplished.
The Norse have allowed just five goals and carry a five-game shutout streak headed into their Horizon League conference opener with IUPUI on Thursday night in Highland Heights. They enter with a 3-1-3 record, eager to show they’re far removed from a 2-11-2 campaign in 2022.
The 11th loss last season came on Oct. 26 to Wright State, effectively ending their season as they didn’t qualify for the conference tournament. At that point a decision was made.
“We gave the team about a week off and then trained for three weeks and we’ve never done that,” Sheehan said. “The attitudes showed it wasn’t what we wanted. Nov. 10 was the day and that day was important and has carried us over into spring and fall.”
The goose eggs on the scoreboard point to that improvement, blanking the opponent in seven of the 10 games played so far. Goalkeeper Mickayla Kowalski has been a brick wall 8-feet high and 24-feet wide, making 36 saves and posting four individual shutouts and one combined.
Kowalski’s play hasn’t gone unnoticed, winning Horizon League Defensive Player of the Week for three consecutive weeks. She’s been quite modest despite the accolades, pointing to her back line of defense for the assist.
“I can’t thank them enough, they put on a show and make my work look easy. It really has been a complete team effort,” Kowalski said.
According to the NKU Athletics website, Kowalski has not allowed a goal in over 453 minutes of action, a streak that began all the way back on Aug 20.
“It’s special. It’s a run that I can’t remember ever having throughout my career and we just want to keep it going,” Kowalski said.
The senior keeper is now ranked 16th in all of NCAA Division I soccer in shutouts (4), 22nd in save percentage (.900), 37th in total saves (36), 54th in goals against average (.590) and 57th in saves per game (5.14). Kowalski also leads the Horizon League in shutouts, goals against average, total saves and save percentage.
“We’re playing solid all over the field. The defensive effort is a team effort and all the players on the field are locking in. Defensively we’ve found our groove and there’s still adjustments to be made,” Kowalski said.
The weekly conference honor is the third of Kowalski’s career as she became the first NKU student-athlete to win the league’s Player of the Week award in three consecutive weeks during a single campaign in school history.
The Norse have to be feeling pretty confident headed into Thursday night’s matchup. They’ve tied Kentucky, Louisville, Cincinnati, Bellarmine and Ohio to go with wins over Miami (Ohio), Eastern Kentucky, Morehead State and Shawnee State. Their lone loss is to Western Michigan.
“With a 2-11-2 team we had a choice to make,” Sheehan said. “We chose to make the schedule tough. Playing Kentucky was a big moment for us. We had them shutout until about the 65th minute. We found out quickly the team was invested and bought in defensively.”
The offense has come to life as of late as well. Take away an eight-goal game in an exhibition against Shawnee State, they scored just five goals in seven games. Over their last two they’ve scored five in a 2-0 win at Eastern Kentucky and a 3-0 triumph over Morehead State.
If the two can come together over the next 10 games, the Norse could position themselves for a top seed in the conference tournament with hopes for their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2016.
“We’re approaching our 10 most important games of the season,” Sheehan said. “We know we’re far from perfect and they’ve really tried to improve and this group embraces being coached. They’ve just been really coachable, taken the constructive criticism and made the adjustments.”
Thursday’s game is at 7 p.m. at NKU’s Soccer Stadium.
LOCAL TIES: The Norse have two from the LINK nky coverage area on the team. Both players hail from Highlands High School, Maria Wiefering and Megan Gessner. Wiefering joined NKU after playing two seasons at Wisconsin-Green Bay. The junior defender has played in all seven regular season games this season. Gessner is a sophomore goalkeeper who recently played 10 minutes in the Morehead State game, helping log the shutout with Kowalski. It was her college debut.
