Northern Illinois’ women’s basketball team puts its eight-game winning streak and new Top 25 ranking on the line Tuesday night when it meets No. 3 Iowa at Iowa City.
The Huskies (10-2, 5-0 in the Mid-Continent Conference), who knocked off De Paul, Cleveland State and Youngstown State last week, moved up from 40th in the Associated Press poll to No. 24 Monday. It marked the first time since 1990-91 that NIU had been rated.
“We’re excited about being ranked and playing Iowa,” coach Jane Albright-Dieterle said.
The last time Northern met a ranked opponent on the road this season, it left with a 91-64 loss at Southern Cal. The Huskies followed that with an 80-75 loss at Arizona, but have since run off eight victories in a row.
“We’ve found our personality now,” Albright-Dieterle said. “Our depth is definitely the true greatness of this team.”
Against Youngstown State, it was senior Debbie Teske, who scored a career-high 26 points in 27 minutes. Against Iowa, who knows-but it had better be somebody.
“We just want to compete hard and well,” Albright-Dieterle said. “We have to be respectable.”
Relying on depth: The women’s gymnasts finished 1-2-3 in the all-around during its dual meet Saturday at Central Michigan, but lost 186.25-185.40 to fall to 2-5.
Goha Mroz won the all-around with a 37.55. She also won vault with a 9.60 and tied teammate Sheryl Kurowski for first on the uneven parallel bars with a 9.55. Kurowski was second in all-around and Vicki Thimgan was third. Thimgan also tied for first on the balance beam with a 9.50. The women take on Iowa State and Oklahoma on Friday in Ames, Iowa.
Mat troubles: The wrestling team fell to 2-4 with a 36-5 loss to Indiana last weekend. Jim Kossakowski improved to 17-4 with a 4-3 victory at 177 pounds. NIU plays host to Eastern Illinois on Tuesday night and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Friday.
Weekend sweep: Jarod Schroeder won the 200-yard individual medley and the 200 backstroke in leading the men swimmers to a 67-45 victory over Northern Iowa, and Kristin Scholz won the 200 freestyle and 200 backstroke in the women’s 67-43 victory over the Panthers. Both squads entertain Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Friday.