It was a very rough start of the season for Western Michigan University's women's soccer team and its first-year coach Lewis Robinson.

Four losses and three ties in its first seven game is about as rough as it gets.

But the learning experiences from playing several of the nation's top 25 teams finally paid off in a four-day stretch last week when the Broncos downed Northern Illinois, 2-0, on the road before earning a 2-2 team with perennial Mid-American Conference powerhouse Bowling Green at home. BG has won the previous three MAC tournament titles.

Those four losses don't look too bad when WMU is now tied for third in the MAC with a 1-0-1 record.

''I told my teammates at the end of Northern Illinois game that the drought was finally over,'' junior midfielder Jenna Blackburn says. ''We can do this.

''The non-conference schedule was challenging, and getting a win would have given us the confidence that normal teams would have. I think just the overall style of play we showed throughout the non-conference gave us confidence.''

WMU (1-4-4 overall) will be carrying that confidence into Thursday's MAC home match against first-place Kent State (1-5-2, 1-0) which starts at 4 p.m.

Robinson didn't become the head coach until the end of June, replacing coach Sammy Boateng who went to the University of Michigan as an assistant coach.

''We don't want to peak in September,'' he says. ''We're still figuring things out.

''We've played three different formations and rotated people around positions because we are young and still learning. We have a lot of new faces, we had some injuries and been without some key players in those key games, which isn't an excuse, it just happens. We're feeling more comfortable and the girls are starting to understand what we want from them.''

Still…four ties? WMU and Ball State lead the MAC in ties at four. It could be worse…Indiana has six ties and Maryland has five. In the four ties, the Broncos led in all four, and if you are counting, a fifth tie came against Valparaiso in an exhibition game.

In a 1-1 tie on Aug. 25 to the University of Detroit, junior Bria Telemaque put WMU up 1-0, only to have Detroit score in the second half to tie it. In a 2-2 tie on September 8 against Cincinnati, that game went back and forth with the Bearcats scoring 15 minutes into the game only to have senior Reagan Wisser score twice in the first half for a 2-1 WMU lead. Cincinnati then tied it in the second half.

And then there was a 1-1 tie with Oakland on September 11. In a scoreless game, Wisser finally put WMU ahead with just over four minutes left in the game. Just one minute, 20 seconds later, Oakland scored to tie it.

''On paper, they are all good ties, but in the game of soccer, we all hate ties,'' Robinson says.

The Northern Illinois game was one where the Broncos showed what they can do for a full 90 minutes.

''We talk about it every day, that we want to be gritty and relentless,'' the coach says. ''And the first part of the season, we put ourselves in some difficult situations and we failed sometimes where we made some mistakes, but we also had some positives.

''Looking at where we are now as a team, we had some mini successes like being competitive at Notre Dame (8-2 overall, ranked No. 4 in the nation) and losing 2-0, one of the goals being on a penalty kick. Not many teams are going to come out of Notre Dame with that result.''

Against NIU, graduate student Kai Sugiyama scored at 12:21 and sophomore Emily Pagett netted an insurance goal at 64:06. Graduate student goaltender Hannah Sargent earned the clean sheet, stopping three shots.

The Bowling Green tie was close all the way. Blackburn scored at 9:14, but the Falcons fought back to tie it at the 15:13 mark. Telemague put WMU up 2-1 at 70:51, but the Falcons came back to tie the game at the 75:36 mark.

''BG is a known team in the conference and to have two leads against them was awesome and it felt really good to score two goas on a really good team,'' Blackburn says.

Added Robinson, ''BG has depth, size and has most of its team back this year. We competed with them in every area, but we still realize we have improvements to make. We left the game with our heads down because we felt we should have gotten more out of it. But that's a good sign, because if you are going to tie anyone in this league, it's Bowling Green. There is no shame in that result.''

The last two games are where Western Michigan's grit and relentlessness has shown from everyone. Robinson used 17 players in the win over NIU and 16 against Bowling Green.

''Early in the season, we weren't getting the results we wanted, then to finally got the win and it felt awesome,'' Blackburn says. ''It was a good reward.''