Quote:DEKALB, IL – Seven regular season home games and four matches against NCAA Tournament teams from a season ago highlight the 2019 NIU men's soccer schedule announced on Monday (June 17) by head coach Ryan Swan.

Following a trio of exhibition matches against USL League One side Forward Madison FC (Aug. 18), IUPUI (Aug. 23) and Detroit Mercy (Aug. 25), the Huskies will open the regular season on Friday, August 30 when they visit DePaul.

After opening with the Blue Demons, NIU will be back on the road to continue a season-opening stretch of four of the first five away from home when they travel to Loyola Chicago on Sunday, September 1. The regular season home opener will be on Friday, September 6 against Green Bay before the Huskies visit Dayton on Monday, September 9, in the first match between the two teams since 2006. The season-opening, five-game stretch will conclude with a trip to Marquette on Friday, September 13.

The Huskies will host Bradley for the first time since 2009 when the Braves come to DeKalb on Sunday, September 15. Following a trip to Purdue Fort Wayne (Friday, Sept. 20), NIU will look to retain the Lewang Trophy when it hosts Milwaukee on Tuesday, September 24. The Huskies captured the traveling trophy with a 2-1 victory in Milwaukee last season.

A pair of road games at Western Illinois (Saturday, Sept. 28) and defending Horizon League Tournament champion UIC (Tuesday, Oct. 1), will be followed by a visit to DeKalb from St. Mary's on Saturday, October 5. The Gaels won the West Coast Conference in 2018 and finished the season with an 18-0-2 record, bowing out of the NCAA Tournament in the third round to Stanford on penalties.

The Huskies will host Eastern Illinois (Tuesday, Oct. 8) in their final non-conference match before opening league play on Saturday, October 12, when they host SIU Edwardsville.

NIU's first conference road match sends the Huskies to West Virginia to meet the defending Mid-American Conference regular season champion Mountaineers on Friday, October 18.

Western Michigan visits DeKalb for the regular season home finale on Friday, October 25 before the Huskies travel to Akron on Saturday, November 2. The Huskies beat the Zips last season, 2-1, snapping a 15-game winless streak against the Zips before Akron went on to reach the NCAA College Cup Final, before falling to Stanford.

A trip to Bowling Green on Saturday, November 9 will close the 2019 regular season with the MAC Tournament slated to begin the following weekend.

For the second consecutive season, all six schools will make the MAC Tournament with quarterfinals played on Tuesday, November 12 and the semifinals and final on Friday, November 15 and Sunday, November 17, both hosted by the conference regular season champion.