DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men’s soccer team returns to action on Friday, Sept. 18, as the Huskies travel to Milwaukee, Wis., for their first true road game of the year as they visit the Marquette Golden Eagles.

The Huskies are 3-1-0 and coming off their first in-season tournament win since 2011 as they were crowned co-champions of the NIU adidas Invitational last week following victories over Florida Atlantic and Stetson. Sophomore defender Luke Read (Ilford, England/Barking Abbey School) score the game-winning goal in both games against the Owls and Hatters to earn co-MAC Player of the Week honors as well as two National Team of the Week honors.

Read was joined on the NIU adidas Invitational All-Tournament Team by senior goalkeeper Andrew Glaeser (Walla Walla, Wash./Walla Walla/Oregon State), junior midfielder Albert Levett (Southend-on-Sea, England/Belfairs High) and freshman midfielder Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) on the NIU adidas Invitational All-Tournament Team.

The Golden Eagles come into Friday’s contest with a 3-1-1 overall record, including a perfect 2-0 mark at home. Marquette’s lone loss of the season came in the opener at Oregon State, who is currently ranked eighth in the country. Kelmend Islami leads Marquette with three goals and seven points. Luis Barraza has played all five matches in goal for the Golden Eagles, he has a 1.19 goals against average and a .786 save percentage.

“I have a lot of respect for their program and the job (Marquette head coach) Louis Bennett does,” said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. “They have had a lot of sustained success over the last few years, they have a lot of good players, they will be well-organized and they will be good on the ball.

“We have played some good teams already but they will probably we the best team we have played thus far, so our guys will have to have a good performance to give us a chance to get a result.”

Marquette holds a 13-9-2 advantage in the all-time series against NIU. The Golden Eagles have won each of the last two meetings, beating the Huskies 2-0 last season in DeKalb (Sept. 20, 2014) and 1-0 in 2012 in Milwaukee (Oct. 9, 2012). NIU’s last win in the series came in double overtime in 2011 when Jayson LeSeth scored the lone goal to give the Huskies a 1-0 victory.

Friday night’s contest will be streamed live on GoMarquette.com, following Friday’s match, NIU will travel to Omaha, Neb., to take on top-ranked Creighton on Tuesday, Sept. 22.