DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team returns home for the first time in over three weeks when they host UIC on Tuesday night, Oct. 4, at 7 p.m., at the NIU Soccer and Track & Field Complex.

Tuesday's contest will be NIU's "Kick Cancer Night," as the Huskies will be recognizing cancer patients as part of KishHealth System's Patient Night Out, the Huskies will also be wearing gold shoe laces in honor of all cancer patients.

The Huskies will be in action for just the third time in the last 23 days when they host the Flames. The match will begin a busy stretch for NIU however as the Huskies will play six times in 19 days beginning with Tuesday's contest. Last time out, NIU (1-5-2) fell at IUPUI (Sept. 28) as a pair of goals from Uriel Macias lifted the Jaguars to the victory. Sophomore Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) in scoring with a pair of goals while junior Drew Donnally (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield North) has played all eight matches in goal, posting a 1.78 goals against average and a .651 save percentage.

"We were pretty disappointed with our last outing," said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. "It wasn't our best performance by any stretch so I am looking for a response from our guys to set things back in the right direction where we need to be heading into conference play on the weekend."

UIC comes to DeKalb with a 4-5-1 overall record after a 4-0 home win over Northern Kentucky on Saturday (Oct. 1). Max Todd and Jose Fuentes have each scored four goals this season to pace the Flames offense. Andrew Putna has appeared in nine of the 10 matches in goal this season for UIC, he has a 1.56 goals against average and a .649 save percentage.

"They are a good team," Luzzi said of the Flames. "They had a bit of a rough stretch early on but they are on a three-game winning streak, they aren't conceding a lot and they have scored some goals in the last couple of weeks. They are coming here in good form, in a good place with confidence, so it will be a tough game."

The Flames hold a 15-8-2 advantage in the all-time series with NIU, but the two teams have met just once since 2004. The Huskies won that meeting, 1-0, over then 23rd-ranked UIC on Sept. 12, 2014 in DeKalb.

With the kickoff time announced today for NIU's Oct. 15 football game against Central Michigan, the Huskies can also announce that the NIU men's soccer match against Akron on Saturday, Oct. 15, will start at 6 p.m.