DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team returns to action on Wednesday, Sept. 28, as the Huskies travel to IUPUI. Game time against the Jaguars is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT at Michael A. Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind.

"I expect that our guys will come out with a lot of energy, we have had a whole week to prepare for this game," said NIU head coach Eric Luzzi. "We have had a couple of really good training sessions and my hope is that we will bring that same focus and quality into the game tomorrow night. IUPUI is better than their record, they have played a very tough schedule, so we need to make sure that we don't read too much into that."

NIU (1-4-2) is coming off a dramatic 2-1 victory at Milwaukee last Wednesday night (Sept. 28), regaining the LeWang Trophy. The Huskies fell behind 1-0 before sophomore Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) pulled NIU even on his second goal of the season just before halftime. With five minutes remaining in the contest, senior Richard Hall (Billericay, England/The Billericay School) scored on a free kick from 50 yards to give the Huskies a 2-1 victory.

"I think our guys are in a pretty good place, mentally and physically," said Luzzi. "There was definitely a bit of a weight off of our shoulders after last week, so the hope is now that we can turn one into two and keep it going from there."

IUPUI enters Wednesday's contest with a 0-7 record after falling to Western Illinois, 2-0, last Friday (Sept. 23) in its first home game of the season after opening with six-straight on the road. Uriel Macias and Jordan Parron each have scored to lead the Jaguar offense; Josh Gray has played six of the seven matches in goal for IUPUI, posting 33 saves and a .647 save percentage.

Last season, the Huskies defeated IUPUI, 2-0, in DeKalb (Oct. 13, 2015). Taylor Cole scored in the 18th minute to give NIU the lead and Nicolas Wandl added a goal in the 27th minute, off an assist from Giovanni Pacheco (Pasadena, Texas/Pasadena), to seal the victory for the Huskies. Last year's meeting was the first between NIU and IUPUI since 2008.

Following Wednesday's trip to Indianapolis, the Huskies will return home to DeKalb when they host UIC on Tuesday, Oct. 4.