DEKALB, Ill. – For the second time in 10 days, the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team will travel to Kalamazoo, Mich., as the Huskies meet Western Michigan in the Mid-American Conference Tournament Quarterfinals on Tuesday, November 6. Kickoff against the Broncos is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. CT.

"We are excited to be moving into the postseason part of the schedule, I know the guys are excited about that," said NIU head coach Ryan Swan. "These are the games that you are in college soccer for, the championship part of the season. Western Michigan is a good team, especially at their place, they are well organized and disciplined so we will have to be good to beat them. 

"There were glimpses of what we can do when we played them last week, if we take care of a couple of mistakes that led to their goals I think it could have been a much different game."

NIU (8-8-1, 1-4 MAC) heads into the postseason following a wild, 4-3, overtime setback against MAC regular season champion West Virginia this past Saturday (Nov. 3). Junior Jan Maertins (Rheinfelden, Germany/Marquette) scored a pair of goals against the Mountaineers while freshman Anthony Markanich (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) added a goal and an assist. 

Although the Huskies enter the conference tournament as the No. 6 seed with a 1-4 league record, just one of those four losses came in regulation time, a 2-1 setback at Western Michigan (Oct. 27), giving the Huskies confidence that they will be a difficult out in the league tournament. 

"I think the guys feel very confident when we step on the field that we can play with anyone," said Swan. "The regular season is in the past now, so it is about how much we have learned from playing these teams. We are excited and we are ready for anyone in front of us."

Western Michigan is the No. 3 seed in the MAC Tournament and brings a 9-5-3 overall record, including a 1-1-2 mark in conference play, into Tuesday's contest. The Broncos' regular season finale against Akron on Saturday (Nov. 3) was canceled due to a power outage, so the last time WMU played a match was when it hosted the Huskies on October 27. 

All three goals in that contest were scored in the opening 20 minutes as the Broncos sandwiched a pair of goals around a strike from Huskie senior Kevin Rodriguez (Pasadena, Texas/Deer Park) in the 17th minute. NIU outshot WMU, 13-7, in the first meeting and Swan doesn't expect either team to change the way they approach the second encounter. 

"You have to be conscious of the fact that there will be a winner, there is no ties, so that can affect the way teams play," said Swan. "For us, we have had a couple of disappointing results so we are focused on what we need to clean up (in our game), so I don't think it will change our approach much. It's difficult to say for Western Michigan, but they went far in the tournament last year, hard a tremendous year, and it's a home game for them, so I would expect it would be a similar approach (for both teams) to the first game."

With a youthful roster that included eight first-year starters the last time the Huskies traveled to Western Michigan, as well as a coaching staff that was making its first trip to Kalamazoo, Swan believes that having made this trip just 10 days ago will help NIU the second time around. 

"There is something to be said for having that familiarity, so having just gone through it recently made it easier arranging the trip," said Swan. "We know what to expect when we get to the field and I'm sure for the players it will be the same thing and it will be exciting to get on the field."

The winner of Tuesday's quarterfinal will advance to meet second-seeded Bowling Green on Friday, November 9, in Morgantown, W. Va., in the MAC Semifinals.