DEKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University men's soccer team played the second of its two preseason exhibition games on Tuesday night (Aug. 13) as the Huskies hosted eighth-ranked Marshall at the NIU Soccer Complex. 

One week into fall camp, NIU head coach Ryan Swan was pleased with his team's positive result in the 90-minute workout against the top 10 ranked Thundering Herd. 

"Really happy with the performance today," said Swan. "In the first half, it was closely matched, we created a couple of good opportunities and scored a nice goal. There were things we saw that we need to improve upon and in the second half Marshall was exceptional, you could see why they are the number eight team in the country. But I thought the mentality and work rate from our guys was fantastic and we created a couple of opportunities in the second half even though we were up against it for the majority of the 45 minutes."

Facing top 25 teams is nothing new for NIU under Swan, who is 5-4-1 against ranked opponents in the regular season in the past four years, and Tuesday's matchup went a long way to help the 2024 version of the Huskies learn about playing the nation's elite.

"I think there are a lot of things we talk about in training that are important, but until you see it from the top players in the country, sometimes it doesn't necessarily register with the guys," said Swan. "That is an exceptional Marshall team and some of the things we have talked about over the past week of preseason we got to see in action from them, but I thought we had some positive steps. There are places where we can elevate our game after seeing that and there is another level we can get to if we can emulate some of the things we saw."

After two games in four days just a week into the preseason, NIU now has nine days before it opens the regular season in Minnesota. 

"We will have to watch the video and see the things we still need to work on, but the focus is on St. Thomas now," said Swan. "I thought we showed improvement from Friday (against Purdue Fort Wayne) to today, hopefully we get a good week of training, and we are ready to go as we start the regular season."

NIU will open the regular season next Thursday, Aug. 22, on the road against St. Thomas (Minn.). The Huskies will host Chicago State in the home opener on Sunday, Aug. 25.