DEKALB, Ill. – Coming off a share of the Missouri Valley Conference championship in 2025, the Northern Illinois University men's soccer team looks to make a run at a different league crown as the Huskies start life in the Horizon League in 2026.
NIU opens the 2026 with back-to-back road games as the Huskies travel to Butler on Thursday, Aug. 20, and to Loyola Chicago on Sunday, Aug. 23.
"We are excited to get the season up and running," said NIU head coach
Ryan Swan. "We have had a good preseason; the guys are on board with how we want to play and our expectations. We have had a couple of good tests in the preseason against William Penn and Saint Louis, so we feel about as prepared as we can be. We have a couple of guys getting back to full health, but in general, the team looks like it is in a really good place, and I know the guys are excited to get the season officially underway."
After winning a piece of the Missouri Valley title a year ago, along with the regular season and tournament titles in the Mid-American Conference in 2021, NIU goes in search of a third conference title in six years in 2026. The Huskies were picked third in the 2026 Under Armour Horizon League Preseason Poll, behind Cleveland State and Green Bay.
"The Horizon League, with a couple of exceptions is pretty familiar to us," said Swan. "With so many teams here in the Midwest, we play Green Bay almost every year, IU Indy, Milwaukee, so there are a lot of teams that are familiar to us, so I don't think there will be too many surprises there."
NIU returns 14 players from last season's roster, including leading scorer
Vance Sheffield (West Linn, Ore./La Salle Catholic College Prep) who tallied six goals and five assists in 2025. Sheffield earned Second Team All-Missouri Valley Conference and MVC All-Freshman Team honors, and was named to the Top Drawer Soccer Freshman Best XI Second Team.
Niko Angulo (Dallas, Texas/Allegiance Academy) and
Katai Mukuka (Lusaka, Zambia) both scored four goals a season ago and
Tobias Crear (Carrollton, Texas/Creekview) also returns after scoring a pair of goals last year.
Sheffield and
Joe Hernandez (Bensenville, Ill./York Community) each started all 17 games a season ago while Angulo, Mukuka,
Jakub Drazek (Des Plaines, Ill./Elk Grove),
Roman Khela (Huddersfield, England),
Tomasz Slawek (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake South) and
Luka Vasic (Toronto, Ontario/Maple) each started 10-or-more games during the 2025 campaign.
"We have a good group of older players coming back," said Swan. "Guys that have won conference championships. Guys that, even with that trophy coming home last year, still feel like we left something on the table by not getting into the national tournament and making a run. I think there is hunger, there is the right culture, to lead the new guys, and returners, into a successful season."
Among the 11 newcomers to the Huskie roster are four transfers, including goalkeepers
Cayden Crawford (Plain City, Ohio/Ohio Connections Academy) from Dayton and
Robert Foster (Cornelia, Ga./Kuna) from the College of Southern Idaho. They are joined in goal by freshman
Manny Hernandez (Carpentersville, Ill./Dundee Crown) as each of the three goalkeepers on NIU's 2026 roster is a newcomer in DeKalb.
The last time NIU did not return a goalkeeper on its roster from the previous season was in 2009. That year, freshman Jordan Godsey started 18-of-19 matches in goal for the Huskies, Godsey will be inducted into the NIU Athletics Hall of Fame later this fall.
Following this week's two road contests, the Huskies will come home for their first two home games of the season against Marquette on Thursday, Aug. 27, and UIC on Sunday, Aug. 30. Admission to NIU home soccer matches is free of charge.
