After running the table in the MAC and winning its last four conference games, NIU men’s soccer earned the second seed in the MAC tournament and will face Buffalo Friday in Akron.

Eric Luzzi, NIU head men’s soccer coach, is proud of his team for winning the last four MAC games and feels that his team deserves to be where it is.

“I think we are clearly one of the top two teams,” Luzzi said. “I think it’s us and Akron in the conference, and then everybody else. So the fact that the guys did well to win our last four [was good because] none of them were easy. But I thought our guys did a good job to take each game one at a time. They each offered different challenges, and we did whatever we had to do on that day to get the result.”

The Bulls defeated the Huskies in overtime 2-1 earlier this season. NIU is looking to get its revenge in a game where there are much higher stakes.

Luzzi looks forward to the rematch and doesn’t believe the Huskies needs to do anything differently the second time around

“We outshout them 20-6 the last time we played,” Luzzi said. “Their goalkeeper made the save of his life, so we don’t need to do much differently. The big thing is, in the conference tournament, the intensity is ramped up. So I’m sure they will be super fired up for the game. I’m sure they are going to try to turn it into a war, but we are going to have to battle.”

NIU’s goal is to win the MAC tournament, but it is trying to avoid looking ahead and only focuses on its game against Buffalo.

“Well, we have to win Friday before we can even start talking about anything else,” Luzzi said. “All we are really focused on is Friday. I think it’s a recipe for disaster if you start looking ahead.”

The Huskies look forward to the MAC tournament and are excited to get it underway.

“I think they have been looking forward to this for a couple of weeks, to be honest,” Luzzi said. “I think that’s why they didn’t have a good performance at Milwaukee. But I thought the guys did a good job to focus on what needed to be done at Hartwick, and now we’ve gotten through that. The guys have had two really good training sessions, and they are in a good place.”