NIU men’s soccer looks to get back to its winning ways tonight as it travels to Evanston for a non-conference battle against Northwestern.

The Huskies (8-3-0, 0-2-0 MAC) are coming off a loss to Akron Saturday, where they were shutout for the first time, 2-0.

“I didn’t think we had the best account for ourselves in the game against Akron,” said Eric Luzzi, NIU head men’s soccer coach. “We showed some stuff on video that I think made it clear that there isn’t much difference between us and Akron, even though we were not very good. I think the guys are in a better place than they were after the loss.”

Meanwhile, Northwestern (5-4-3, 1-0-1 Big Ten) is coming off a 3-2 win against Ohio State, who is in first place in the Big Ten.

The Wildcats are riding a three-game winning streak.

“[The Wildcats are] good,” Luzzi said. “They just hammered a pretty good Ohio State team…I think they will be feeling it. They scored three goals against Ohio State and Ohio State doesn’t give up a lot. It’s a Big Ten team; they’re one of our rivals, [so] it’s a big game.”

Northwestern is very good when they control the ball for most of the game, so the Huskies will have to counter that with pressure in order to be successful.

“The biggest thing for us is to play with a lot of energy,” Luzzi said. “Northwestern is very good when they are allowed a lot of time on the ball, so we have to put them under pressure to make them play faster then they want to and make mistakes.”