The first round of the Mid-American Conference Tournament begins today for the NIU men’s soccer team.

The second seeded Huskies will battle first round opponent and seventh seed Bowling Green at 10 a.m. today in Akron, Ohio. Tournament play is held at Grant Lee Field, home to the No. 1 seeded Akron Zips.

NIU clinched the second spot in its conference after finishing the regular season with a 2-1 win over Western Michigan last week. But with the key win already behind them, the team looks for a battle with the Falcons, a team they beat earlier in the year by a 1-0 margin.

“We’re going to play Bowling Green again, and they’ll be a tough match for us, but we like the position we are in,” said NIU head coach Steve Simmons. “It’s going to be a matter of reviewing what we need to fix and prepare for the tournament.”

In the last game between the two teams, neither side found a strong advantage statistically. It was freshman Brad Horton, however, who was able to turn the tides, as he scored in the game’s 62nd minute. The goal came on a long assist from goalkeeper Joe Zimka, the first of his collegiate career.

The 1-0 victory was one that Simmons considered to be too close.

“We know that the last time we played them it was just a one-nil game, which means it was too close,” Simmons said in his weekly podcast. “Any team in any conference tournament is good enough to get a result, and [BGSU] is certainly good enough to get a result. We just need to be on our best, and I think if we are, we will be pleased. But it’s just Bowling Green and that’s it.”

If the team can get past the Falcons, they will be one step closer to where they were in the 2006 season. Two years ago, the team claimed rights to the MAC Championship, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament.

“It’s very exciting because we always try to be the MAC Champions,” the sixth-year coach said. “We’re the No. 2 seed now and we’re going to play the best that we can.”

The team will play it’s hardest as it boasts 10 players from the 2006 championship team. NIU also features five freshmen who have scored 11 of the team’s 27 goals on the season. The tournament squad will be led by top scorer Horton, a Sycamore native who has found the back of the net six times during the year.