After grabbing the Quincy/Harris Allied Soccer Bowl II trophy on Sunday, head coach Willy Roy and his Huskies get set to battle with DePaul today at 4 p.m.

Leading the team will be Sigurd Slaastad who picked up recognition as one of the tournament’s best midfielders and Andy Lane, who picked up Offensive MVP and All-Tournament MVP honors when he scored both goals in the championship game against Quincy College.

Both players were named to the All-Tournament team.

Lane’s two goals were his first of the season and six of his seven points have come in the last four games.

With the leadership qualities of seniors starting to shine through and the play of underclassmen improving, NIU is gearing up before starting conference play on Friday against University of Illinois-Chicago.

Heading into play today, Slaastad leads the team in both goals with five and points with 13. With the inspiration he provides on the field, Slaastad proves that he is the one that the team should look up to. Following closely behind in scoring is Nathan Mitchell and Brian Downs with four and three goals, respectively.

With victories in both the Eastern Illinois Panther Classic just over a week ago and this past weekend’s tournament, NIU men’s soccer team has strung together four victories after starting out the year 1-4-1.

Not only has the team pushed their record over the .500 mark for the first time this season but in doing so they have also claimed two trophies that not too long ago seemed somewhere far off.

NIU’s strong hold in goals has been Brad Nordeng who has only allowed 14 goals and recorded his second shutout of the season on Sunday. With a 1.40 GAA and 56 saves, Nordeng seems ready to begin conference play.

Freshman midfielder Brian Downs has also been a factor to the team late success with a goal in each of the last two tournaments. With seven points he stands only behind Slaastad and Mitchell.

Heading into the DePaul match, NIU expects to keep the defensive game strong as they have in the past four games in which they have allowed only three goals.

With the current defensive pressure they’ve been applying, Roy hopes to continue with DePaul and throughout conference.