Despite the 2006 season being five months away, the NIU football team decided to name its quad-captains early.

The players voted into captain status by their teammates were free safety Dustin Utschig, offensive tackle Doug Free, defensive end Ken West and tailback Garrett Wolfe.

“That’s a real good group of captains,” coach Joe Novak said. “I know the coaching staff and the team are extremely pleased with that foursome.”

Novak cited the four captains’ work ethic and leadership abilities as attributes that will help the Huskies through next season.

“We can be a good ball club next fall,” Novak said. “And it all starts with our senior captains.”

Swinging away

The men’s golf team will look to find its stroke this weekend as it visits Akron, Ohio to play in the Firestone Intercollegiate.

This will be the last tournament of the regular season for the Huskies as the MAC championship will be May 5 and 6 in Indianapolis, Ind.

But for the women’s golf team, now is the time to excel as the MAC championships run Friday through Sunday in Hamilton, Ohio.

Cold spell

Heading into the MAC championship, the NIU men’s tennis team has not been playing on top of its game.

The Huskies have lost five of their last six matches including a 7-0 loss to Ball State Saturday.

The championship begins Thursday in Toledo, Ohio and finish up Sunday.

The women’s tennis teams heads into the MAC championships on an equally bad losing streak.

The Huskies have lost 12-straight matches, with their last match victory coming two months ago against South Dakota State. The championship will be held in Oxford, Ohio with the first match being played Thursday.

Taking home the cup, again

For the third time in four years, the NIU men’s soccer team walked away from Decatur with the Governor Cup title.

The Huskies bested Western Illinois 2-1, and followed it up with a 2-0 win over Eastern Michigan to win the crown.

“This was a tale of two matches,” NIU coach Steve Simmons. “The first performance was indicative of the brand of possession soccer we’ve been playing all spring.

“The ball movement was somewhat fluid, effective, and we had the result to show for it. In the Cup final, I thought we lost our legs and had to dig it out.”