A new season begins this weekend for the NIU men’s soccer team at the MAC tournament.

The No. 3 seeded Huskies (12-6 overall, 4-2 MAC) play at 8 a.m. today against No. 6 Buffalo at tourney host Western Michigan.

WMU is hosting the quarterfinals and semifinals at its WMU Soccer Complex. The championship game is played at the field of the highest remaining seed.

NIU coach Steve Simmons said the teams that don’t allow soft goals will be the ones to advance in the tournament.

“The conditions here are similar to DeKalb,” Simmons said. “It’s been raining and there are going to be some sloppy games.”

Simmons said NIU should have an advantage with the early game, since the Huskies have practiced at 7 a.m. every week.

“The guys can assimilate due to what they have been doing all season,” Simmons said.

Buffalo (7-7-2, 1-4-1) has lost seven of its last nine games and fell 3-0 to NIU on Oct. 17.

The Huskies lost their last MAC game of the year to Akron. In that defeat, NIU lost the MAC regular season championship and a bye in the first round of the MAC tournament.

The Huskies received the No. 3 seed even though they were tied with Akron at 4-2 in the MAC. Simmons said he is disgruntled with the way the MAC goes about seeding for the tournament.

“The No. 1 seed [Kentucky] is determined by points where you get three points for a win and one for a tie,” Simmons said. “But the rest of the seeds go by winning percentage, and we would have been the two seed if they just used the points format.”

However, if NIU and Akron win their first games, they will see each other in the semifinals on Sunday.

“If we’re going to win this and get to the NCAA tournament, we have to do what got us 12 wins,” said senior captain Andy Champion.