On March 27, the NIU men’s soccer team won the Governor’s Cup, an annual soccer championship between Illinois’ directional schools.

NIU won the cup for the second year in a row by defeating Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 2-0 in the first game. In the final game, it defeated Eastern Illinois 2-0 after a scoreless first half, with goals by Kevin Woerner and Bernhard Hagevik.

“As far as they’re concerned, last season never happened,” Simmons said. “Hopefully, sooner than later, we’ll get back to where we want to be.”

During practice this spring, Simmons said the team has focused 99 percent of its time on offense. The past four seasons, NIU has been outscored 126-54 and shut out 27 times.

The player who will lead the way for NIU next fall is junior Andy Champion, who Simmons has made the captain of the team.

“He’s probably the most fit player on the team,” Simmons said. “He’s evolved into a leader and gets along great with all the guys.”