The NIU soccer team opens its pre-season Wednesday against the University of Erlangen (Germany).

The game will be the first test for coach Willy Roy’s young team.

The Huskies will use the two pre-season games—the other seing an alumni game on Sept. 6—to try out the young team which features 19 underclassmen.

Even with 60 percent of the starting lineup gone, Roy still wanted a challenging schedule.

The Huskies open the regular season Sept. 10 on the road against St. Louis University. This will present an immediate challenge to the Huskies since they are winless in nine tries against the Billikens, who made it to the NCAA’s Final Four a year ago.

Three days later, the Huskies will travel to Illinois State to take on their longtime rival.

They have one more road game at DePaul University (Sept. 16) before their home opener Sept. 18 against Loyola University-Chicago.

Roy and the Huskies then travel to the West Coast from Sept. 25-27. They will be in California for the St. Mary’s College Tournament where they face host St. Mary’s before squaring off against another NCAA tournament team, the Stanford Cardinal on Sept. 27.

The Huskies begin Mid-Continent Conference play on Sept. 30 against Illinois-Chicago. NIU will then face league foes Eastern Illinois and Wisconsin-Green Bay before resuming non-conference play.

From Oct. 7-14, NIU will face the University of Wisconsin, Marquette University and Northwestern University.