This Week in Huskie Athletics Northern Illinois University has six teams in action. NIU football returns home at 11 a.m. on Saturday to take on UMass. NIU volleyball is home on Thursday and Friday at 6 p.m. against Akron. NIU men’s soccer will travel to Missouri to take on Missouri State on Sunday. NIU women’s soccer will head to Ohio to take on Bowling Green on Saturday. NIU cross country will head to the Joe Piane Notre Dame invitational in South Bend, Ind. on Friday. NIU women’s tennis will travel to Bloomington, Ind. to compete in the Indiana University Hoosier Classic from Friday to Sunday.

Football

Saturday, Oct. 5 vs UMass, 11 a.m. –  Listen | CBS Sports | Live Stats

The Huskies play their final non-conference opponent of the 2024 season on Saturday when the UMass Minutemen come to Huskie Stadium for an 11 a.m. game that will be televised on CBS Sports Network. NIU held its second straight opponent under 200 yards of total offense last week in a 24-17 loss at NC State. That’s the first time NIU has held its opponent under 200 yards in back-to-back games since the 2005 season. Senior running back Antario Brown ran for a season-high 114 yards as Roy Williams and Jaden Dolphin each made six tackles on defense. NIU leads the all-time series against UMass 2-0, winning 63-3 in 2012 and 63-19 in 2013. A full preview will be available on NIUHuskies.com later this week.

Volleyball

Thursday, Oct. 3 vs Akron, 6 p.m. –  ESPN+ | Live Stats

Friday, Oct. 4 vs Akron, 6 p.m. –   ESPN+ | Live Stats

After spending majority of the month of September on the road, the Northern Illinois University Huskies volleyball team begins a four game homestand on October 3 as they open MAC play hosting the University of Akron. The Huskies (2-10, 0-2 MAC) will look to defend Victor E. Court as they play on the court for the first time this season. The previous three home games were played on the main arena court inside the NIU Convocation Center.

Charli Atiemo is third in the conference in terms of hitting percentage, sitting at .347. Nazli Güvener is tenth in the conference for kills per set, recording 3.08 on average. Güvener leads all Huskies with 3.08 kills per set while Grevengoed and Atiemo sit at 2.83 and 2.63 kills per set respectively. Grevengoed is third in the conference for aces per set (.50) and third for total aces.

Men’s Soccer

Sunday, Oct. 6 at Missouri State, 7 p.m. – Watch | Live Stats

The Huskie men’s soccer team heads to Springfield, Mo., this Sunday for a conference contest against the Missouri State Bears. NIU is coming off a 4-2 setback against UIC this past Saturday (Sept. 28), Jose Gomez and Kevin Kelly both scored against the Flames. Gomez leads the Huskies with eight points while Kelly is second with seven.

Missouri State comes into the week with a 5-2-1 record, 2-0-1 in league play, and will face Creighton on Tuesday night (Oct. 1) before welcoming the Huskies to Springfield on Sunday. The Bears have won the Missouri Valley Conference regular season championship in four of the last five seasons.

Women’s Soccer

Saturday, Oct. 5 at Bowling Green, 12 p.m. –  Youtube |  Livestats

The NIU women’s soccer team will travel to take on Bowling Green on Saturday. NIU has opened MAC play 0-2-2 and will look to find their first win in conference play this season. Last week the Huskies fell to CMU and Buffalo.

Last week Bowling Green lost 3-0 to Ohio and had a 1-1 draw with Miami.

Cross Country

Friday, Oct. 4 at Joe Piane Notre Dame invitational (South Bend, Ind.)

Following a two-week break, the NIU cross country team returns to action this week as the Huskies travel to South Bend, Ind., to compete in the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite on the Burke Golf Course at Notre Dame. This will be the second five-kilometer race of the season for the Huskies, Bailey Wilk led the way in the season opening, 5K NIU Huskie Opener. Camille Jackson paced NIU at the six-kilometer Redbird Invite.

This will mark the second consecutive season that the Huskies have competed at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invite. Last season, NIU claimed a 15th-place team finish in the gold race

Women’s Tennis

Friday, Oct. 4 – Sunday, Oct. 6 at Indiana University Hoosier Classic

The NIU women’s tennis team heads to Bloomington, Indiana for its second tournament weekend of the fall campaign with action slated for Friday through Sunday at the IU Outdoor Courts. The Huskies will take on individuals and doubles opponents from Indiana, Purdue, Ball State, Eastern Michigan, Memphis and North Texas during the three-day event.  Action gets underway at 9 a.m. (ET) each day with one singles and one doubles match per day.

The Huskies, including the four newcomers on the 2024-25 roster, opened the fall at the Minnesota Gophers Invitational where NIU went 14-7 in singles and 11-9 in doubles.  Erika Dimitriev, meanwhile, opened her senior campaign in the ITA All-American Pre-Qualifying Draw in Cary, North Carolina.