DeKALB, IL – The Northern Illinois University volleyball goes on the road for the first time in Mid-American Conference play this weekend, taking on Ball State Friday night at 6 p.m. and Toledo Saturday night at 7 p.m. Five of the next six matches for the Huskies are away from Victor E. Court.
 
"We've been doing the road warrior thing for a while, now we have to do it in a conference setting," said head coach Ray Gooden. "How do we do it when it's one match a day? How do we do it against an opponent that spends all week trying to prepare for us. I think getting off to the start we did helps. It shows the group their capable of doing some things and stringing together points."
 
NIU (4-12, 1-1 MAC) split its first two conference matches of the season last weekend at Victor E. Court, falling to Central Michigan in four sets before rebounding to defeat Eastern Michigan in four last Saturday. Freshmen outside hitters Peyton Tilly (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and Kaitlyn Bell (De Soto, Kan./De Soto) led the Huskies' offense this past weekend as the duo combined to average 6.38 kills per set. Tilly had a match-high and season-high 16 kills in NIU's win over Eastern Michigan with Bell adding 13 while hitting .235.
 
"I think they've had a better understanding of what they need to do," Gooden said. "We've talked about needing more kills and those guys help contribute to us having at least 13 kills per set in both matches last weekend. We knew we had to have higher kill numbers to be successful and those guys helped contribute to it. Those are definitely steps in the right direction."
 
Both Ball State and Toledo enter this weekend with 7-7 records. The Cardinals are 1-1 in the MAC, defeating Toledo 3-0 on Sept. 26 before losing in five sets at Akron on Sept. 28. The Rockets are 0-2 after a 3-2 loss at Buffalo last Saturday. NIU was a combined 3-1 against the two division rivals last season, splitting with Ball State and winning both matches against the Rockets.
 
"Ball State is a team like us," said Gooden. "They have depth, so you'll get to see all different types of lineups from them. They play really well at home. Toledo has a lot of consistency from last year's group to this year. That's going to be another tough match because they're going to play better volleyball. We're going to have to play really solid volleyball this weekend."
 
Following this weekend, NIU travels to Western Michigan on October 10 before hosting Miami on October 12.
 
--NIU--