The most Northeastern Illinois University’s head volleyball coach Deborah Ofcky can hope for is improvement.

Considering Ofcky’s two-year coaching mark at Northeastern is 4-67, it seems the only way for the third-year boss and her squad to go is up.

Yet, the 1-2 Northeastern team must jump over a tough hurdle in a 5-1 NIU volleyball squad on Tuesday. The two square off Tuesday when the Eagles host the Huskies for a 7 p.m. match at Chicago.

“Last year was our first recruiting year and we were Division I which is why we were so weak (3-39),” Ofcky said. “We’ve improved a lot since last year and started the season with a strong win against Bradley.”

Ofcky remains optimistic about the upcoming season despite losing to Eastern Illinois University and Valparaiso University in their following two matches. Northeastern stuck it out with both teams for four games and Ofcky was pleased with their performance, Ofcky said.

“We’re still working on improving a couple things,” Ofcky said. “We have an excellent defense but our offense needs to get the timing down and start clicking.

“We didn’t even have a team three years ago, so we have come a long way,” Ofcky added.

But Ofcky is not so optimistic that she is overlooking NIU as one of their strongest competitors.

“We expect them (NIU) to be very tough,” Ofcky said. “But we have a strong defensive team this year and we hope to just stay with them and come out ahead in the end.”

In comparison, the Huskies (5-1) were 26-8 last season and had little trouble defeating the Eagles 15-7, 15-8, 15-2, in their last meeting.

“I don’t know a whole lot about Northeastern,” NIU captain Becky Ramsey said. “But if we play our game and set the pace we’ll do fine.”

The Huskies take a break from traveling and return home Friday and Saturday for the Huskie Invitational tournament that is set to begin Friday at 7 p.m. in the Chick Evans Field House.