This weekend the Huskies’ softball squad will again be on the road, in fact, NIU will not play its first home game until April 4.

The Huskies are in Indiana this weekend for the Indiana University Tournament and will start tourney action by taking on Indiana State Friday at 10:30 a.m.

Indiana State will be the least of the Huskies’ worries, however, as NIU will next face Illinois State, which is scheduled for a noon start Friday. The Redbirds enter this weekend’s action ranked 19th in the nation.

NIU coach Dee Abrahamson feels that the ISU game will be the toughest challenge of the weekend for the Huskies.

“They (ISU) are off to a good start this year,” Abrahamson said. “They don’t give national rankings to midwest teams for nothing.

“Usually, in the early part of the season, most of the ranked teams are on the west coast because they’ve been playing for quite awhile. Illinois State is playing really well so far this season.”

After the ISU contest, things won’t get much easier for NIU. The Huskies will take on host Indiana Saturday morning.

“The Indiana game is big because it is a regional game,” Abrahamson said. “This is the only time this season that we will face them head to head so that makes it a big game.”

NIU’s nagging injuries won’t help matters either, and the Huskies will enter the weekend without a set starting lineup.

“We’ll play it day by day and see who’s sore or swelling,” Abrahamson said. “We won’t know who can play until game time, so all the players will have to be ready if we need to make a change.”