Another weekend away from the “friendly confines” of Chick Evans Field House has the NIU volleyball team packing its bags today for the Eastern Michigan/Ann Arbor News Classic.

The Huskies will participate in the two-day tournament featuring NIU, Eastern Michigan, Bowling Green, Southern Illinois, and Villanova. The Huskies matchup today against Bowling Green at 4:00 p.m. and against Villanova at 9:00 p.m. NIU will play another two matches on Saturday against SIU at 3:00 p.m. and against Eastern Michigan at 8:00 p.m. NIU coach Pete Waite said that Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan are the teams to beat in the tournament.

“I think that Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan are the teams that every school will be looking to beat,” Waite said. “We’re going into the tournament and going after every match individually, not the tournament as a whole. We’ll treat each as just another match.”

The Huskies are looking up after their straight-game match against Bradley on Tuesday that improved their record to 2-5. Waite said that his team has not turned the corner just yet.

“It takes longer than just one match,” Waite said. “If we play well for the next two or three weeks then we’ll know that we made some strides and feel good about it.”

After the Bradley match, the NIU boss thought his team displayed some characteristics that make a winning team and he’s looking for more of the same in this weekend tournament.

“I’m looking for more consistency, concentration and intensity from them, and we’re working hard and improving each time out to reach a certain point so that we can compete with everyone in our schedule,” said Waite.

Waite and his assistant Lori Sowatsky have the Huskies working hard in every practice and they are determined to make the Huskies into a winning team.

“We’re not going to let up,” said Waite. “The girls want to be good and they’re working hard to improve. We have to play our matches so we don’t have as much time to practice as we would like, but we’re going to practice hard each time out.”

The Huskies have played seven official matches with a 2-5 record and in those seven matches junior Kari Niesen has made most of her playing time. Niesen leads the Huskies with a .314 attack percentage, 99 kills in 226 attempts and 28 errors. Freshman Amber Kimmel is doing her job as setter as she provided 209 of 247 NIU assists in the seven matches for a 8.04 game average.