Volleyball (13-7, 6-0 MAC) will get a second taste of the MAC East Division when it hosts Akron and Buffalo over the weekend.

The Huskies will take the floor against the Akron Zips 7 p.m. Friday and will face the Buffalo Bulls 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Victor E. Court.

“We’re working on getting back to our aggressive serve,” said sophomore outside hitter T’ara Austin. “I think we did a really good job when we played Central Michigan over the weekend. We got a couple aces… .

“Defensively I think that we are doing a great job. We’re a team that we don’t want the ball to go down ever, so it’s really frustrating for other teams to play against us. I think what sets us apart is that we actually [play] as a team rather than having an individual on our team.”

The homestand will be NIU’s last pair of games in DeKalb before the team hits the road for a five-game road swing.

“It’s nice to be back home. As you can tell, they are happy to be back here,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “We start practice knowing we are going to be home this weekend; it’s a big deal. … With us going into divisional play where they’re all one-match series … whoever wins the match has the head to head.”

Akron

The Zips (8–13, 2-4 MAC) have struggled out of the gate this season, winning two of 12 contests away from home. But, they picked up a conference five-set win in Akron over Toledo last weekend.

The Zips have hit a rough patch, winning just two of their last 10 ballgames, but they could still turn their season around with half the MAC schedule left to play.

Akron has a pair of sophomore 5-7 defensive specialists in twins Callie Mack and Brenna Mack. Callie Mack’s 253 digs lead the Zips, but Brenna Mack had the better game against the Rockets Saturday when she was there on defense for 16 digs.

Buffalo

The Bulls (13–7, 3-3 MAC) may be .500 in conference play, but they had a solid non-conference streak going, which reached 10 wins in 11 games in late September.

The winning continued when October and MAC matches rolled around, as the Bulls knocked off Bowling Green and Miami (Ohio), a team NIU had a tough time putting away earlier this year.

Like NIU, the Cardinals have two seniors, but their offensive attack has been getting a boost by junior outside hitter Tahleia Bishop. The 2013 All-MAC First Team honoree’s 268 spikes and 4.54 kills per set are tops on the Buffalo roster.

The Huskies are coming off consecutive MAC defensive players of the week accolades, with sophomore middle blocker Jenna Radtke winning the award earlier this week. The Huskie defense will be looking to slow down Bishop and her conference-leading 4.70 kills per set.

“… We’re praying we’re not peaking,” Gooden said. “We’re just continuing to improve … . We’re working real hard to find more and more contributions from more and more people and continue to get positive results.”