Volleyball plays its final home game until Oct. 17 when it squares off with Western Michigan before traveling to Miami (Ohio).

The Huskies (9-7, 2-0 MAC) will play the Western Michigan Broncos (9-6, 1-1 MAC) 7 p.m. today at Victor E. Court and take on the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks (8-6, 1-1 MAC) 6 p.m Saturday in Oxford, Ohio.

NIU is coming off wins over MAC West foes Toledo and Ball State and is looking for a third-straight win on its home floor Thursday night against the Broncos.

“It’s going to be the last of our homestand, which is big for us because we want to finish on a strong note,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “We started off well, and we want to finish better than we started. Western [Michigan] has always been an incredible opponent to play against. They’re going to be incredibly physical, they’re going to be well-coached and they’re going to be pretty hungry.”

Western Michigan

The Broncos have four upperclassmen on their 12-player roster.

Western Michigan has three players who strike down 2.09 kills or more per set. Western will head into Thursday ranked No. 1 in the conference in total kills (773) and kill percentage (.236).

Senior setter Lexie Pawlik has been presenting the Broncos’ offense with plenty of spike opportunities with 632 helpers through 59 sets. Pawlik leads the conference in that statistic and is one of only two MAC setters ahead of NIU’s Alexis “Pookie” Gonzalez’s 569 total assists.

The Broncos will have to find a way to stop the Huskies from scoring on aces. NIU has four players in the top 10 in the MAC in total service aces.

NIU will play in front of its home crowd, where it is 4-2.

“I think that since we’re 2-0, I think that’s a big thing for us to be winning right now,” said sophomore middle blocker Jenna Radtke. “So, I think that if we just stay strong like we did last weekend, have a lot of energy and stay together the whole time then we’ll be successful.”

Miami (Ohio)

The RedHawks come into Saturday with a loss to MAC East-leading Buffalo, which is 12-4 on the year.

Despite holding early leads in each set, the RedHawks failed to pull out a victory and fell to the Bulls on three sets (18-25, 24-26, 20-25).

With five players with 100 or more kills and two with 300 or more assists, the RedHawks have many weapons NIU will have to look out for. Sophomore middle hitter Paige Hill has been all over the floor this year, notching MAC East Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week honors in September.

“It’s our first look at the [MAC] East,” Gooden said. “East teams are usually a little more physical than we are, a little bit bigger in size, and they’re bigger at the net than we are in the [MAC] West. So, we expect those guys to be pretty physical, and it’s going to be a home match for those guys, so they’ll be pretty excited for that, too.”