Volleyball (6-4) will be back on its home floor Tuesday night for the first time in more than two weeks when the Illinois Chicago Flames (4-7) come to town.

The Huskies and Flames meet 7 p.m. today at Victor E. Court.

“We love Victor E. Court. We love sleeping in our own beds,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “It’s going to be a big battle with UIC, a big local rival. This weekend they were able to compete against and beat a team like Indiana University from the Big Ten. We’re really excited for the challenge. It’s going to be a good battle on Tuesday night.”

NIU will return to action at Victor E. Court for the first time since it hosted the NIU Invitational Aug. 29-30, where the team went 1-2 in the season-opening tournament. Since the first invitational of the season, the Huskies have won 17 of 25 sets and five of seven games on the road.

“It will be nice being home and having our home crowd and being able to have our normal routines down instead of the long bus rides,” said redshirt sophomore middle blocker Lauren Zielinski.

Zielinski is fourth on the team in kills and helped lead the Huskies to a 2-1 record at the Morehead State Invitational. NIU had one of its best offensive outings of the year when it played Louisville Friday.

The Huskies unloaded 72 kills in the (14-25, 25-23, 24-26, 26-24, 15-13) five-set win. The scoring was structured by setter Alexis “Pookie” Gonzalez, who cashed in 57 assists during the match, which went into extras on two occasions.

Illinois-Chicago is 2-5 away from home and is coming off two straight losses at the hands of Buffalo and Western Illinois as it played host at the UIC Invitational. The invitational kicked off with the Flames beating Indiana in five sets and Eastern Kentucky in four sets.

Middle blocker Stephenee Yancy has had a superb start to her junior campaign with the Flames, reaching double-digit spikes on multiple occasions. Yancy registered a career-high 27 kills Sept. 6 against the DePaul Blue Demons in a four-set win.

Like NIU, Illinois-Chicago also has a stellar setter of its own in freshman Nicole Johnson. Johnson had a solid start to September when she won her first career Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week honors with her 65-assist performance against the Syracuse Orange Sept. 6 in Chicago.

“We’re really excited to be back at our home court,” said sophomore middle blocker Jenna Radtke. “It’s always an advantage to be at home. Hopefully we stay together and have a lot of energy and hopefully we have a good crowd for the game.”