Volleyball (1-2) will hit the visitors’ locker room for the first time this season when it travels to Ames, Iowa, for the Iowa State Challenge.

This will be the second-straight weekend the Huskies will participate in a four-team tournament, winning their opener and dropping two-straight games during their opening weekend. They take the floor against the Tennessee Volunteers 11 a.m. Friday, the Omaha-Nebraska Mavericks 4 p.m. Friday and the Iowa State Cyclones 4:30 p.m. Saturday.

“We are looking to build from this past weekend,” said head coach Ray Gooden. “I think that we had positives and things we can improve. We’ve been working to improve, and we want to take it one play at a time and give our best for every play.”

The Huskies open the tournament against the Volunteers, the only team they’ll face this weekend with a winning record. The Volunteers won their first two games, beating Tennessee Tech and Cleveland State before being swept in straight sets against Appalachian State last weekend.

Later Friday, the Huskies square off with the Mavericks, who, like the Huskies, won their season opener before dropping back-to-back matches to close out their first weekend. The Mavericks beat Central Michigan before dropping a pair of 3-2 decisions to Drake and Missouri-Kansas City.

NIU ends play in the Iowa State Challenge with a date with the host Cyclones. The Cyclones were swept in straight sets against then-No. 3 Stanford and then-No. 13 Florida State last weekend.

The Huskies don’t get into conference play for another two and a half weeks, but Gooden will use this weekend against solid competition in Tennessee, Iowa State and Omaha to get ready for division foes and build a reputation outside of conference play.

“We’re trying to get ourselves on what I guess they say the national scene,” Gooden said. “We’re trying to do our best to prepare ourselves not only for conference play but to put ourselves in that next level, the next category of teams … so we have to play these types of matches against these opponents successfully.”