Wrestling begins a three dual meet road trip to end the regular season when they take on the Buffalo University Bulls (1-9, 1-3 MAC) this weekend.

The Huskies (7-8, 0-5 MAC) are coming off last week’s dual meet defeat against in-state rival Northwestern University.

The 36-6 loss to the Wildcats ended a stretch of three out of four dual meets of top 25 opponents for the Huskies.

Head coach Ryan Ludwig said even though the last month has been a challenge, facing such tough competition has helped his team get better.

“Yeah, we’ve had some tough meets and Buffalo’s a tough team as well, and we’ve been training with a positive attitude this week,” Ludwig said. “Trying to [focus on] maximizing our strengths and minimizing our weaknesses. So we’re gonna try to go to Buffalo with a full head of steam and put W. on the board.”

The Bulls have lost two consecutive dual meets: 26-13 to Ohio University and 22-19 at the hands of the Kent State Golden Flashes. Buffalo’s only dual meet victory of the season came against Eastern Michigan University on Jan. 18 by a score of 19-14.

This weekend’s contest will be NIU’s fourth dual meet away from home this season. So far, the Huskies are 2-1 away.

Redshirt sophomore Parker Settecase said he is looking forward to some time away from DeKalb.

“Well, personally I love being on the road,” Settecase said. “We get rid of all the distractions here, you know, the friends here and all the food in our pantry and everything like that. We’re on the road together as brothers and I love being on the road.”

Redshirt junior Dan Burk said he and his team will have to execute Saturday if they want to come out with their first conference victory of the season.

“Just wrestling your positions, I mean, that’s what it’s all about,” Burk said. “…We know that we’re good at and we just got a put ourselves in those positions.”