The wrestling team closes out the regular season with a pair of dual meet contests on the road against Gardner-Webb and Cleveland State University in Cleveland, Ohio, on Sunday.

The Huskies (8-8, 1-4 MAC) are coming off their first dual meet victory since Jan. 6. The victory came against the University of Buffalo Bulls in a back-and-forth contest, with a final score of 20-18.

Head coach Ryan Ludwig said his team has to do a few things well to carry the momentum they gained from last weekend’s victory at Buffalo.

“Well, we have to take that victory and [have it] wetting our whistle for more,” Ludwig said. “We need to maintain our competitive spirit and take that into the weekend with us this weekend.”

First up for the Huskies on Sunday will be a dual against the Runnin’ Bulldogs of Gardner-Webb (4-10). The Runnin’ Bulldogs are coming off a 7-33 loss to the Citadel, a military college in South Carolina.

The Huskies’ second opponent Sunday the Vikings at Cleveland State University (3-8) are losers of four straight duals. The two most recent losses have come against another MAC school Kent State 31-10 and 23-9 against Clarion.

Ludwig said his team has to do a few things if they want to end the regular season on winning streak.

“Well, we have to take the same competitive fire we brought to Buffalo and bring it out east to Cleveland State,” Ludwig said. “They both have scrappy, tough programs. We’re gonna need to wrestle well as a group of 10 like we did against Buffalo and I think if we do that we’ll be all right.”

This weekend will be extra special for NIU’s Jared Torrence because the heavyweight redshirt junior is a Cleveland area native from Norwalk, Ohio. Torrence said it is always nice to wrestle in front of some familiar faces.

“It’s going to be pretty exciting,” Torrence said. “I mean my parents and grandparents came out to the Buffalo meet and it’s just nice to see them in the stands.”