Wrestling looks to pick up its first MAC victory of the season when the Huskies (7-4, 0-2 MAC) face the 12th ranked Central Michigan Chippewas (8-3, 2-0 MAC) this weekend.

The Huskies are coming off a 32-13 defeat at the hands of MAC rival Ohio University.

Freshman Andrew Morse, who wrestles at 157 pounds, said the wrestlers can’t wait to get back on the mat and get the bad taste out of their mouths from losing.

“We’re pretty disappointed with our outcome against Ohio, but we have to try and get past that and let it motivate us,” Morse said. “It’s a new week. We have to keep going ahead. We’ve got a big match against Central Michigan and it would be nice to get a win against them on Friday.”

Over winter break, the Huskies lost their conference opener 29-9 against the Golden Flashes of Kent State University.

Avoiding a 0-3 in MAC competition could be a challenge because the nationally ranked Chippewas come in on a hot streak, winners of three of their last four dual meets at the Virginia duals. At that meet the Chippewas defeated Rider University, North Dakota State and Edinboro University. The lone defeat was against the University of Virginia Cavaliers.

Freshman Gabe Morse said for the Huskies to pull off the upset they will have to do a few things well on Friday.

“Well, I think we just have to go into the dual with an attitude that we’re going to win every match,” Morse said. “Whether we’re outmatched at a certain weight or not. We have to be able to hand fight and execute at every position: top, bottom and neutral.”

Head coach Ryan Ludwig is very matter-of-fact when describing what his team has to do against CMU:

“Well, against Central Michigan we’re going to need to step up our game and wrestle for the best of our potential,” Ludwig said.