After only being able to play against each other, NIU women’s basketball is starting to get a little cooped up.

At 7 p.m. at the NIU Convocation Center, the Huskies will play their first and only exhibition game of the season against Indiana Wesleyan.

“We’ve been playing against each other a lot in practice already,” said NIU sophomore guard Danielle Pulliam. “We’re happy we get to play all together [and] have the same goal of trying to win. I think there’s a big relief we get to play against someone else now.”

NIU will get its first chance to see many of its inexperienced players in action for the first time.

This opportunity will also allow the players to fight for what appears to be several open starting positions.

“It’s all based on who comes out and works their hardest,” Pulliam said. “We need everybody on the bench, whoever is in the game or not in the game. We need everyone to win this exhibition game, or any game.”

Following the exhibition, NIU will head on the road for its first regular season game against Loyola. This back and forth feeling will not faze the Huskies, however.

“We’ll kind of get a feel of what the fans will be like tomorrow,” Pulliam said. “When we do get to come back home, though, it will be good to come back to our fans.”

This exhibition will also begin the start of what head coach Kathi Bennett called a season in which the Huskies could contend for the MAC title.

However, those statements won’t weigh too heavy on the team, though.

“There’s no pressure on us,” Pulliam said. “We need to just go out there and play as hard as we can. I think that there’s more pressure on the teams who have set their mark. We’re good enough [to contend]. We’re young, but we’re capable, very capable.”