Maddie Hughes said in August she wanted NIU volleyball to dominate the MAC in her final season.

To this point, the Huskies have earned 25 wins to six losses (11-5 MAC), the best team season Hughes has had in the libero uniform. As the lone senior, Hughes has been in the MAC Tournament three previous times.

“My freshman and sophomore year we had to play on Tuesday,” Hughes said. “Last year we lucked out a little bit, didn’t really control our own destiny getting that bye. This year I feel we are more in control.”

After earning the fourth seed and first round bye in the tournament, the Huskies begin play today at 10 a.m. CT against fifth seed Eastern Michigan at the SeaGate Center in Toledo, Ohio.

The Huskies are 2-0 against the Eagles (24-10, 10-6) this season, with the last victory taking place less than one week ago at Victor E. Court. NIU took down EMU in three sets 25-23, 26-24, 25-22. Hughes acknowledged the maxim of difficulty in beating a team three times in one season, but head coach Ray Gooden is focusing on the development of his team.

“We can cliché anything right now, but we have to work on our side,” Gooden said. “The good thing for us is that Eastern is fresh in our mind, but it’s fresh in their mind too. Both teams will have been able to have prepared for each other on shorter notice than normal. Now it’s a matter of who is going to be less jittery, looser.”

EMU defeated Bowling Green (2-14, 8-23) at home Tuesday night in the opening round of the tournament. Hughes knows the strength of the Eagles, especially in Rachel Iaquaniello who killed 15 balls with a .500 hitting percentage during Friday’s match against the Huskies.

“Eastern Michigan has pretty good outsides, especially [Iaquaniello],” Hughes said. “We struggled defending her. If we can shut down her, we have a good chance of winning. She’s definitely their main hitter. We were aggressive in our past two meetings which helped us out as well.”

Though Hughes is a veteran in tournament play, five Huskies, including freshman outside hitter Lauren Wicinski are fresh to the MAC Tournament.

“I know it’s really difficult to play three days in a row,” Wicinski said. “I’m just along for the ride and don’t know what is going to happen. I’m excited to see it all.”

A win in the quarterfinals could mean a possible semifinal showdown with first seeded Ball State (24-4, 14-2) which took both matches from the Huskies this season.

But Wicinski maintains the focus she believes is needed to be successful in the tournament includes not looking too far in the future.

“You look too far ahead, you think about the other team, and you don’t focus on the team ahead,” she said. “That’s the first task that we have to accomplish before we move forward.”

Hughes and the team say they have been focusing more on having fun while playing the game and not letting pressure get in the way.

“We’ve all just talked about, especially the end of the year, just having fun and not playing with so much weight on our shoulders,” Hughes said. “When we play fun and carefree we play a lot better.