The NIU women’s volleyball team will wrap up the regular season this weekend with two conference matches against Youngstown State Penguins and Cleveland State Vikings.

The Huskies already own the Mid-Continent Conference title, locking it away with an unblemished 16-0 conference record (25-4 overall) going into this weekend’s action, but head coach Pete Waite is not about to let his team look beyond this weekend.

“Obviously we don’t want to overlook our last regular season matches,” Waite said. “It is important to keep our win streak going (overall: 10; in conference, including North Star matches: 40). That will give us a big boost heading into the (Mid-Con) tournament.

The Huskies will face the frigid Penguins Friday night and it doesn’t look like they should have many problems. The Huskies crushed the Penguins the last time these two teams met, 15-1, 15-0, 15-5. In addition the Penguins have never beaten NIU the only three times these two teams have met.

YU is 4-12 in conference (10-18 overall). They have a team hitting percentage of .189 and are ranked eighth in the conference.

Their leading hitter is senior outside hitter Jen Windau with 319 kills and a team high .234 hitting percentage. The next highest kill total belongs to sophomore outside hitter Jill Raslevich with 220 kills and is third on the team with a .202 hitting percentage.

Setting for the Penguins is Jamie Pirotte with 681 assists.

The Huskies will then travel to Cleveland to conclude the season with a 1 p.m. match with the dull Vikings.

Again there should be few problems. The Huskies own a 13-3 lifetime record against CSU and beat them by the almost identical score that they whomped Youngstown, 15-2, 15-0, 15-5.

Cleveland is 5-24 overall and 2-14 in conference. Their only conference wins have come over Wisconsin-Green Bay (5-12) and Youngstown State.

The Vikings are paced by senior outside hitter Kristen Hartung with 239 kills (.135 attack clip) and Kim Young who has rung up 223 kills and a team high .189 hitting clip.

As a team, the Vikings get one kill every ten times they swing.