With only four matches remaining in the regular season, the NIU volleyball team has a prime opportunity to move from fourth to second place in the MAC West.

The road won’t be easy, and this weekend, the Huskies have to win a pair of tough road matches against Central and Eastern Michigan.

NIU sits at 5-7 in-conference, two matches behind CMU and EMU, who are tied for second with 7-5.

Having played both teams already this season, the Huskies are familiar with them. They fell to CMU 1-3 and defeated Eastern 3-1, which sparked a five-match winning streak.

“We need to keep up the positive energy that we create during games,” NIU coach Ray Gooden said. “We need to keep that at a high level and work on keeping negative runs to a minimum.”

CMU junior Kate Fissel continued wreaking havoc in the conference, leading the MAC with 4.8 kills per game and .63 serving aces.

In the earlier meeting between NIU and CMU, Fissel went for 23 kills and four aces.

“Central Michigan is the most experienced team in our division,” Gooden said. “They just haven’t gotten the credit they deserve. They continue to get better and play well together.”

If NIU plays anything like they did earlier in the season against EMU, they will be in good shape. Four Huskies reached double-digit kills in that match, while they dominated the defensive end with 115 digs.

EMU’s setter Kate Sulewski is one of the Eagles’ leaders and is second in the MAC in assists, trailing NIU’s Mandi Caputo.

For added motivation, the Huskies are looking to break a four-match losing streak and, according to Gooden, communication will be key.

“We have worked on communication and a couple of other things that needed to be worked on,” Gooden said.